[nemzy]

Why is it necessary to use a large excess of acetic adic in the prepartion of isopentyl acetate?

[AWK]

Esterification is an equlibrium reaction. For 1:1 molar ratio of starting reagents you can obtain aprox. 66 % yield of ester. According to law of mass action we can move equlibrium to the right side using excess of one starting reagent(in this case acetic acid since we have to convert to ester as much amount as possible of isopentyl alcohol