Equilibrium Constant of an Ester Hydrolysis Reaction

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The Equilibrium Constant of an Ester Hydrolysis Reaction Abstract The first step in determining the equilibrium constant of an ester hydrolysis reaction is to prepare five different reaction mixtures with the volume given in Table 1. the bottles have different mixtures of HCl, H2O, an unknown ester, and one bottle has alcohol. We will later determine the equilibrium constant for the reaction between the unknown ester and water to produce an unknown alcohol, and unknown acid. Once the bottles were shooken vigorusly we stored them in our drawer until chemical equilibrium was reached, which took about two weeks. We were then to make a base solution of 0.7 M NaOH. In order to standardize this solution we had to weigh out 5g of KHP, which is the amount needed to neutralize 35ml of our base. Once we weighed out the KHP we then dissolved it in 50 ml of water, and finally titrated the base three different times, we could then take the average and find the molarity of the NaOH solution. After the bottles hadbeen sitting for 2 weeks we titrated each one with the base and recorded how much base was needed in (ml). Once we titrated all the bottles we then had all theinformation we needed in order to finish the calculations. Intro In this lab we are trying to determine and equilibrium constant of an ester hydrolysis reaction. What happens in this reaction is water and an unknown ester are forming an unknown alcohol an organic acid, which is catalyzed with HCL. The process in which both the water and ester split and recombine to produce the alcohol and acid is called hydrolysis. These products are all based on functional groups, or patterns in the... ... middle of paper ... ...t the ester and H20 produce the alcohol and acid so the results in bottle 1 are no suprise, No reactant no product. In bottle 2 we have the most initial ester, and we produce the most acid and alcohol. In bottle 3 we still have a good amount of ester but with water added in, which gives us a good amount of product, and a little bit more water at the end. In bottle 4 we put a little ester in with more water than last time, less products were formed, and most of the ester was used so there isnt much left at the end. Finally, bottle 5 was different than the rest. We started with a little bit of alcohol we ended up with mixed results. There was alcohol left over and a little acid was made, while alot of water was made. Basically all we need is water and an ester and we will end up with an organic acid produced as well as an alcohol.

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