A Kinetic Study of Alkali Catalysed Hydrolysis of Ethyl caproate in aquo-Ethylene Glycol (Aquo-EG) media

The kinetics of alkali catalysed hydrolysis of ethyl caproate has been carried out in aquo-EG media having 20 to 80% (v/v) of ethylene glycol (EG) by volume at temperatures ranging from to . The data of specific rate constants have been tabulated in Table-1. The survey of the Table–1 apparently shows that the rate decreases regularly with gradual addition of the organic solvent (EG) in the reaction media at all the temperatures at which the kinetics has been studied. In order to study the variation in values with change in mol% of the organic co-solvent (EG), the logarithm of k values were noted and have been tabulated in Table-2. The plots of against molar composition of EG have been shown in Fig.-1 which shows that the rates of the reaction go on decreasing having different slopes after adding about 28.50 mol% of EG in the reaction media. Decreasing trend having different slopes is observed at different temperatures from 20 to . Such decrease in rate constant with increasing proportion of the organic co-solvent like EG is not new in the kinetics of solvent effect. A number of workers like Laidler-Landskroener1 and earlier Singh2 have also been able to view similar observations about depletion in rate with increase in concentration of the organic co-solvent in the reaction media. From Fig.-1 it is apparent that with increasing temperature of the reaction, the rate of depletion in the value of specific rate constant goes on increasing (as the slope of the straight line increases).