Formation+of+Esters



Participant Feedback (put your name - comment) Susan - I am not a chemistry teacher, but I will hand this over to our chemistry teacher. I think the idea of making good sents out of bad beginning smells might interest students.

Keith- We were group 1, and used acetic acid and butyl alcohol as our reagents. It smelled like model airplane glue after the reaction. If I had to identify that aroma as a fruit, I'd say it's closer to banana than anything else. No water was necessary to detect the scent.

Deb- I wasn't impressed with this lab. Our sample (7) smelled nothing like the apple, pineapple combo it was supposed to (in or out of the water). We got an aroma more like smelly feet. Even in regular Chemistry we don't hit on esters with any kind of vigor. Unless it was an AP course and even then, those have limited organic chem material. I don't think I'd take the time.

Ken- The odor really did not change from the vomit smell of butyric acid. Not very successful results, and bad smells.

Carrie - I enjoyed the simplicity of this lab, however, the lab did not provide the results we were looking for. Only a small percentage of the groups actually produced sweet smelling esters. The other groups had very foul smelling solutions.

Christine- I enjoyed this lab. Although we didn't get very pleasant results (ours smelled like airplane glue), I think our group achieved the objectives the lab set out with. I think that this would be a little challenging with younger chemistry kids, but definitely appropriate for AP or more advanced students. Maybe the kids would get a bigger kick out of it if you could use just the esters that smelled pleasant

Emily- I did not enjoy this lab. The lab was supposed to create fruity smelling scents, but they smelled more like an athletic lockerroom than any fruit I have smelled. The lab itself was not very complicated to set-up or complete.

Alicia- The odor did not change to the desired smell. I dont think this is a good example of the desired results