Question
Explain why sodium (Na) may be used to remove the last trates of H2O from benzene but not from ethanol?
Solution
Ethanol has an acidic hydrogen and reacts with Na and give sodium ethoxide ion, whereas benzene has not any acidic hydrogen thus it does not react with benzene, thus when it react with benzene sodium react with water forming sodium hydroxide along with hydrogen. Hence used to remove the last trates of water.
