Chemistry: Fischer Esterification

Fischer Esterification is when an carboxylic acid and an alcohol reacts to produce an ester, catalyzed by a strong acid to protonate the -OH of the carboxylic acid, so it leave as water (Ketcha, 58). For Fischer Esterification to occur, the reaction must be heated up, without boiling away, for a prolong amount of time by refluxing the mixture (Ketcha, 57). Refluxing is the process in which the boiled solution’s vapors are condense back to a liquid and return to the boiled solution (Ketcha, 60). The reflux solution could then be wash by water to remove the water soluble components and then be wash by a aqueous bicarbonate to remove the acids from the layer, leaving only alcohol and the ester behind (Ketcha, 57). Because the ester and alcohol
Once the mixture was mixed, it was reflux for 30 minutes, when vapors are condensed and returned to the vessel. The heat was turned off to let the mixture to cool to room temperature. The contents of the mixture were then added to a separatory funnel and was wash with the organic layer with water (3x15ml) and then with 5% NaHCO3 (15ml). The top layer should be the organic layer, while the bottom should be water and NaHCO3. The organic layer was then clean in a flask (100ml) , was distilled, while observations were made between temperature
However, during distillation, the temperature never reached 130 degrees C on the thermometer. The thermometer could have been faulty or it could simply be that the thermometer needed to be place closer to the boiling solution. Because of this, the beakers were never switched out, resulting in one beaker containing alcohol and the ester, and not one for each. Because the final product contains ester and alcohol and not just the ester, the final weight would be more than it should. This results in a percent yield (95.9%) higher than it should be.