Question 20N.3.sl.TZ0.g

An investigation was carried out to determine the effect of chain length of the alcohol on the equilibrium constant, $K_{\mathrm{c}}$, for the reversible reaction:

$\mathrm{ROH}+{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOH}\stackrel{{\mathrm{H}}^{+}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right) }{\rightleftharpoons }{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOR}+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$

The reactants, products and the catalyst form a homogeneous mixture.

Fixed volumes of each alcohol, the ethanoic acid and the sulfuric acid catalyst were placed in sealed conical flasks.

At equilibrium, the flasks were placed in an ice bath, and samples of each flask titrated with $\mathrm{NaOH}\hspace{0.17em}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)$ to determine the ethanoic acid concentration present in the equilibrium mixture.

The following processed results were obtained.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2020