Untitled - Kelly Walsh High School

320 CHEMISTRY FOR THE UTTERLY CONFUSED
Quick Tip
Let’s do a problem illustrating how a carboxylic acid reacts with an alcohol to
form an ester.
Use structural formulas to illustrate how the following molecules react:
Solution:
CH 3
CH 3
O
C
O
H
O
H
CH 2 CH 3
It is the functional groups that will react. If they are not close together in the
original drawing, you should redraw the structures so the functional groups are
close together.
CH 3
O
C
CH 3
O
C
O
H
O
C
O
H
+
O H
CH 2 CH 3
O
CH 3 CH 2 O
We will begin by redrawing the molecules to place the functional groups close
together.
H 2 O removed
After removing the water, the remaining pieces of the molecules join to form
the ester called ethyl acetate.
CH 2 CH 3
H