Question

Write a chemical equation of the reaction of ethanoic acid with ethanol in the presence of conc. ${\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4$.

Answer 1

The reaction of Ethanoic acid $\left({\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOH}\right)$ and Ethanol $\left({\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5\mathrm{OH}\right)$ in the presence of concentrated Sulphuric acid $\left({\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4\right)$ forms the ester that is Ethyl ethanoate $\left({\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5{\mathrm{COOCH}}_3\right)$ and water.

This reaction is called the esterification reaction.

Chemical equation:

The chemical equation of Ethanoic acid and Ethanol is written as:

$$\begin{gathered} {\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOH}+{\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5\mathrm{OH}\stackrel{\mathrm{conc}.{\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4}{\to }{\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5{\mathrm{COOCH}}_3+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O} \\ (\mathrm{Ethanoic}(\mathrm{Ethanol})(\mathrm{Ethyl}\mathrm{ethanoate})(\mathrm{Water}) \\ \mathrm{acid}) \end{gathered}$$