Esters (Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry)
Revision Note
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The Esters
Making Esters
- Alcohols and carboxylic acids react to make esters in esterification reactions
- Esters are compounds with the functional group R-COO-R
- Esters are sweet-smelling oily liquids used in food flavourings and perfumes
- Ethanoic acid will react with ethanol in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid (catalyst) to form ethyl ethanoate:
CH3COOH + C2H5OH → CH3COOC2H5 + H2O
Diagram showing the formation of ethyl ethanoate
Naming Esters
- An ester is made from an alcohol and carboxylic acid
- The first part of the name indicates the length of the carbon chain in the alcohol, and it ends with the letters ‘- yl’
- The second part of the name indicates the length of the carbon chain in the carboxylic acid, and it ends with the letters ‘- oate’
- e.g. the ester formed from pentanol and butanoic acid is called pentyl butanoate
Diagram showing the origin of each carbon chain in ester
- Some examples of common esters:
Examples of Esters Table
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