Esterification Of Carboxylic Acids For Analysis Via Gas Chromatography Using Swellable Organically Modified Silica As A Nano-Reactor

Gas chromatography is a popular method for the identification and quantification of organic mixtures. Currently, there are no simple methods for the quantitative analysis of carboxylic acids via gas chromatography. This research proposes an efficient universal method for the derivatization of carboxylic acids to methyl esters in the presence of an acid catalyst by using swellable organically modified silica (SOMS) as a nano-reactor. SOMS forces the esterification reaction toward completion in two ways: 1) by forcing reagents to interact and 2) by removing the water byproduct from the reaction vessel to invoke Le Chatelier's principle. This work has shown that esterification reactions of simple carboxylic acids in SOMS produce quantitative yields, efficiently, without excessive heat or expensive catalysts, making it an ideal choice for the chromatographic analysis of carboxylic acids. The esterification of a representative library of simple carboxylic acids using SOMS, along with spectral data collected from proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and a proof of concept experiment using gas chromatography were utilized to validate the hypothesis set forth in this project. Through this endeavor, an experimental procedure was established that will set the groundwork for the eventual optimization and application of this esterification method to more complex molecules.