What is the difference between transesterification and esterification

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Kumar and R. Pandey, Synlett 2 Orita, C. Tanahashi, A. Kakuda and J. Nakae, I. Kusaki and T. Therefore, a catalyst is needed to reduce the activation energy of the reaction and heat is required as an energy source. The byproduct formed in this reaction is water. Therefore, in the presence of a dehydrating agent, we can obtain the pure ester product. By altering the carboxylic acid or the alcohol, the ester with desired carbon atoms can be obtained. The esterification reaction is an equilibrium reaction.

Therefore, to obtain a high yield of ester, we can use either an excess amount of alcohol or a dehydrating agent to remove water from the system. If not, water can be removed by some other method such as distillation.

Figure Synthesis of Methyl Acetate. The above image shows the production of methyl acetate using ethanoic acid and methanol as reactants.

The byproduct is a water molecule. The catalyst used here is sulfuric acid. Transesterification is the exchanging of the alkyl group attached to the oxygen atom of the ester with the alkyl group of an alcohol. This reaction requires acidic or basic catalysts in order to reduce the activation energy of the reaction.

Transesterification of an ester is initiated with the nucleophilic attack by the alcohol. The alcohol, removing the proton attached to the oxygen atom, becomes a nucleophile due to the presence of lone electron pairs. This nucleophile can attack the carbon atom which is attached to the two oxygen atoms. The carbon atom gets a partial positive charge because the two oxygen atoms attract the bond electrons towards themselves since the electron affinity of the oxygen atoms is higher than that of the carbon atom.

Thus, this carbon with the partial positive charge is a good location for the nucleophile to attack. Learn more. What is the difference between the esterification and transesterification?

Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 6 months ago. Active 4 years, 7 months ago. Viewed 12k times. Improve this question. Jan But is there any definition for it? I want to use it in my paper-work. Btw Thx very much! Also once they switch they are no longer alcohols. Homework question! Add a comment.