Esters are sweet-smelling substances and are used in making perfumes. Suggest some activity and the reaction involved for the preparation of an ester with well labelled diagram.

Explanation

Esters are sweet-smelling substances. These are used in making perfumes and as flavouring agents. Esters react in the presence of an acid or a base to give back the alcohol and carboxylic acid. This reaction is known as saponification because it is used in the preparation of soap. Take a test tube and add 1 ml ethanol and 1 ml glacial acetic acid with a few drops of concentrated sulphuric acid. Now heat the solution in water bath at about 60°C, for at least ten minutes. Pour the content into a beaker containing water (50 ml) and smell the mixture `underset(("Ethanoic acid"))(CH_(3)-COOH)+CH_(3)-underset(("Ethanol"))(CH_(2)OH)overset("con".CH_(2)SO_(4))toCH_(3)underset(("Ester"))(COOC_(2)H_(5))`