Operational Organic Chemistry p.77 #4 Preparation of Synthetic Banana Oil Lab De

Question

Operational Organic Chemistry p.77 #4 Preparation of Synthetic Banana Oil Lab Describe and explain how each of the following experimental errors or variations might affect your results. (a) You failed to dry the reaction flask after washing it with water (b) You forgot to add the sulfuric acid (c) You used twice the amount of acetic acid (d) You left out the sodium bicarbonate washing step (e) Your thermometer bulb was 1 cm higher than it should have been If anyone knows how to explain how each one a-e will affect my results it would be greatly appreciated. My report is due tomorrow

Explanation / Answer

a) You failed to dry the reaction flask after washing it with water: In this case there will some additional amount of water in the desired product and it may distilled off alongwith the ester (as boiling point of water is less). It will affect the actual yield.

b) Sulphuric acid iis acting as catalyst here for esterification. So if we forgot to add sulphuric acid then rate of reaction and yield will be low. We need to reflux the mixture for more time even then it will not improve the yield much.

c) We are already using excess of acetic acid, so the double amount of acetic acid will not affect the yield however it will increase the task of removal of acetic acid after the completion of reaction.

d) sodium bicarbonate washing is used for removal of sulphuric acid and acetic acid. so in its absence there will be both the acid in the product. Now sulphuric acid will be separated during distillation due to its high boiling point but acetic acid will mix up with the distillate as its boiling point is less than the desired ester synthesised. so it will affect the yield.

e) This will give false temperature reading. So we may obtain alcohol alongwith the desired ester and hence will affect the overall yield.

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