Proton Transfer Reactions

[Tim Foster 2A]

When writing the chemical equation for the proton transfer reaction of NaC6H5O, I realized that my answer (NaC6H5O + H2O --> NaOH + C6H5OH)
differed from the textbook solution in that the solution did not include sodium at all (C6H5O- + H20 --> C6H5OH + OH-). Why is sodium left out?

[Clarisse Wikstrom 1H]

Sodium is left out because it is a cation completely unrelated to the proton transfer reaction. this is because it gets cancelled out when you do the net ionic equation for the reaction.

[Suhail Zaveri]

Hello,

Sodium is not integral to the reaction. There are plenty of examples where chemicals are not important, one is the dissociation equilibrium of a weak acid where water is not important even though it is mentioned. They are called spectator ions which you can look up to understand why some ions are not included in reactions.

Hope this helps