Fischer esterification is a reaction that converts carboxylic acid in presence of alcohol and strong acid catalyst to give ester as final product. Thus, NaHCO³ is one of the strong acid catalyst used in this reaction.
What is role of NaHCO³ in Fischer reaction?
Fischer reaction is a reaction between carboxylic acid and alcohol. When this reaction occurs, the product may contain some unreacted amount of carboxylic acid or acidic catalyst. Hence it is necessary to remove this and thus, this is accomplished by NaHCO³.
The reaction given below shows that how NaHCO3 dissociates and the bicarbonate anion reacts with unreacted proton to give unstable carbonic acid which dissociate to give water and carbon dioxide.
NaHCO3 = Na + + HCO3-
H+ + HCO3 - = H2O + CO2
Sodium bicarbonate also reacts with unreacted carboxylic acid whose reaction is shown below:
RCOOH +NaHCO3 = RCOO- Na+ + CO2+ H2O
RCOONa easily gets dissolve to polar solvent water and get separated.
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