Question

What are the major organic products of this reaction:

CH3CH2CH2COCH2CH3 (an O is double bonded to the C before the O) + H2O --> (acid is above the arrow)

DrBob222- There are 2 oxygens. I said there is an O double bonded to the C. So there is the O after the single C and there is an O double bonded to the single C. I didn't put it as CH3CH2CH2COOCH2CH3 because I wanted to make sure you knew that a O was double bonded to the C.

Answer 1

The second way of writing it is the way to do it; otherwise, we don't know it's there. And we will know it must be a double bonded O. The RCOOH group is an acid, the RCOOR' is an ester. The anwer to your question is that you are starting with an ester, ethyl butanoate. It will hydrolyze, with acid as a catalyst, to ethyl alcohol and butanoic acid.
CH3CH2OH is ethyl alcohol and
CH3CH2CH2COOH is butanoic acid.