Scent Transmutation: A New Way To Teach on Chemical Equilibrium, Distillation, and Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry

Esters are volatile and pleasantly
smelling compounds, commonly
used as food additives. Using Ti­(OBu)4-catalyzed acyl exchange,
we demonstrate a scent transmutation experiment, in which two fragrant
esters swap their acyl and alkoxy substituents and are, during the
course of a reactive distillation, quantitatively converted into two
different esters with distinct fragrance properties. We view this
simple and appealing experiment as highly suitable for instructional
use, since it can be used to teach the concepts of chemical equilibrium,
distillation, transesterification, dynamic combinatorial chemistry,
and the industrially relevant process of reactive distillation.