Abstract

CALVALCANTE, Phelipe Matheus Moraes et al. Proposal of preparation and characterization of esters: an undergraduate experiment of organic analysis. Educ. quím [online]. 2015, vol.26, n.4, pp.319-329. ISSN 0187-893X.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eq.2015.07.003.

Esters consist in one of the classes of chemical substances widely found in nature. Some esters of low molecular weight tend to have a pleasant flavor and therefore are widely used by food and drinks industries. The esters can be synthesized by the reaction between a carboxylate anion and an alkyl halide, or by Fischer esterification reaction. Industrially, this last reaction is one of the main procedures for the esters synthesis, and according this work, a simple experiment about this specific obtaining method is described and proposed for undergraduate discipline of organic analysis. The preparation of alkyl levulinate and lactate, from levulinic acid and/or lactic acid, is carried out in laboratory, easily, requiring three periods of four hours and is useful for chemistry teaching.

Keywords : Esterification; Chemistry teaching; Laboratory of chemistry; Undergraduate experiment.

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