Orgo Lab - Esterification Discussion Draft Part 1

In this lab, 3-methylbutyl propanoate was synthesized via a reflux of an 3-methyl-1-butanol and propanoic acid. The reflux was performed with the intention to remove the excess water from the solution. The product was weighed 1.12 g and obtained a sweet, banana/pineapple scent. The percent yield was 70.88%. Although this is a relatively high percent yield, it is not 100%. Some reasons as to why the percent yield was not as high as expected could be due to loss of product during transfers between glassware, not allowing the water to completely evaporate in the reflux reaction, or not thoroughly mixing my solutions before and after the reflux reaction. By not allowing the water to fully evaporate or not mixing the solution completely, impurities may have remained in the product, causing a low percent yield.