'Fischer Esterification Conclusion\r'

'Barry Allahyar Dr. Dodd CHEM 2122 2010-09-16 Experiment 19: Fischer Esterification, certainty The objective in this experiment was to efficiently execute an Fischer esterification of 1-butanol and acetic panelling to form water and n-butyl ethanoate, and to support the esterification using IR spectroscopy analysis. It was found that 0. 734 grams of n-butyl acetate was make with a percent yield of 61%. The harvest was confirmed using IR spectroscopy and simmering brain confirmation.The reaction mechanism for this item reaction was as follows: First the protonation of a carbonyl oxygen activates the carboxyl acid towards nucleophillic attack by the alcohol yielding a tetrahedral intermediate, in which in that respect are two equivalent hydroxyl groups. champion of these hydroxyl groups is eliminated after a proton shift (tautomerism) to give way water and the ester. The reaction is a nucleophillic acylsubstitution carried out down the stairs acidic conditions of acetic ac id and Dowex was also use for supplying protons.The alcohol used was 1-butanol which limits the ester to a fount butyl chain. After completing the esterification, it was found that 0. 734 grams of n-butyl acetate was formed with a percent yield of 61%. The product was confirmed using IR spectroscopy and boiling point confirmation. The IR spectroscopy graph showed the feature Esterâ€1735 cm-1 (C=O) strong absorption, and lacked any broad O-H peak at 3300-2500 cm-1 confirming the product as an ester.The boiling point of the final product at 121. °C almost matched to the theoretical boiling point of n-Butyl acetate, 126 °C. Although our experiment produced a satisfactory yield of n-butyl acetate, a number of errors could grow occurred in this experiment which could have limited the bill of desired product yielded. First, if not enough acid catalyst was used, protonation of the carbonyl group on the carboxylic acid would have been difficult to obtain. Second, if the temper ature was too last in heating the mixture, reflux would not occur, not allowing the solvent to boil and then recondense back into the Dean-Stark trap.\r\n'