I am doing a titration for school between sodium hydroxide and vinegar. I have no idea what the equation might be so I completely guessed. I was wondering if someone could help me by telling if it's right or not

 

the reaction equation is: CH₃CO₂H + NaOH --> NaCH₃ + CO₂ + H₂O

 

If it is not correct can someone please tell why and how I may be able to improve it?

 

Thanks a lot

Definitely not. Can you identify what kind of reaction this might be? Are your reactants acids, bases, etc.?

Vinegar is essentialy diluted Acetic Acid (CH3COOH) which is a weak acid, Sodium Hydroxide is NaOH which is a strong base.

The reaction would be CH3COOH + NaOH <-equilibrium-> (CH3COO-) + (Na+) + (H2O) but pay attention that since this is an equilibrium, not all the (H+) and (OH-) will be H2O, (H+) would be neutralized by (OH-) to form H2O but there will be more (H+) formed by the equilibrium reaction etc' etc' essentially you're looking at the simplified reaction for the acid HA <--equlilibrium--> (H+) + (A-)