| Abstract: | Esterification-hydrolysis and condensation-glycolysis are the principal equilibria entailed in a system comprised of benzoic acid, ethanediol, ethanediol monobenzoate, ethanediol dibenzoate, and water. These equilibria are characterized by three interrelated equilibrium constants that pertain to the hydrolysis of both ethanediol monobenzoate and ethanediol dibenzoate and to the condensation of ethanediol monobenzoate. The rate constants related to these reactions and to the corresponding reverse reactions were all found to be functions of the concentration of carboxy groups. Antimony triacetate, a well-known transesterification catalyst, catalyzed the condensation reaction strongly but did not affect the esterification reaction. Based on a mechanism that entailed the considered three principal equilibrium reactions, a set of both the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters was obtained by a nonlinear regression procedure. With these parameters the nonlinear rate equations were integrated numerically, using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Excellent agreement between the values thus calculated and the experimental data were obtained in all cases except when considerable concentrations of both benzoic acid and ethanediol dibenzoate were present in the system. It has been concluded that in these instances the formation of the dibenzoate is paralleled by a pyrolysis reaction that is strongly catalyzed by carboxy groups. |
