You are watching: What chemical process is responsible for the smell of vinegar in an old bottle of aspirin?
The odor of vinegar is brought about by the visibility of acetic acid, a carboxylic acid, in the vinegar. The odor of ripe bananas and also many various other fruits is as result of the visibility of esters, compounds that have the right to be ready by the reaction the a carboxylic acid with an alcohol. Because esters perform not have actually hydrogen bonds between molecules, they have actually lower vapor pressures 보다 the alcohols and carboxylic mountain from i beg your pardon they room derived.
Both carboxylic acids and esters contain a carbonyl team with a 2nd oxygen atom bonded to the carbon atom in the carbonyl group by a single bond. In a carboxylic acid, the 2nd oxygen atom also bonds come a hydrogen atom. In an ester, the second oxygen atom bonds to one more carbon atom. The names for carboxylic acids and esters encompass prefixes that signify the lengths of the carbon chains in the molecules and are acquired following nomenclature rules comparable to those for inorganic acids and also salts (see this examples):

The \(\ceR\) team can either be a hydrogen or a carbon chain. The \(\ceR"\) group must it is in a carbon chain since a hydrogen atom would certainly make the molecule a carboxylic acid.
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Esters are created by the reaction the acids with alcohols. Because that example, the ester ethyl acetate, CH3CO2CH2CH3, is created when acetic mountain reacts with ethanol:
