Organic Chemistry Stoichiometry

Question

Hi guys. I'm working on an Organic Chemistry lab problem and I'm having some trouble with a conversion question. It's a bit long but I would appreciate any help that anyone could give. Thanks.

We are on the subject of Esterfication. The lab assignment was to use 1-octanol (130.23 g/mol) and acetic acid to produce octyl acetate (172.27g/mol).

In the lab manual they start off with 4.37grams (5.4 mL) of isopentyl alcohol (88.15 g/mol).

Since we didn't have this alcohol we used 1-octanol instead.

My instructor told us to use the same molar amounts as the isopentyl alcohol to come up with how many mL of 1-octanol we should use.

She gave us a hint and said that the end result should be 7.8 mL of 1-octanol, but I don't quite understand how she got that number.

Answer 1

Moles isopentyl alcohol = 4.37 / 88.15 = 0.0496

Moles 1-octanol = 0.0496

Mass 1-octanol = 0.0496 mol x 130.23 g/mol =6.46 g

To get the volume of 1-octanol needed divide 6.46 by the density of 1-octanol