Thomas Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 Ok, I have to do this design lab on esterification. I was thinking of doing something along the lines of [i]How does the length of the carbon chain on the alcohol used affect the smell of the ester made during esterification[/i]. However, the measurement of "smell" is not quantitative- so I guess it's not really a good title? I'm really stuck, I would really appreciate some help - either on approving / rejecting my first title, or helping me with a new one Merci merci Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahmedinhoffb10 Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 Esterification is the general name for a chemical reaction in which two reactants (typically an alcohol and an acid) form an ester as the reaction product. Esters are common in organic chemistry and biological materials, and often have a characteristic pleasant, fruity odor. This leads to their extensive use in the fragrance and flavour industry. Esterification is a reversible reaction. Hydrolysis- literally "water splitting" involves adding water and a catalyst (commonly NaOH) to an ester to get the sodium salt of the carboxylic acid and alcohol. As a result of this reversibility, many esterification reactions are equilibrium reactions and therefore need to be driven to completion according to Le Chatelier's principle. Esterifications are among the simplest and most often performed organic transformations. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Posted January 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 [quote name='ahmedinhoffb10' post='33967' date='Jan 18 2009, 08:18 PM']Esterification is the general name for a chemical reaction in which two reactants (typically an alcohol and an acid) form an ester as the reaction product. Esters are common in organic chemistry and biological materials, and often have a characteristic pleasant, fruity odor. This leads to their extensive use in the fragrance and flavour industry. Esterification is a reversible reaction. Hydrolysis- literally "water splitting" involves adding water and a catalyst (commonly NaOH) to an ester to get the sodium salt of the carboxylic acid and alcohol. As a result of this reversibility, many esterification reactions are equilibrium reactions and therefore need to be driven to completion according to Le Chatelier's principle. Esterifications are among the simplest and most often performed organic transformations.[/quote] Well thank you, I could also have copied things from Wikipedia Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vvi Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 If you add several parts to your lab, you could do it. I did something similar for biology; how does the colour of drinks affect their perceived taste? Some data was qualitative and some quantitative. I did the effect of sugar on percieved sweetness and then colour in the same experiment. I also had a part where I tested different ratios to see which ratio of sugar:juice was the best to test on people. I was going to add a fourth part, a questionnaire on people's preferred colour, but I forgot. My experiment would have been about 15 pages all in all. You could prepare different lengths of carbon chains, and make people smell them. You would have to give them a certain range of answers, like "Strong", "Mild", "Weak", etc. Then you record how many people said what, and make a pie chart for it. I did this with mine. Basically, my recorded data was qualitative but when I processed it it became quantitative. I counted all the answers for a certain group. I also had a lot to analyze in my evaluation, because I came up with lots of improvements for the kind of questions that I asked and so on. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Posted January 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 Thank you so much, I'll check that out and let you know how it went I really appreciate it Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashika Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote name='ahmedinhoffb10' post='33967' date='Jan 18 2009, 03:48 PM']Esterification is the general name for a chemical reaction in which two reactants (typically an alcohol and an acid) form an ester as the reaction product. Esters are common in organic chemistry and biological materials, and often have a characteristic pleasant, fruity odor. This leads to their extensive use in the fragrance and flavour industry. Esterification is a reversible reaction. Hydrolysis- literally "water splitting" involves adding water and a catalyst (commonly NaOH) to an ester to get the sodium salt of the carboxylic acid and alcohol. As a result of this reversibility, many esterification reactions are equilibrium reactions and therefore need to be driven to completion according to Le Chatelier's principle. Esterifications are among the simplest and most often performed organic transformations.[/quote] Wow, seriously? You're in IB and just plagiarized Wikipedia? [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esterification"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esterification[/url] Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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