Esters were volatile organic compounds generally with low boiling and melting points. Isomers were compounds with the identical molecular formula, however different structures or arrangements of atoms. Depending on the different structures of the esters, the boiling and melting points varied. Straight chain ester isomers tended to have higher boiling and melting points than those with a branched chain arrangement. Esters with melting points below room temperature existed in liquid form such as oil. And those with melting points exceeding room temperature would be in the solid form such as fats. The degree of saturation of the esters determined the efficacy of the van der Waals forces in the molecule, and therefore regulated the amount of energy required to separate the chains of hydrocarbons. Esters were completely soluble in organic/non-polar solvents and only partially soluble in water. The size of the attached functional groups; the alkyl groups, altered the physical properties of esters. As the length of the hydrocarbon chain …show more content…
Esterification was a fairly slow process at room temperature. Hence, heat and sulfuric acid were used to speed up the reaction to produce aromatic esters. As the alcohol and organic acid solution were heated, the particles moved faster increasing the number of collisions between the atoms stimulating the rate of reaction. Carboxylic acids were weak acids as they did not dissociate completely into ions in aqueous solutions. The sulfuric acid acted as a strong proton donor assisting the carboxylic acid in its role. The sulfuric acid inserted a proton into the carboxylic acid structure. With the addition of a proton, the carboxylic acid was able to attract the electron-rich oxygen atom from the alcohol molecule. The sulfuric acid wasn’t consumed by the reaction or had it undergone any chemical changes while speeding up the reaction; hence, it acted as a catalyst (Clark,