Acetic acid

Acetic acid (ethanoic acid, \(\text{CH}_{3}\text{COOH}\)) is a colorless, corrosive liquid with a pungent, sour smell, famously known as the main component of vinegar, acting as a food preservative, flavoring agent, and key industrial chemical for making plastics, solvents, and textiles, functioning as a weak acid but becoming highly corrosive in concentrated (glacial) form, and essential in biochemistry as part of the acetyl group in living organisms.