What types of products would you expect to find in methyl salicylate, isopentyl acetate, ethyl acetate, and octyl acetate.
I'm lost. Any ideas?
3 answers
If this is all you have to go on, that makes it tough. Perhaps some of the starting materials of which each is made but I may have interpreted the problem incorrectly.
This lab is ruining me. isopentyl acetate is a blend of isopentanol, acetic acid, and sulfuric acid. How can products be determined from this information?
Remember this in organic chemistry. An organic acid plus an alcohol, in the presence of H2SO4, produces an ester.And I object to the word "blend". It is not a blend (blend says mixture to me), it is a reaction.
The acid is acetic acid; the alcohol is isopentyl alcohol. Usually esters are prepared using an excess of the acid (so the alcohol is the limiting reagent). That way the alcohol is used (completely if the reaction goes 100%--which they rarely do) because it's relatively easy to get rid of the excess acid (usually by extracting with NaHCO3). So for isopentyl acetate, I would think you might find small amounts of acetic acid (if the NaHCO3 didn't get all of it) or some isopentyl alcohol (if the reaction didn't use all of it). So I think I've interpreted the question correctly. Look at how the others are made and make predictions on which starting materials may be present in the final product.
The acid is acetic acid; the alcohol is isopentyl alcohol. Usually esters are prepared using an excess of the acid (so the alcohol is the limiting reagent). That way the alcohol is used (completely if the reaction goes 100%--which they rarely do) because it's relatively easy to get rid of the excess acid (usually by extracting with NaHCO3). So for isopentyl acetate, I would think you might find small amounts of acetic acid (if the NaHCO3 didn't get all of it) or some isopentyl alcohol (if the reaction didn't use all of it). So I think I've interpreted the question correctly. Look at how the others are made and make predictions on which starting materials may be present in the final product.
3 answers