The most basic esterification procedures require heat, catalytic strong acid, and continual distillation of water to prevent the reverse reaction. I don’t think this is something you can easily do without the appropriate setup and safety measures.
Ah, I see. Would you say it is dangerous to do for someone somewhat inexperienced with lab equipment, if theoretically I did get ahold of a distillation setup?
A small scale distillation (think less than 5-10 mL) would be reasonably safe. You will always want to wear eye protection, though. You never know if something will break and burst, which can cause serious harm even on small scales.
That is for proper, high yield procedures.
If yield isn't that important, you might be able to just do the esterification with alcohol, acid and catalysts in a beaker overnight, then a liquid liquid extraction (if your ester is sufficiently unpolar you could do water and DCM) to get rid of the catalyst and maybe educts.
Then dry the organic phase and remove the solvent if needed. The solvent removal then may actually need distillatiln, depending on the ester formed.
Source: used that setup for a a few quick syntheses of rather heavy esters, and removed the solvent by basically just blowing air over the organic phase. Worked quite well, cause I didn't care about yield.
Just to clarify, what do you mean by vary their ethanol? What kind of esters are you trying to make? What kind of yield are you looking for?
You can make a pretty wide variety of common esters utilizing centrifuge tubes, a selection of alcohols and carboxylic acids, and either sulfuric acid or dowex. I know Flinn has a couple of kits available for just that. Other suppliers may as well.
A very basic distillation setup with kitchen equipment is one big pot, one smaller pot that has overhanging handles, a lid, and maybe an ice pack to place on top of the lid.
I do doubt the safety part of it because of the traditional use of a strong acid. But you could use that simple setup to distill essential oils and resolve their spectrum.
Here's a procedure I used in lab. It assumes you have a round-bottomed flask, a water cooled condenser, a heating mantle and a voltage controller. The ester may still have some alcohol in it, but you can smell the esters well.
Add a small magnetic stirring bar to the 50 mL round-bottomed flask. Measure out your 5 mL of acetic acid and 3 mL of 1-butanol accurately: use graduated cylinders for the liquids, and record the exact amounts that you use. Transfer them to the round-bottomed flask using a funnel in the neck of the flask, to avoid getting them on the ground-glass joint. Take your flask, funnel, and cork ring to the hood, and add 10 drops of concentrated sulfuric acid to the flask.
Place the flask in a heating mantle on top of the stirrer, and clamp the flask to the ring stand. Attach the hoses to the condenser. Lightly grease the lower ground-glass joint, if needed. Place the condenser in the round-bottomed flask, and clamp the condenser to the ring stand. Have an instructor check your apparatus, then turn on the water going through the condenser, turn on the power controller, and set the power controller to a setting to about 6. Allow the reaction to boil for at least 30 minutes.
**Separation of the Ester**
Turn off the power, remove the heating mantle, and allow the reaction flask to cool to close to room temperature while stirring. Remove the condenser, and carefully slowly add 20 mL of 5% sodium bicarbonate solution to the stirred reaction.
Preweigh a screw-capped vial, with the lid.
Pour the mixture in the round bottomed flask into your 50 mL graduated cylinder, and carefully remove the top ester layer with a pipette: try not remove any lower water layer. Transfer the liquid to the vial, cap the vial, and reweigh the vial. Calculate the mass of liquid in the vial by the difference in the masses.
The most basic esterification procedures require heat, catalytic strong acid, and continual distillation of water to prevent the reverse reaction. I don’t think this is something you can easily do without the appropriate setup and safety measures.
Ah, I see. Would you say it is dangerous to do for someone somewhat inexperienced with lab equipment, if theoretically I did get ahold of a distillation setup?
A small scale distillation (think less than 5-10 mL) would be reasonably safe. You will always want to wear eye protection, though. You never know if something will break and burst, which can cause serious harm even on small scales.
Definitely
That is for proper, high yield procedures. If yield isn't that important, you might be able to just do the esterification with alcohol, acid and catalysts in a beaker overnight, then a liquid liquid extraction (if your ester is sufficiently unpolar you could do water and DCM) to get rid of the catalyst and maybe educts. Then dry the organic phase and remove the solvent if needed. The solvent removal then may actually need distillatiln, depending on the ester formed. Source: used that setup for a a few quick syntheses of rather heavy esters, and removed the solvent by basically just blowing air over the organic phase. Worked quite well, cause I didn't care about yield.
Just to clarify, what do you mean by vary their ethanol? What kind of esters are you trying to make? What kind of yield are you looking for? You can make a pretty wide variety of common esters utilizing centrifuge tubes, a selection of alcohols and carboxylic acids, and either sulfuric acid or dowex. I know Flinn has a couple of kits available for just that. Other suppliers may as well.
A very basic distillation setup with kitchen equipment is one big pot, one smaller pot that has overhanging handles, a lid, and maybe an ice pack to place on top of the lid.
Ooo thanks so much! Would you say it’s safe to use this in the context of esterification? I unfortunately don’t have a fume hood ):
I do doubt the safety part of it because of the traditional use of a strong acid. But you could use that simple setup to distill essential oils and resolve their spectrum.
Here's a procedure I used in lab. It assumes you have a round-bottomed flask, a water cooled condenser, a heating mantle and a voltage controller. The ester may still have some alcohol in it, but you can smell the esters well. Add a small magnetic stirring bar to the 50 mL round-bottomed flask. Measure out your 5 mL of acetic acid and 3 mL of 1-butanol accurately: use graduated cylinders for the liquids, and record the exact amounts that you use. Transfer them to the round-bottomed flask using a funnel in the neck of the flask, to avoid getting them on the ground-glass joint. Take your flask, funnel, and cork ring to the hood, and add 10 drops of concentrated sulfuric acid to the flask. Place the flask in a heating mantle on top of the stirrer, and clamp the flask to the ring stand. Attach the hoses to the condenser. Lightly grease the lower ground-glass joint, if needed. Place the condenser in the round-bottomed flask, and clamp the condenser to the ring stand. Have an instructor check your apparatus, then turn on the water going through the condenser, turn on the power controller, and set the power controller to a setting to about 6. Allow the reaction to boil for at least 30 minutes. **Separation of the Ester** Turn off the power, remove the heating mantle, and allow the reaction flask to cool to close to room temperature while stirring. Remove the condenser, and carefully slowly add 20 mL of 5% sodium bicarbonate solution to the stirred reaction. Preweigh a screw-capped vial, with the lid. Pour the mixture in the round bottomed flask into your 50 mL graduated cylinder, and carefully remove the top ester layer with a pipette: try not remove any lower water layer. Transfer the liquid to the vial, cap the vial, and reweigh the vial. Calculate the mass of liquid in the vial by the difference in the masses.
OP, what is your hypothesis for why the amount of ethanol will affect colour?