[2810713]

 Hi,

Consider the following reaction-

 RCO-OH + H-OR'
 ----------> RCOOR'  + H-OH

In the above reaction an acid reacts with a base to form salt[ ester] and water, thus it appears to be a nutralization reaction.
But here, the OH- of water is given by acid[!] and the H+ by the base !!! Now, can we call this a nutralization reaction ?
 One of my friends says that as there is no specification about the donor of H+  & OH- in the definition of a nutralization reaction , we should call this as a nutralization reaction!
But, in my opinion , the mechanism of this reaction is also important! As the mechanism of esterification deffers from
that of nutralization reactions, their characteristics differ and thus we can't classify them in a single group.
 One of my friends had a notion that here, ROH acts as an acid and RCOOH as a base.But how can they suddenly change their roles? Please help...

thanx

hrushikesh

[Donaldson Tan]

neutralisation specifically refer to:
H⁺ + OH^- -> H₂O

other form of acid-base reactions are just called lewis/bronsted acid-base reactions.

you should examine the mechanism of esterification before deciding if it's actually an acid-base reaction. Please refer to http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/catalysis/esterify.html for more information.

[movies]

Also note that the typical reaction conditions for this type of esterification (called a Fisher Esterification) include at least a catalytic amount of a strong acid (e.g. sulfuric acid).  There is never an appreciable amount of OH- in solution.

[2810713]

Thanks for the responses.Thnx for the link, it was really good!
 
But, if  nutralization is simply the formation of HOH then should we call this as nutralization or redefine nutralization?
Hmmm...

hrushikesh