last updated Thursday, October 23, 2003

Problems Set (Meeting 10, October 28/29, 2003)

General Announcement

There is no such policy in this lab course which discourages students from asking questions. The reason why you are here is to learn and this should also result in questions from the the student's side, which are welcome by the teaching assistant and the instructor. However, it is expected that the student comes prepared to the lab section in order to be able to complete the experiment in a timely fashion. A lot of the questions in regard of the experiment (theory and practical issues) can be answered during lecture and office hour. The question should demonstrate the student's ability to analyze the problem. S/he should be as specific as possible in the question as well.

There will be a quiz on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Experiment

1. Referring to the conversion of (3) to (4), answer the following questions.

a. Why is sodium acetate used in the reaction?

b. Why is only the amide formed an not the SN2-substitution product?

c. Why is the acid chloride used in this reaction and not the acid?

d. Why are anhydrous conditions used in this step? Show pertinent equations.

e. What the pertinent peaks in the IR spectrum for the product?

f. Why is it important that the product is dry for the next step?