Acid hydrolysis of an ester yields which products?

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Multiple Choice

Acid hydrolysis of an ester yields which products?

Acidic hydrolysis of an ester breaks the C–O bond of the ester in the presence of acid, yielding a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. In the mechanism, water acts as the nucleophile after being protonated, adds to the carbonyl carbon, and a tetrahedral intermediate forms. Proton transfers then collapse this intermediate to release the alcohol, leaving the acyl part as a carboxylic acid after deprotonation. This is the standard outcome for ester hydrolysis under acidic conditions. So you get carboxylic acid and alcohol as the products. The other possibilities don’t fit because acid hydrolysis specifically splits off the alkoxy group as an alcohol while converting the acyl side into a carboxylic acid; aldehyde or ketone aren’t formed from this cleavage, and water is consumed rather than produced in the final products.

Acidic hydrolysis of an ester breaks the C–O bond of the ester in the presence of acid, yielding a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. In the mechanism, water acts as the nucleophile after being protonated, adds to the carbonyl carbon, and a tetrahedral intermediate forms. Proton transfers then collapse this intermediate to release the alcohol, leaving the acyl part as a carboxylic acid after deprotonation. This is the standard outcome for ester hydrolysis under acidic conditions.

So you get carboxylic acid and alcohol as the products. The other possibilities don’t fit because acid hydrolysis specifically splits off the alkoxy group as an alcohol while converting the acyl side into a carboxylic acid; aldehyde or ketone aren’t formed from this cleavage, and water is consumed rather than produced in the final products.

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