Question

What is a magnesium alkoxide?

Answer 1

The organic compounds are given name by the rules of IUPAC. Alkoxide is any species that is formed by the deprotonation of alcohols. This is the conjugate base of alcohols. This is a result of the reaction where alcohols show their acidity by the removal of the hydrogen atom of the alcoholic group (OH).

Complete answer:
Alcohols are the functional group containing an OH group. When alcohols react with highly reactive metals then the proton of the alcoholic group is removed. This results in the formation of metal alkoxides. The highly reactive metals react readily as they consist of only 1 or 2 electrons in their valence shell.
This is the reason that alcohols are considered as bronsted acids as they donate the ${{H}^{+}}$ ion to a stronger base. After removal of the hydrogen, the species left is called a conjugate base, as it accepts hydrogen again. Alkoxide ion is considered as the conjugate base of an alcohol. The reaction of alkoxide formation is,
$\begin{aligned} & R-OH+\,\,\,\,\,B\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\to R-{{O}^{-}}+B-H \\\ & alcohol\,\,\,\,\,\,\,base\,\,\,\,\,\,\,bronsted\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,acid \\\ & (bronsted\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,base\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\, \\\ & acid) \\\ \end{aligned}$
Magnesium alkoxide is the salt that is formed when magnesium is attached with the alkoxide ion. It has a general formula of $Mg{{(OR)}_{2}}$, as magnesium is an alkali metal that has 2 valence electrons, so, 2 alkoxide ions will compensate the charge of +2 of magnesium. The reaction of magnesium alkoxide formation is:
$2{{C}_{2}}{{H}_{5}}OH+Mg\to Mg{{({{C}_{2}}{{H}_{5}}O)}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}$
Here, ethanol reacts with magnesium to form magnesium ethoxide and hydrogen gas is liberated.
Hence, magnesium alkoxide are the bronsted or conjugate bases of alcohol that have a general formula $Mg{{(OR)}_{2}}$.

Note:
Alcohols are considered acidic in nature due to the cleavage of O – H bond. This is due to the fact that oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen. So, oxygen attracts the shared pair of electrons from the OH bond to itself making the removal of H easier. Order of acidity of alcohols is $1{}^\circ >2{}^\circ >3{}^\circ$ the electron donating groups decrease the acidic strength.