Problem- Ethyl butyrate, CH3CH2CH2CO2CH2CH3, is an artificial fruit flavor commonly used in the food industry for such flavors as orange and pineapple. Its fragrance and taste are often associated with fresh orange juice, and thus it is most commonly used as orange flavoring.
It can be produced by the reaction of butanoic acid with ethanol in the presence of an acid catalyst (H+):
CH3CH2CH2CO2H(l)+CH2CH3OH(l)H+?CH3CH2CH2CO2CH2CH3(l)+H2O(l)
Given 8.10g of butanoic acid and excess ethanol, how many grams of ethyl butyrate would be synthesized, assuming a complete 100% yield?
A chemist ran the reaction and obtained 5.45g of ethyl butyrate. What was the percent yield?
I just need a general explanation of it please- Thanks