Why ester smell

Many carboxylic acids occur naturally in plants and animals. Ethanoic and citric acids are frequently added to foods to give them a tart flavor.

Benzoic, propanoic, and sorbic acids are used as food preservatives because of their ability to kill microorganisms that can lead to spoilage.

Methanoic and ethanoic acids are widely used in industry as starting points for the manufacture of paints, adhesives, and coatings. An ester is an organic compound that is a derivative of a carboxylic acid in which the hydrogen atom of the hydroxyl group has been replaced with an alkyl group. The general formula for an ester is shown below. Esters are produced by the reaction of acids with alcohols. Esters are very interesting compounds, in part because many have very pleasant odors and flavors.

Remember, never taste anything in the chemistry lab! Many esters occur naturally and contribute to the odor of flowers and the taste of fruits. Other esters are synthesized industrially and are added to food products to improve their smell or taste; it is likely that if you eat a product whose ingredients include artificial flavorings, those flavorings are esters.

Here are some esters and their uses, thanks to their odors, flavors, or both:. Palmitic and stearic acids are saturated acids that contain no double or triple bonds. Fats and vegetable oils are esters of long-chain fatty acids and glycerol. Esters of phosphoric acid are of the utmost importance to life. Esters are common solvents. Ethyl acetate is used to extract organic solutes from aqueous solutions—for example, to remove caffeine from coffee. It also is used to remove nail polish and paint.

Pingback: Kitchen chemistry: esters Scientific Gems. Any ideas or suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks again for the chart.

I had an aunt Ester who smelled nothing like any of these. Dear, I want to know, which type of ester is common for every perfume. Chances are, the smell of pineapples is caused by an ester or a ketone in the paint!

Love this graphic — may I use it for my own teaching? Please do! Thank you Like Like. Thanks Like Like. We make quite a few esters such as methyl oleate, sorbitan esters and 2 ethyl hexyl esters Like Like. Great overview — congrats! May I use this diagram for a talk about chemistry and whisky?

Yes — please do! Pingback: Schellak Drabkikker. Pingback: Bananas — Tyler Sudholz. Thanks for the chart Like Like. PS this is awesome! Talk to me Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following. James Kennedy Join 4, other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Esters don't exhibit intermolecular hydrogen bonding, unlike alcohols, for example.

These are no strongly positively polarized hydrogens in esters to participate in hydrogen bonding. Consider for example ethyl butyrate, which smells like pineapples. Most of the molecule resembles a plain aliphatic hydrocarbon! And we know these only exhibit weak van der Waals intermolecular forces. No wonder esters smell good and bad - they're volatile and reach our noses easily! Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why do esters actually smell? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 10 months ago. Active 5 years ago. Viewed 41k times. Improve this question. Jan Rohinb97 Rohinb97 3 3 gold badges 8 8 silver badges 20 20 bronze badges.

Smell came first as a simple way of characterising chemicals. When structures of the chemicals started to be understood the term became associated with a particular subset of compounds like benzene and used to describe their electronic configurations. There are a lot more compounds with interesting smells than compounds with aromaticity in their electronic configuration. I've asked for its "aromatic" character there. It's not to be confused with aromaticity, of course.

It has nothing to do with electronic aromaticity as you seemed to assume in the question. Like I said in the previous comment I meant "aromatic" in the smelly way. Add a comment.