Chemistry Alcohols & Phenols PMC 2021
PMDC Verified Question 58 of 95
Which of the following does not react with bases?
A
Carboxylic acids
B
Ethanol
C
Phenol
D
HCl
Tap any option to test your recall and reveal the step-by-step Propolis autopsy.

Propolis Cognitive Error Autopsy

Official Correct Choice:
Option B: Ethanol
Concept:

Acid-base neutralization occurs when an acid reacts with a base to form a salt and water. The substance must be acidic enough to donate a proton to the base.

Formula:

Not applicable to this conceptual question.

Solution:

  • Carboxylic acids, phenol, and HCl are all sufficiently acidic to react with aqueous bases like NaOH.


  • Ethanol is an extremely weak acid (weaker than water itself). Therefore, it cannot donate a proton to the hydroxide ion (OH\(^-\) from a base), meaning no forward neutralization occurs in aqueous solution.


Why other options are incorrect:

HCl is a strong acid. Carboxylic acids are weak but stronger than water. Phenol is weakly acidic but readily reacts with strong bases like NaOH to form sodium phenoxide.

Quality & Fidelity Assurance: Every question on BeambePrep is rigorously curated against the official PMDC syllabus with zero filler, zero out-of-syllabus content, and zero typos. When an authentic past paper originally contained a historical mistake or ambiguity from the examining board (such as UHS or NUMS), BeambePrep faithfully reflects the original paper while detailing the nuance and scientific consensus in the autopsy above.

Want to solve full-length papers under timed exam conditions?

Practice with zero-scroll lockdown sprints, dynamic latency zone timers, live peer selection telemetry, and the automated Amber mistake recovery loop.