Tuesday, August 9, 2011

A student prepares ethyl benzoate by the reaction of benzoic acid with ethanol using a sulfuric acid catalyst.?

The following compounds are found in the crude reaction mixture: ethyl benzoate (major component), benzoic acid, ethanol, and sulfuric acid. Using a handbook, obtain the solubility properties in water for each compounds. Indicate how you would remove benzoic acid, ethanol, and sulfuric acid from ethyl benzoate. At some point in the purification , you should also use an aqueous sodium bicarbonate solution. I found ethyl benzoate to be almost insoluble in water, benzoic acid soluble in water, ethanol miscible in water, and sulfuric acid miscible in water, but I am having trouble in removing all those compounds from ethyl benzoate.

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