Writing reactions?

Question

I'm having trouble predicting the products for this reaction. Sodium Hydroxide is added to Propionic acid and this is what I've got so far:

NaOH (aq) + CH3CH2COOH (aq) -------> NaC3H5O2 (aq) + H2O (l)

I think the products are wrong because the equation comes out perfectly balanced which...really shouldn't be? Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm puzzled as to why you think equations shouldn't be perfectly balanced. Generally we try to create ones that are!

This seems correct, except that I'd probably write the first product as CH3CH2COONa to more accurately reflect its structure.