How to make ethyl butanoate via nucleophilic substitution of haloalkane

 

The volatile ethyl ester ethyl butanoate, also known as ethyl butyrate or butyric ether, is created during yeast fermentation and is a component of alcoholic beverages. Its chemical formula is CH3CH2CH2COOCH2CH3. Alcohol reacts with a fatty acid to produce ethyl esters. The smells of blue cheese, pineapple, and apples are all attributed to ethyl butanoate. As an alcoholic beverage ages, spontaneous hydrolysis causes the amounts of ethyl ester to decrease.



Ethyl butanoate (C6H12O2) is significant for:

1. It is frequently used in cosmetic products as an artificial flavoring that tastes like orange juice and includes cherry, pineapple, mango, guava, bubble gum, peach, apricot, fig, and plum.

2. Martinis, daiquiris, and other alcoholic drinks use it.

3.In fragrance items as a solvent and as a plasticizer for cellulose.

4. The soft and flexible ethyl cellulose polymers are made using ethyl butanoate as a plasticizer together with a few other short- and medium-chain esters.

5. In addition, it is employed in the synthesis of pyrido benzimidazole derivatives and the manufacture of new 2-cyanopyrimidines, among other compounds.

Today, I want to talk about how to make ethyl butanoate via nucleophilic substitution of haloalkane, but I also want to talk about another method that produces the same chemical, ethyl butanoate. 

Nucleophilic substitution process

A positively charged electrophile is attacked by an electron-rich nucleophile to replace a leaving group (substrate) in a class of reactions known as nucleophilic substitution reactions. The following may be used to describe the reaction in its most general form:
                    Nuc: + R-LG R-Nuc + LG:
The substrate is normally electrically neutral or positively charged, whereas the nucleophile may be neutral or negatively charged.
The SN1 reaction and SN2 reaction are the two primary processes in use. The rate of the SN1 reaction, which replaces a leaving group with a nucleophile, is solely dependent on the concentration of the one reactant. The SN2 reaction entails the nucleophilic substitution of the leaving group, which often comprises of halide compounds or other electron-withdrawing groups, with a nucleophile in organic compound.

  • Ethyl butanoate synthesis

A variety of carboxylic-ester hydrolases' ester-producing enzymes can be used to produce ethyl butanoate via enzyme. Esterification reaction, alcoholysis, acidolysis, and interesterification are other processes that can be used to make ethyl butanoate.

  • Esterification process
Esterification, often referred to as the Fisher esterification, is a condensation reaction between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol that uses an enzyme as a catalyst and results in the production of ester and water as a byproduct. For the manufacture of ethyl butanoate in this instance, butanoic acid and ethanol were esterified.


When butanoic acid and ethanol are combined with concentrated H2SO4 as a catalyst, ethyl butanoate and water are produced as byproducts.
Ethyl butanoate is therefore synthesized in the lab in this manner. 
Further explanation is done in another article you can "Read Here


 

 

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