Esterification reactions were recently covered in class, specifically the Fischer Esterification. This type of reaction occurs in wines after they have fermented and acetic acid is present to form ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate formation occurs when there is too much acetic acid in the wine and the esterification reaction takes place with the ethanol. The result is a smell similar to nail polish or varnish in the wine and its considered a fault in the wine. The article linked states that the reaction is catalyzed by a free hydrogen cation or a hydrogen from the acetic acid; I've used both in my drawing of the mechanism. In the Fischer Esterification example we went over in class HCl was used to protonate if you want to compare.
Here are links to the article and also a wikipedia page with more info on wine faults:
Article Wikipedia page
Ramey, Ough. "
Volatile ester hydrolysis or formation during storage of model solutions and wines" J. Agric. Food Chem, 1980.
This is my first time using ChemSketch so please let me know if there are any improvements I can make and if there are any mistakes in the mechanism.
No comments:
Post a Comment