Week 5 Problem Set 30 BL (Esterification Reaction)
Useful Link: Refractometer
ATTN: answers to the below questions are due at the start of your lab period; these answers should be part of your pre-lab write-up.
1. Reaction planning
a. Which container is used for the reaction? What does this mean in terms of the scale the reaction is run?
b. Why is the reaction mixture refluxed?
c. Why are boiling stones added to the reaction mixture?
d. Why is sulfuric acid used in this reaction?
e. Why is an excess of acetic acid used in this reaction?
f. Why does the container used for the extraction procedure be vented more frequently?
2. A student refluxes a mixture 12.0 g of acetic acid, 20 mL of citronellol and 5 mL of concentrated sulfuric acid for three hours. After the work-up, the student isolated 20.5 ml of the ester.
a. Show a balanced chemical equation for the reaction.
b. Determine the yield of the reaction. Show all calculations.
c. Which potential problems do you see with the reaction setup?
d. The student observes refractive index of nD22= 1.4420. Which conclusion can he draw from this observation?
3. Extraction Theory (Hint: See appendix of reader)
a. Construct two different flow diagrams to separate nitrobenzene, salicylic acid and amiline.
b. Construct a flow diagram to separate a pentanone, pyrene and 2,6-Dimethylphenol.