Esterification and Hydrolysis Lab 8

how do you upset the equilibrium to get more than 67% yield

You triple the amount of alcohol or acid. But then the products and the starting material have similar boiling points so you cant distill to separate them. Then you can remove water but normal dehydrating reagents arent enough. What we did was we refluxed it then when it vaporizes and recondenses the top layer is mostly ester and the bottom layer is mostly water.

explain the separation process

first water was added into the sep funnel, then the refluxed ester was added in (acid into water bc of the H2SO4), then tert butyl methyl ether was added and this was to remove any water or aqueous solution. Then Na2CO3 was added to remove any remaining sulfonic acid. After that was drained NaCl was added to remove any reaming sulfonic acid. Then Na2SO3 was added to futher remove any water and then the ether was rotovapped to make an oil

what was the reaction

Salicylic acid was added to with methanol to make methyl salicylate. H2SO4 was also added to act as a protonator.

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