Laboratory Practices - Organic Chemistry

There are a couple of key functional group spectra that you must memorize. A carbonyl group will cause a sharp dip at about 1700cm-1, and an alcohol group will cause a broad dip around 3400cm-1.

Single bonds undergo free rotation, and so this molecule had an internal plane of symmetry giving it only 9 signals. Total number of carbons were 16. If you cannot see the symmetry, rotate the bonds to match alkyl chains.

The best procedure to use when determining conjugation of a compound is ultraviolet spectroscopy. Conjugation is present in compounds of connected p-orbitals with delocalized electrons, this is often seen in alternating double bonds and single bonds. UV spectroscopy is used because these conjugated systems are able to absorb light in the ultraviolet and visible spectrum making them visible for observation.

The correct answer is "it has an alcohol group." Primary alcohols are usually seen as strong, broad peaks in the on the infrared spectrum.

On an IR spectrum, a strong, sharp peak ranging from about indicates the presence of a carbonyl compound_._ Of the answer choices, ether is the only one that is not a carbonyl compound.

Any time that we see a strong, broad peak on an IR spectrum ranging from , we know that an alcohol group is present in the compound that is being analyzed. Carbonyl compounds show strong, sharp peaks ranging from . Alkynes show a weak, sharp peak from .

It is most useful for determining the type of nuclei (most commonly studied nuclei are and ) present and their relative locations within a molecule. H-NMR is most commonly used because it is practically present in all organic compounds. This technique is useful for a complete determination of the structure of organic compounds.

The percent yield of a reaction is calculated by dividing the actual yield by the theoretical yield, then multiplying that number by 100%:

Treating acetone, a secondary carbonyl, with a reducing agent, such as sodium borohydride (NaBH4), will yield a secondary alcohol as the product.

When using IR spectroscopy, carbonyl (C=O) groups display characteristic peaks at approximately 1700cm-1, while alcohol groups (O-H) display characteristic peaks around 3300cm-1. The acetone would, therefore, initially have a characteristic peak at roughly 1700cm-1. After the reduction reaction is complete, the resulting 2-propanol would display a characteristic peak roughly at 3300cm-1.

Looking at the structure above, we can see that the molecule only contains three carbons bonded to protons. These carbons are labeled 1, 2 and 3.

An important concept in NMR questions is determining if two carbons on the same compound will have protons split identically, and thus indistinguishable in an NMR (i.e. will those two carbons represent two individual peaks or one large peak?). In this case, C1 and C3 are clearly distinguishable from C2, since C1 and C3 are bonded to 3 hydrogens, while C2 is only bonded to two. Because C2 is adjacent to a three proton carbon, we know that the splitting pattern will display at least one quartet. This will narrow our answer choices down to two options.

Because C1 and C3 contain the same number of protons, we need to determine if they will represent one large peak, or two separate peaks. Looking at the compound, we can see that C3 is adjacent to a two-proton carbon in C2, while C1 is not adjacent to any proton-bonded carbons; therefore, we can expect that C1 will not be split by any protons, and will display a singlet, and C3 will be split by 2 protons, and will display a triplet.

As a final result, we would expect to see one singlet, one triplet and one quartet.

In order to determine how many peaks will be associated with the hydrogens of this carbon, you need to determine how many neighboring hydrogens surround the central carbon. Both of the terminal carbons have three hydrogens, so there are six total hydrogens neighboring the central carbon.

Since the number of peaks is given by the number of neighboring hydrogens plus one, there will be seven peaks on the spectrum for the 2-carbon. This is known as a septet.

Peak splitting is not caused by equivalent hydrogens, but rather neighboring hydrogens that are not chemically equivalent. In order to determine the number of peaks, we simply add one to the number of neighboring, nonequivalent hydrogens.

Peak shifts are caused by electron withdrawing groups, which will deshield the nucleus and shift the peak to the left. Electron donating groups stabilize the position of a peak by shielding the nucleus. 3-penanol will have four peaks due to its symmetry: one peak for the terminal methyl groups, one peak for the intermediate -CH2 groups, one peak for the -CH on the third carbon, and one peak for the hydroxy hydrogen.

It is important to memorize a couple key functional groups, and where they are located on an IR spectrum. If you see a sharp peak near 1700cm-1, you can assume it is made by a carbonyl group.

Similarly, a wide peak around 3000cm-1 will be made by a hydroxyl group.

2,4-hexadiyne has only one 1H-NMR signal, as the two terminal methyl groups are identical and will have the same chemical shift.

1,2,4,5-tetramethylbenzene has two singlets: one for the four methyl groups and one for the two aromatic protons. Likewise, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene will have two singlets: one for the three methyl groups (nine hydrogens total) and one for the three aromatic protons, which are all identical.

Methyl _tert-_butyl ether also has two singlets, one corresponding to the tert-butyl methyl protons, and one corresponding to the methoxy protons.

Finally, 1,4-dimethylbenzene has two singlets, one for the methyl groups, and one for the four aromatic protons, which are all identical.

Mass spectrometry is used to identify the chemical composition of samples and, therefore, is the best choice to look at the differences between natural and synthetic testosterone.

3-pentanone contains ten hydrogens in total; however, 3-pentanone is a symmetric compound. The four hydrogens on the carbons next to the ketone have the same spin, and the six hydrogens on the methyl carbons have the same spin. The correct answer is two hydrogen peaks.

The molecule shown is completely symmetrical. This means that the hydrogens adjacent to the two carbons on the left of the ketone and the hydrogens adjacent to the carbons on the right of the ketone will have identical splitting patterns.

Let's focus on the right side. The farthest carbon has three hydrogens that will be split by two adjacent hydrogens. The carbon between the terminal methyl and the ketone has two hydrogens, split by three. On each side we will have two 3-hydrogen triplets and two 2-hydrogen quartets, totaling two unique and distinctive peaks composed of six and four hydrogens, respectively.

As an aside, in NMR readings, if the number of protons of each peak has a common denominator, it can likely be simplified. For example, a reading of this NMR might be reduced from a 6-H peak and 4-H peak, to a 3-H and 2-H peak, respectively. Do not get confused if the number of hydrogens in the reading does not match up to the number of hydrogens in the molecule; it just means it was most likely simplified.

An alcohol (-ROH) exhibits a strong, broad absorbance peak at about 3500cm-1. A nitrile's (-RCN) characteristic absorbance peak is at about 2200cm-1. Carbonyl groups have strong, sharp peaks from 1700cm-1 to 1750cm-1, depending on the type of carbonyl group. For instance, an ester (-RCO2R'-) has an absorbance at about 1750cm-1, while a ketone (-ROR'-) has an absorbance at around 1710cm-1.

When dealing with peaks in NMR spectroscopy, remember that withdrawing groups on a molecule will push the proton signal farther to the left, or more downfield. Aldehydes have a distinctive peak at 9.5 ppm due to the effect of the oxygen atom in close proximity to the hydrogen.

The number of splits that a peak will experience is dependent on the number of neighboring hydrogens that are not chemically equal to the hydrogen in question. In 2-bromopropane, the hydrogen on the middle carbon is attached to two methyl groups, meaning that there are six neighboring hydrogens. This results in a peak that is split into seven peaks.

Methane only has one peak, and does not split. 1-bromopropane has a peak that is split into six peaks, and ethylacetate has a peak that is split into four peaks.