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Why are phenols stronger acid than water ?

Why are phenols stronger acid than water?

Grade:12

3 Answers

kj venky kjvenky
18 Points
14 years ago

because after dissociation phenoxide ion formed is much stable due to resonance than the hydroxide ion.

piyush garg
9 Points
14 years ago

because after loosing  H+ pheno oxide is formed which is more stable as compared to phenol after losing h+ in h2o there is no resonance

ashish kumar
17 Points
14 years ago


Dear Sumit,

Two of the factors which influence the ionisation of an acid are:

  • the strength of the bond being broken,

  • the stability of the ions being formed.

In these cases, you seem to be breaking the same oxygen-hydrogen bond each time, and so you might expect the strengths to be similar.

But the second criteria dominates here. The negative charge on the Oxygen is well stablized within the Benzene ring due to Resonance while there is no factor reducing the effect of negative charge on oxygen in case of water.

Thank you.


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