Ester as a solvent

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  • Ethyl acetate, perhaps one of the best examples that would fit in your category "often used solvents in organic chemistry" is prepared at low cost from ethanol and acetic acid (and these two are cheap, too).
  • It may dissolve a wide range of organic material. Its low solubility in water presents as an advantage when you want to extract something.
  • It has a boiling point of 77 Celsius that is elevated enough to work at moderate temperatures; yet if you want to remove it as solvent you do not spend terrible much energy to distill it off.
  • Set side-by-side with other solvents, it comes with a relative low toxicity (at the level we know today).

Of course there is not a "one [solvent] fits for all [purposes/applications]", there are chemical conditions where other solvents are more appropriate to be deployed than esters. The presence of mineralic acids, or the of organometallic reagents for example would call for a substitution.

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Martin - マーチン
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Martin - マーチン

Updated on August 01, 2022

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  • Martin - マーチン
    Martin - マーチン over 1 year

    I am curious as to why ester is used often as a solvent in organic chemistry? How is it different that just using water, which is also polar? I'm sorry if this is a basic question, I'm just a student.