The conversation between human and AI assistant.
Why is phenol more acidic than ethanol?
Interesting. Can you elaborate on why the phenoxide ion is more stable?
Of course. The stability of the phenoxide ion can be attributed to the resonance stabilization provided by the aromatic ring. The negative charge on the oxygen atom in the phenoxide ion is delocalized throughout the benzene ring resulting to a more stable ion. This is not the case with ethanol's ethoxide ion which cannot undergo resonance stabilization.