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Al Chou

What is the product of the reaction between alcohol and acetyl chloride in presence of pyridine?

Carl Watson  Follow

I found that the reaction you describe is a special form of the Schotten-Baumann reaction.

The special form of the reaction is called Einhorn-Acylierung ("Unicorn acylation" in English). It is named after the chemist Albert Einhorn (Einhrorn means "unicorn" in German and hence the reaction name).

The reaction mechanism is as follows:

First, the pyridine forms an acetyl pyridinium salt. The alcohol can then perform a nucloephilic attack. The pyridine gets removed and can remove one hydrogen to reach the final product.

Einhorn Acylation CC BY-SA 4.0

Image source: From the German Wikipedia article

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