Esterification

spinqualitylabelsall models Esterification of fatty acid with ethanol Show:Asymmetric Unit Biological Assembly Drag the structure with the mouse to rotate   Export Animated Image   Print3D Esterification is a chemical reaction of an acid with an alcohol (R'OH) to form an ester (RCOOR'). Usually esterification refers to reaction between an organic (carboxylic) acid (RCOOH) with an alcohol (R'OH) to form an ester (RCOOR') and water and called Fischer esterification. The chemical reaction for Fischer esterification is given below: The when the carboxylic acid accepts a proton from the strong acid catalyst. In the the alcohol attacks the protonated carbonyl group to create a tetrahedral intermediate structure. In the a proton is lost at one oxygen atom and bonds to another oxygen atom. In the a water molecule leaves the structure. In the a proton (H+) leaves the carbonyl group, transfers to a base and ester is formed. An animated example of this reaction is shown. Please click on the buttons below to animate the reaction with different representations. Use the popup button to enlarge the view and the quality button to turn on anti-aliasing. The animation was originally done by Prof. Dr. Verena Pietzner; for details, see her web site ChiLe. The implementation into Proteopedia was done by Prof. Jaime Prilusky, Prof. Joel L. Sussman and Veronika Pelekhov.

See also

S_N1 reaction: Substitution of Cl⁻ and tert-Butanol
S_N2 reaction: substitution of Cl⁻ and methanol

Proteopedia Page Contributors and Editors (what is this?)

Veronika Pelekhov, Joel L. Sussman, Jaime Prilusky