The acidic nature of phenol can be represented by the following two reactions:
(i) Phenol reacts with sodium to give sodium phenoxide, liberating H2.
(ii)Phenol reacts with sodium hydroxide to give sodium phenoxide and water as byproducts.
The acidity of phenol is more than that of ethanol. This is because after losing a proton, the phenoxide ion undergoes resonance and gets stabilized whereas ethoxide ion does not.
