Homework Help: organic chemistry

Posted by PIN on Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 6:10am.

What will be the effect of adding solid NaHCO3 to hot concentrated H2SO4? Why should the reaction vessel containing a synthesized ester be cooled first before neutralization?
My Guess #1:
Since neutralization is an exothermic process and the ester is in equilibrium with its reactants then neutralization would put a stress on the products side and the reaction would favor the backward reaction and less of the ester will be obtained.
My Guess #2:
The neutralization of the acid will cause an increase in the temperature and this could cause slight evaporation of the ester.

PLS. I NEED HELP...

organic chemistry - DrBob222, Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 11:12am
Combine guess 1 and guess 2. Guess 1 is not so much about neutralization but about containing hydrolysis. If you want to hydrolyze an ester, water and acid and heat is the way to do it. In guess #2, again, segue into the reverse direction. You are right that elevated temperatures may volatilize some of the ester (depending upon which ester we are talking about) but the main idea here is to keep the temperature down so the reverse reaction (hydrolysis) will not take place.

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