Synthesis of Amyl Butyrate Catalyzed by Sodium Hydrogen Sulfate

By using sodium hydrogen sulfate as the catalyst, butyric acid and amyl alcohol reacted to form amyl butyrate. The optimum conditions using 0.1 mol of butyric acid are as following: molar ratio of amyl alcohol to butyric acid is 1.2, mass of catalyst is 0.2 g, toluene is 5 ml and reaction time is 30 min. The esterification yield for butyric acid is about 99.3 % . Without toluene, the esterification rate of synthetic food additives amyl butyrate is about 99.7 % .