Re: How can you identify the products made after a chemical reation

A good question:  First, what happened when you mixed the two?  Did any gas 
evolve?  You can test for CO2 by bubbling the gas through a Ba(OH)2 
solution.  BaCO3 will precipitate if carbon dioxide is present.

Determining sodium ion.  Not the easiest except qualitatively using a flame 
test (yellow in a Bunsen burner).

Acetate ion:  I am not sure of a simple method and am away from my office 
for several weeks so I want to offer what help I could.  I would suggest 
looking in a college chemistry textbook under "qualitative analysis".

good luck.