I did an experiment where I took extracted C6H5COOH (benzoic acid) from H2O using CH2Cl2. After extraction, I titrated the benzoic acid with NaOH solution. The titration was a light pink, which indicated the acidity of the solution.

The question is: Write the balanced equation for the reaction that occured when you titrated the aqueous layer with NaOH solution.

How do I write this?

If I have to take into consideration the CH2Cl2 and the water, I ended up with something like this:

C6H5COOH + H2O + CH2Cl2 + NaOH --> C6H5COOH + NaOH
where the H2O and CH2Cl2 were removed in order for the NaOH titration to happen.

Is this right? I am not sure. The end product in the experiment is benzoic acid.


Please reply soon. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Would it look like this:

2 C6H5COOH --> C6H5COOH + NaOH

I did not add water in because both this and CH2Cl2 were removed in order for the titration to proceed, so they don't reallly belong as part of the reaction.

The titration was a light pink, which indicated the acidity of the solution.

This completely depends on the indicator you are using.  Not all acidic solutions are light pink  

I'm a little rusty, but I think the resultant salt produced is a common food preservative?

Not sure if it is still in use, but I remember jars with statement "conserved with ..." from my childhood.

I guess Canada has less stringent food additive rules.

Compared to Polish ones ?

This completely depends on the indicator you are using.  Not all acidic solutions are light pink  

Yes, that is true. This is why I said in my first post that I did a titration of C6H5COOH using NaOH. I did not use a standard pH indicator.

The salt is NaOH, so I do not know what else you are looking for.

NaOH is not a salt. It is very basic fact.