Methanol + Butanoic acid + Sulfuric acid = Pinapple
Methanol + Salicylic acid + Sulfuric acid = wintergreen
Ethanol + Methanoic acid + Sulfuric acid = rum
How to write the chemical formulae for each?
1 answer
All of them are similar. If we let RCOOH stand for the acid (you supply the R as appropriate for each acid) and R'OH stand for the alcohol (either methanol or ethanol), then the ester produced will be RCOOR' and the other product will be H2O..