Why is sulfuric acid needed in esterification

Suddenly, c hemistry happens! The carbonyl oxygen is more electron-rich, especially when you consider that it is in conjugation with the OH. Imagine a resonance form where the OH donates a pair of electrons to form a double bond, resulting in O- where the carbonyl is.

Or do you just end up with a bunch of ester and an equal number of H2O molecules? True — each step is reversible. To drive the reaction to completion, the choice of solvent is critical. Since the concentration of alcohol will vastly outnumber the concentration of water formed in the process, the reaction will go to the right. Another way to do it is to remove or trap the water that is formed by using an apparatus known as a Dean Stark trap.

Great Stuff! If a solid acid catalyst, capable of protonating and de-protonating, is added to an ester EVA for example and there is no free moisture in the system, is the water that is formed from the reaction of the catalyst producing H2O? In that case, then the ester will be hydrolyzed to give carboxylic acids. Could you explain in a very simple words what is the function of acid catalyst in friedel craft acylation. A good rule of thumb is about 8 pKa units up.

So in order for the protonated ketone pKa -7 to be accessible via equilibrium, you could use an acid with a pKa of 1 or below. Israel Mining Industries. Oxford Academic. Google Scholar. Cite Cite M. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Article PDF first page preview.

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