Organic Q

Q) State one of the advantages of reacting ethanoyl chloride with ethanol to make an ester rather than reacting ethanoic acid with ethanol.

I was thinking maybe with an acyl chloride, the chain length would increase but it seems to increase the same for both?

surely acetic acid is cheaper? Ethanoyl chloride is alot more fun to handle though, forms HCl with contact with water, like when it touches your skin and the air .

To set up the reaction with an alcohol and carboxylic for the same yield you would obtain with the ethanoyl chloride ... well that is gonna be costly.

They are basically looking for HCl as the answer. It is agas and hence easier to remove which in turn pulls the reaction to the right hand side. With the acid you get an equilibrium, i.e. it does not go to completion without further action..

Only one reaction is reversible - removing the HCl does not affect the rate as it is not a homogeneous mixture, and nor is the reaction reversible.

They are basically looking for HCl as the answer.

Not really, as you could quite easily consider production of HCl gas a bad thing.

Indeed, the advantage of using ethanoic anhydride instead of chloride is that no HCl is produced.