Isopentyl Acetate Synthesis

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ISOPENTYL ACETATE SYNTHESIS Post-Lab Submitted by Vivian M. Chan Teaching Fellow: Long Nguyen Calculations and Conclusion: In this lab, isopentyl acetate was synthesized by combining isopentyl alcohol and acetic acid. In this reaction, molecules were joined through the intermolecular elimination of water. A method of liquid extraction was used to wash the product with water, Sodium Bicarbonate and Sodium Chloride. Simple Distillation was used to retrieve a more pure product. The final crude product yield was 0.91g and the pure product yield was 0.36g. Error may have occurred during the extraction phase. Although I extracted twice with Sodium Chloride, if waste was not completely removed, it would affect the purity of the product. The distillation process may have also affected the pure product. The lab manual recommended that 0.5mL of waste be removed during distillation; otherwise it would affect the purity of the product. During distillation, a plastic pipet was used. It was difficult to retrieve the waste because the pipet could not reach without the apparatus at a certain angle. By the time I switched to a glass pipet, there may have been excess of 0.5mL. In attempt to remove all the waste, I likely removed from 0.5mL of product. During the drying stage, 0.5g of anhydrous sodium sulfate was recommended to dry the crude ester, approximately 2g of anhydrous sodium sulfate was used. This seemed like an excess of anhydrous sodium sulfate but may not have affected the pure product in the long run. The product yielded produced a scent of a banana which is consistent with the production of banana oil. This equation displays the synthesis of isopentyl acetate by Fischer Esterification between isopentyl alcohol and acetic acid with sulfuric acid as the catalyst. IR Analysis: The above below was retrieved from IR Spectrum. There were 3 peaks

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