last updated Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Meeting #13

General Announcements

1. The next quiz will be administered on Tuesday February 22, 2005 at 12 pm. It will cover mainly the esterification and nitration part of teh project.

2. Please look start lookin for a partner for the last project. Your partner should be in a different time slot than yourself e.g. if you are in section 1A, your partner should be in section 1C, 1D and not from 1A or 1B!

Questions:

1. Referring to the esterification part of the project

a. in which way does the presence of water in the system influence the final yield of the ester?

b. what would change if the student forgets to add the sulfuric acid to the reaction mixture?

c. why is it necessary to add water after the reaction mixture cooled to room temperature?

d. why is sodium bicarbonate used in the work-up process? Show pertinent equations.

2. Referring to the nitration experiment, answer the following questions:

a. How is the nitronium ion generated in the laboratory?

b. What is the function of the sulfuric acid in this experiment?

c. Why do you have to control the temperature very careful in this reaction?

d. How is the crude product purified?