Ethyl butyrate, CH3CH2CH2CO2CH2CH3, is an artificial fruit flavor commonly used

Question

Ethyl butyrate, CH3CH2CH2CO2CH2CH3, is an artificial fruit flavor commonly used in the food industry for such flavors as orange and pineapple. Its fragrance and taste are often associated with fresh orange juice, and thus it is most commonly used as orange flavoring.

It can be produced by the reaction of butanoic acid with ethanol in the presence of an acid catalyst (H+):

CH3CH2CH2CO2H(l)+CH2CH3OH(l)H+?CH3CH2CH2CO2CH2CH3(l)+H2O(l)

The chemist discovers a more efficient catalyst that can produce ethyl butyrate with a 78.0% yield. How many grams would be produced from 8.10g of butanoic acid and excess ethanol?

Explanation / Answer

Ethyl butyrate MW(CH3CH2CH2CO2CH2CH3) ~ 6 * 12 + 12 + 2 * 16 = 116 g/mol
Butanoic acid MW(CH3CH2CH2CO2H) ~ 4 * 12 + 8 + 2 * 16 = 88 g/mol.

The ratio of Butanoic acid to Ethyl butyrate is 1:1.

1. Your 8.15 g of butanoic acid is 8.15/88 ~ 9.30 * 10^-2 mol. The amount of ethyl butarate produced would be 9.30 * 10^-2 * 116 ~ 10.7 g.
2. If 5.90 g of ethyl butyrate were produced this would be a percentage yield of 100* 5.90/10.8 ~ 54.6%
3. If a yield of 78.0% were achieved this would be a mass of 10.7 * 78/100 ~ 8.38 g.

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