Lab report

Introduction- An ester is “any class of often fragrant organic compounds that can be represented by the formula RCOOR′ and that are usually formed by the reaction between an acid and an alcohol with elimination of water.” We set out to create these esters on our own by combining acids like acetic acid, butyric acid, and benzoic acid with certain alcohols like ethanol, methanol, or pentanol. Each had a unique smell, which we would try to determine by smelling each.

Objective- To determine what each ester smells like; determine whether they are dangerous or not, name the esters, and observe characteristics of the reaction.

Procedure- There were 9 esters that we wanted to create. We did this by combining each in the appropriate quantities in test tubes. We referenced the table on page 3 to determine the amount of carboxylic acid, the amount of drops of alcohol, and amount of H2SO4 to use. We placed these solutions into a 20 ml beaker. These solutions were set into a hot water bath (after they were corked) for 1-2 minutes. After they solutions were cooled, we were able to smell the esters and tried to determine what each was. We noted how long they took to develop and even if they became cloudy. We repeated this process for the rest of the solutions in the table

Results- See Attached

Conclusion- We made numerous different esters, each with a different smell. It was very interesting to see how each reaction created smells that were so familiar in