The ester synthesis of isoamyl acetate for this lab was carried out through nucleophilic acyl substitution. The purpose of this lab was to demonstrate the procedure for the synthesis of an ester from a carboxylic acid and alcohol using the techniques of refluxing. An ester is a very important functional group because it is widely distributed in nature. Additionally, esters can be synthesized with different methods such as direct reaction between carboxylic acid and alcohol in the presence of a strong acid catalyst, this is called Fischer Esterification. Furthermore, the by-product of the reaction is water, which is produced as a result of a condensation reaction. Most importantly, this reaction is reversible, therefore, an excess of acetic acid is added to shift the equilibrium to favor the ester product. Also, to acid is removed from the product mixture for the ester to separate from the water by neutralizing the acid with a base. Overall, banana oil will be synthesized from acetic acid and isopentyl alcohol.
Results:
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The experimental yield for this experiment was 0.704g, and the calculated moles for the product is 0.00541 moles. Furthermore, the limiting reagent was calculated to be acetic acid because the moles calculated for acetic acid is 0.0622 moles and 0.0833 moles for isopentyl alcohol. The percent yield was then calculated to be 8.7 percent because the theoretical yield was calculated to be 8.098g. The appearance of the crude organic ester product was a liquid that looked yellowish. Additionally, the experimental refractive index came to be 1.3978, and the corrected temperature was calculated to be 1.3992. This is a little different from the literature refractive index, 1.4000, however, it is still very close. Also, the literature boiling point is 142C, but the experimental boiling point was not determined during the