Chapter 5, Problem 10E

Phenol (shown below) has a $\text{p}{K}_a\approx 10$ .
a. Based on $\text{p}{K}_a$ data, is phenol a stronger or weaker acid than an ordinaryalcohol (e.g.. ${\text{CH}}_{\text{3}}\text{OH}$ ) or water?
b. Draw the conjugate base of phenol (called phenoxide) including allimportant resonance structures.
c. Construct an explanation for why phenol is a stronger acid than anordinary alcohol. (You may want to consider first why phenoxide is lowerin PE than methoxide $\left({\text{RO}}^{-}\right)$ or hydroxide $\left({\text{HO}}^{-}\right)$ .