Chemistry question

My friends want to know (and so do I) what is produced when you mix ethanol (C2H5OH) with citric acid (C6H8O7). I know it should produce H2O and salt, but I am trying to figure out what salt would be produced.

Just wondering, who said that you'd get a salt and water? I'd have expected an organic reaction (esterification) that gives an ester and water rather than a typical acid-base reaction that gives salt and water.

I don't know what conditions would be required for esterification. Acid base rxns go instantly and give off heat, but esterification reactions can go more slowly or require heating and catalysts. I was looking up citric acid on wikipedia and it has 3 acid groups, so don't know if you can esterify all three of the groups.

I am going off of my high school chemistry, heh. I haven't taken college chemistry because I don't have to for the accelerated BSN program I will be doing.

Since one is an acid and one is a base, I figured that's what would happen.

Organic chemicals, the ones with carbon like citric acid and ethanol, don't always act like the inorganic chemicals from high school lab. The Ethanol has an -OH group like bases, but it's not a strong base (you can drink it after all).

When an alcohol (ethanol) reacts with an organic acid (citric acid) what you get is an ester (ethyl citrate) and water. I don't know what you have to do to get them to react. Some organic reactions go at room temp but a lot of them you have to heat up and add catalysts. It's been 30 years since I took organic chemistry and I was never that good at it.

My friends want to know (and so do I) what is produced when you mix ethanol (C2H5OH) with citric acid (C6H8O7). I know it should produce H2O and salt, but I am trying to figure out what salt would be produced.

What are you doing, making screwdrivers and wondering what's going on?

In this case, you're just going to have a slightly acidic solution of ethanol and citric acid.