Properties Of Carboxylic Acid And Esters

Question 1

What is carboxylic acid and esters structure?

Answer 1

• They both contain a carbonyl group, however carboxylic acids also have a attached hydroxyl group, on the other hand the H in the OH is replaced with an alkyl group

Question 2

What are the properties of carboxylic acids?

Answer 2

• behave as weak acids, only slightly ionized in water
• they are soluble up to 4 Carbons
• sour bitter, unpleasant odor, only low molecular weight carboxylic acids have an odor

Question 3

What is the properties & reactions of esters

Answer 3

1) derived from carboxylic acids by replacing the H with and aryl or alkyl group via their reactions with alcohols (R-COOH +
R’-OH = R-COOR’ + H2O)

2) esters can be hydrolyzed (the reaction in water catalyzed by an acid or base “H+”) producing a carboxylic acid and alcohol (R-COOR’ + H2O + H+ = R-COOH + R’-OH) in water hydrolysis, and sodium salt and alcohol (R-COOR’ + NaOH = R-COO(-)Na+ + R’-OH) in basic hydrolysis

3) it has a nice odor used in food industry as flavoring and fragrances

Question 4

What are the reactions of carboxylic acids?

Answer 4

1) they react with bases to form carboxylic acid salts & water (CH3COOH + NaOH = CH3COO-Na+ + H2O)

2) they react with alcohol to form esters (R-COOH + R’-OH = R-COOR’ + H2O)