How do you prepare ethyl acetate?

1 Answer
Jul 1, 2018

Well get some acetic acid....

Explanation:

...and add an equivalent amount of ethanol....and give it a good heat at reflux in the presence of small quantities of #H_3O^+#..

#"H"_3"CCH"_2"OH + HO"_2"CCH"_3stackrel(H_3O^+, Delta)rarr"H"_3"CCH"_2"O"_2"CCH"_3+"H"_2"O"#

Esterification (and there are other methods) is an example of a #"condensation reaction"#...to give an addition product with the elimination of a small molecule such as water....the formation of the stable water molecule here serves as a thermodynamic driving force to this reaction...