I am looking at the lab titled: Synthesis of Ester using alcohol The equation is

Question

I am looking at the lab titled: Synthesis of Ester using alcohol

The equation is: carboxylic acid + alcohol -> ester.

It says one of the starting reactant needs to be an excess in order to shift the equation to the right to favor the ester formation. Carboxylic acid was chosen to be the excess because it will be easier to remove from the mixture during the isolation (with sodium bicarbonate) and purification (using distillation)

My question is, why is using alcohol as an excess, not a favorable choice?

Explanation / Answer

Ester can be prepared using one of the excess reagent ie either acid or alcohol. But majority of ester are methyl and ethyl esters.

When compared to cost of acid, alcohol is dead cheep (MeOH, EtOH) and they are readily available.

Removal of excess alcohol also very easy ie drect evoparation followed by basic workup to remove catalytic amount of acid catalyst and sarting acid material.

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