Esterification Synthesis Lab Report

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The purpose of this experiment is to synthesize acetylsalicylic acid through a reaction called esterification, more specifically the esterification reaction of salicylic acid with acetic anhydride in the presence of an acid catalyst. First of all, an esterification reaction is when an alcohol reacts with a carboxylic acid in the presence of an acid catalyst. Esterification is based on the electrophilicity of the carbonyl carbon and the nucleophilicity of an alcohol. These reactions are generally very kinetically slow without any catalysts. This reaction is called an esterification because it produces an ester. An ester is a functional group that replaces the hydrogen on a carboxylic acid with a hydrocarbon of some kind, be a methyl or an ethyl
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