ok heres a lil story of fiction:
approx 8 grams of phenylalanine was mixed with iso alcohol in excess.
to this was added some water to dissolve the amino acid as it wasnt soluble in plain iso.
acid catalyst was added in the form of 10% HCl solution.
this was refluxed for approx 3-4 hrs.swim didnt notice any change in the mix ie. colour or any typical ester smell.
swim decided the ester didnt form and assumed the amino acid was in its salt form(carboxylic acid with amino group).
next swim added enough acid to free the carboxylic acid and a lil bit more to act as catalyst although swim fears too much acid was added.
this was left for a week in a sealed flask then refluxed for a couple of hrs.
the mix was then basified with bicarb of soda and a non polar added.
mix now sits in a sep funnel trying to seperate free base ester from phenylalalnine water iso and acid.
in case this was confusin ,here:
iso/amino acid(HCl salt)/HCl/water/---reflux--->amino acid/water/amino ester/HCl/iso/----base---->freebase ester/random chems/non polar ---time in sep funnel---->
swim is going to let this sit for a good 12 hrs before evaporating to see if they get the ester.swim knows distilling would be better but alas has no still head yet.
so does anyone think swim has much hope of recovering the ester?
