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Suppose that a mixture contains 1,4-dimethoxybenzene and benzoic acid. An experiment is performed in which this mixture is dissolved in diethey ether, the solution is mixed with aqueous soium hydroxide, and the aqueous layer is then separeted from the ether layer.
a) What does the aqueous layer contain? Name each chemical species, and write the structural formula of every prganic component.
b)What does the ether layer contain? Name each chemnical chemical species, and write the structural formula of every organic componenet.
To determine the contents of the aqueous and ether layers in this experiment, we need to consider the reactions that take place.
a) The aqueous layer will contain the compounds produced from the reaction between 1,4-dimethoxybenzene and benzoic acid with aqueous sodium hydroxide. Both 1,4-dimethoxybenzene and benzoic acid are aromatic organic compounds, while sodium hydroxide is an inorganic base.
The reaction between 1,4-dimethoxybenzene and sodium hydroxide produces sodium 1,4-dimethoxybenzene-2-carboxylate. The structural formula for 1,4-dimethoxybenzene is OCH3-Ph-CH3O, while the structural formula for sodium 1,4-dimethoxybenzene-2-carboxylate would be OCH3-Ph-CH2O-Na+.
The reaction between benzoic acid and sodium hydroxide produces sodium benzoate. The structural formula for benzoic acid is Ph-COOH, while the structural formula for sodium benzoate would be Ph-COO-Na+.
Therefore, the aqueous layer would contain sodium 1,4-dimethoxybenzene-2-carboxylate and sodium benzoate.
b) The ether layer will contain the compound 1,4-dimethoxybenzene. This is because the ether layer does not undergo any reaction with the aqueous sodium hydroxide. The structural formula for 1,4-dimethoxybenzene is OCH3-Ph-CH3O.
To summarize:
a) The aqueous layer contains sodium 1,4-dimethoxybenzene-2-carboxylate and sodium benzoate.
b) The ether layer contains 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.