preparation of isopentyl acetate :: essays research papers

INTRODUCTIONIsopentyl acetate, "banana tree oil", is a naturally occurring abstruse that possesses a distinctive odor. It is put in bananas, as well as many other organisms.This taste attempts to produce isopentyl acetate by heating under reflux, which involves heating the medley in a flask with a condenser placed vertically in the neck since any escaping vapours condense and run fundament into the flask, by combining isopentyl alcohol with acetic acidulous and an acid catalyst. The produce was isolated utilize a combination of techniques -- acid-base extraction, drying, and distillation -- and was characterized by its stewing temperature and its refractive index.Esterification is a condensation reaction where ii molecules are coupled together to form a larger molecule with the simultaneous red ink of water. This ester in this experiment is isopentyl acetate formed from acetic acid and isopentyl alcohol. The reaction is catalyzed by hydrochloric acid, a Fisher es terification process, (McMurry, p780-781) but the catalyst affects only the prize of reaction, and not the extent of reaction. The desired product accumulates only if the sense of equilibrium ageless is favorable.As it happens, the equilibrium constant for this reaction is rather small (4) (comparing join energies in the reactants and products go forth tip you off as to why the equilibrium constant is so small). Therefore, simply mixing equal amounts of the starting materials will convert only about 67% of the starting material into product.To contract the equilibrium forward Le Chateliers principle is used, in this case at that place are two ways to adjust reagent concentrations to force isopentyl alcohol to become isopentyl acetate. One way is to remove product as it forms. The other way is to use a large glut of acetic acid. This experiment is ground on the latter approach, but it raises two issues. We can use excess acetic acid only if acetic acid is cheap, and if unr eacted acetic acid can be removed easily from the product mixture (Organic chemistry lab. Manual, p32). In this lab had to use acid- base extraction process. Since isopentyl acetate is water-soluble in diethyl ether, but acetic acid is soluble in two solvents. Therefore, a simple extraction procedure would remove only some(prenominal) of the acetic acid from isopentyl acetate, but it would not completely separate the two compounds.An acid-base extraction improves on the simple two-solvent extraction scheme by using acid-base reactions to change acetic acid into another compound with different solvability behavior. Hence, we convert acetic acid into, sodium acetate, and obtain a compound that is soluble in water, but not in diethyl ether.