Sulferic acid in esterification reactions (1 Viewer)

[willhowden]

Can someone please tell me the use of using conc. H₂SO₄ as a catalyst in esterification reactions.
Somewhat in-depth if possible.
Cheerssss.

 

[xiao1985]

it's a misconception...

ANY acid can act as a catalyst for esterification... since H2SO4 is an acid, it can act as a catalyst... except, in addition to its catalytic ability, conc H2SO4 also act as a dehydrating agent... which ALSO just happens to push equilibrium to the right, yielding more ester formation....

 

[wrxsti]

Esterifcation is an equlibirum reaction, Sulfuric acid is a dehydrating agent. Thus the addition of Sulfuric acid to the equlibirum reaction will reduce the amount of water and force equiliburm to the right thus increasing the yield of Ester

 

[mzduxx2006]

Can someone please tell me the use of using conc. H<SUB>2</SUB>SO<SUB>4</SUB> as a catalyst in esterification reactions.
Somewhat in-depth if possible.
Cheerssss.

the point of using sulfuric acid as the catalyst is because it speeds ups tha reaction and allows it to react over a shorter period of time than if tha reaction did not have the sulfuric acid as tha catalyst. its also a dehydrating agent and forces the OH molecule to be removed. this inturn provides a higher yield of the concentrated ester.

 

[Forbidden.]

it's a misconception...

ANY acid can act as a catalyst for esterification... since H2SO4 is an acid, it can act as a catalyst... except, in addition to its catalytic ability, conc H2SO4 also act as a dehydrating agent... which ALSO just happens to push equilibrium to the right, yielding more ester formation....

It indirectly affects equilibrium, its dehydrating action is the one that does it.

Catalysts (assuming they don't dehydrate, etc.) only speed up the reaction rate, they
don't affect equilibriums, but in the case of strong acid catalysts for example their dehydrating capability affects equilibriums as you explained.