Ester pyrolysis in organic chemistry is a vacuum pyrolysis reaction converting esters containing a ò-hydrogen atom into the corresponding carboxylic acid and the alkene. The reaction is an E<sub>i</sub> elimination and operates in a syn fashion.
Examples include the synthesis of acrylic acid from ethyl acrylate at 590 ðC, the synthesis of 1,4-pentadiene from 1,5-pentanediol diacetate at 575 ðC or the construction of a cyclobutene framework at 700 ðC