The purpose of this experiment is to synthesize isopentyl acetate (3-methylbutyl acetate) via an esterification reaction between acetic acid and isopentyl alcohol (3-methylbutanol), using concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst.
Isoamyl acetate is used for the preparation of many synthetic flavours from apple to piña colada and even coffee. Flavour production is the main area of application for Isoamyl acetate. Over 40 flavours involve the use of Isoamyl acetate.
Isoamyl acetate was synthesized from isoamylol and glacial acetic acid with strong acidic cation exchanger as catalyst. The effects of reaction conditions such as acid-alcohol ratio, reaction time, catalyst dosage to esterification reaction have been investigated and the optimum reaction conditions can be concluded as: the molar ratio of acetic acid to isoamylol 0.8:1, reaction time 2h, 25 % of catalyst (quality of acetic acid as benchmark). The conversion rate can reach up to 75.46%. The catalytic ability didn’t reduce significantly after reusing 10 times and the results showed that the catalyst exhibited preferably catalytic activity and reusability.
