Organic acids can be converted to their salt form when treated with an aqueous solution of inorganic base (e.g., NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate)).
Salts are ionic, and in general, ions are soluble in water but not soluble in water-immiscible organic solvents.
Remember: water is a very polar solvent thus salts (i.e., ionic species) are well dissolved in it.
Carboxylic acids are converted to the salt form with 5% NaOH aqueous solution. NaOH is a strong inorganic base.
Carboxylic acids are strong organic acids (pKa = 3 to 4), so they can also be ionized with weak inorganic bases (e.g., NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate)) aqueous solution.
Organic Web Chem University of Alberta
