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Topic: Esterification of 2-methoxypropanol  (Read 1624 times)

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Offline biofm

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Esterification of 2-methoxypropanol
« on: November 28, 2020, 09:49:03 PM »
I'm running an esterification of 2-methoxypropanol with an alkyl carboxylic acid using conc. H2SO4 as a the catalyst. The reaction started colorless, then faint yellow upon heating, and finally dark (black or brown) upon refluxing. I'll work up the reaction tomorrow but I can't stop thinking about the dark color. I have done many esterification but have not witnessed very dark colors especially with straight chain alkyl alcohols and carboxylic acids. What could be causing the dark color?

Offline wildfyr

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Re: Esterification of 2-methoxypropanol
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2020, 09:02:21 PM »
Might have chewed things up with too much sulfuric acid. a "drop" or truly small catalytic amount is enough for a small scale reaction.

Offline biofm

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Re: Esterification of 2-methoxypropanol
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2020, 03:02:58 PM »
Could be right. The dark color was just odd.

Offline Babcock_Hall

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Re: Esterification of 2-methoxypropanol
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2020, 03:09:46 PM »
It does not take much material to produce color.  Perhaps only some of your material degraded.

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