More Fun with Science
May 13th, 2009
Smells.
Smells are awesome.
I learned a fun reaction today;
Acid that smells like cheese + Alcohol that smells like alcohol <=> Stuff that smells like Pineapple + Burning.
It wasn’t meant to smell like burning, but I held my nose right up to it. In retrospect this was NOT A GOOD DECISION.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Hmm, let’s see, the acid would have been butanoic (butyric) acid (CH3CH2CH2COOH) and the alcohol would have been ethanol (CH3CH2OH). You esterified them in a reflux apparatus (using H2SO4 catalyst maybe?) to produce ethyl butanoate (CH3CH2OOCCH2CH2CH3), commonly used in the junk food industry as a pineapple flavouring.
I’ve also done some fun science stuff myself lately. Stay tuned!
May 14th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
No refluxing involved, it was just in a hot water bath, but otherwise correct. Tomorrow we’re doing refluxing, and this time around the teacher has taught me the correct method of smelling chemicals.