Example 1 · difficulty 2/5
The acid-catalysed hydrolysis of an ester, CH₃COOC₂H₅ + H₂O → CH₃COOH + C₂H₅OH, follows first-order kinetics even though water is a reactant. This pseudo-first-order behaviour arises because:
- A. water acts as a catalyst in the reaction
- B. the reaction is actually zero order with respect to the ester
- C. water is present in such large excess that its concentration remains practically constant
- D. the rate of the reaction is independent of the ester concentration