If you take magnesium oxide and add acetic acid, do you get magnesium acetate or does the reaction produce mostly magnesium hydroxide?
It’s been a while, but wouldn’t you get magnesium acetate and water?
Possibly, but by the same token you’d expect ammonia and bleach (sodium hypochlorite) to produce ammonium chloride, not side products like nitrogen chloride.
MgO is quite hygroscopic. Vinegar consists of acetic acid diluted to ~5% by volume. You’d precipitate out Mg(OH)[sub]2[/sub], which is essentially milk of magnesia. The Mg(OH)[sub]2[/sub] is basic and will, of course, be more soluble in the acid conditions of vinegar. The result will be some Mg[sup]2+[/sup] and acetate in solution, solid Mg(OH)[sub]2[/sub], and a whole mess of water.
It’s the same answer even if you’re adding glacial acetic acid (water free) to a fresh, dry sample of MgO. You’ll still get water, acetate, Mg[sup]2+[/sup], and Mg(OH)[sub]2[/sub]. The whole thing will be much more lively, though.
ETA: All of this depends on limiting reagents and whatnot, obviously. I’m just naming the possible likely products.
Nonsense, acetic acid and magnesium oxide is a straightforward acid-base reaction. The equivalent acid-base reaction to get ammonium chloride would be ammonia (I presume you are thinking of aqueous ammonia - ammonium hydroxide) and hydrochloric acid, not sodium hypochlorite, which is not an acid at all.
In my experience, a delightful salad dressing.