Elementary analysis of carboxylic acids

Exercise 4

    

$0.2\;mol$ of an alcohol is esterified with $0.2\;moles$ of ethanoic acid $A$ . After reaching equilibrium, the remaining acid is isolated and titrated by $40.0\;mL$ of $2.0\;M\;NaOH$ to the equivalence point. It is asked 1) the percentage of esterified compound $A$. 2) the class of the ester which is formed knowing that the esterification limit for an equimolar mixture of acetic acid - alcohol is about $67\%$ if the alcohol is primary, $60\%$ if the alcohol is secondary and $5\%$ if alcohol is tertiary.

1) Titration: At the equivalence point: $n_{acid}$ $=$ $n_{NaOH}$ $=$ $2\cdot 0.040$ $=$ $0.080$ $n_{consumed\;A }$ $=$ $n_{consumed\;acid }$ $=$ $0.2-0.08$ $=$ $0.12$ Percentage of esterified A : $\frac{0.12\cdot 100}{0.2}$ $=$ $60\%$ A is a secondary alcohol