Unit 4: Esters
Unit 4: Esters. How can you make simple esters? Heating a mixture of ethanoic acid and ethanol with a few drops of concentrated sulfuric acid produces ethyl ethanoate Ethanoic acid + ethanol - ethyl ethanoate + water CH3COOH + CH3CH2OH - CH3COOCH2CH3 + H2O Starting materials: ethanol and ethanoic acid Catalyst: concentrated sulfuric acid Conditions: heat The concentrated sulfuric acid isn't written into the equation because it is a catalyst and therefore isn't consumed in the reaction This reaction is called esterification It can also be described as a condensation reaction because water is made when two molecules are joined together The reaction is reversible so to maximize the yield of ethyl ethanoate we often use pure ethanol and ethanoic acid (pure ethanoic acid is called glacial ethanoic acid) The position of equilibrium always shifts to counteract any changes we makes so if water is added to the reactants, the position of equilibrium would shift to the left to con1 / 5 sume the water and therefore decrease the amount of ethyl ethanoate made That is not what we want! 3. How do we draw and name ester? In order to work out the structure of the ester formed when an alcohol and a carboxylic acid react together we start by drawing them separately so that their OH groups are next to each other
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