Graphic of a woodcut print showing an alchemey kuklavor apparatus from John French - The Art of Distillation, London 1651.

CHEM 12BL
Experiment Recordings

General Lab Resources

  1. Formal Report Guidelines (html) | (.pdf)
  2. Multi-Step Synthesis of Benzilic Acid (.pdf)
  3. MOPAC 7 Manual (.pdf)

Links to Watch Lab Experiment Recordings

  • Synthesis of Triphenylmethanol by Grignard Reaction, February 2, 2021

    In this video experiment we look at the synthesis of triphenylmenthanol via a Grignard reaction. Bromobenzene is first reacted with magnesium metal to make phenyl magnesium bromide. Benzophenone is then added to the Grignard reagent in situ to form the triphenylmethanol. The Grignard video experiment is being broken into four videos that span setting up the apparatus, conducting the reaction, isolating the product, and characterization of the product. The data for this lab should be taken in your laboratory notebook from the videos.

    1. Grignard Reaction Part 1: Apparatus. This video is 22 minutes in length. Watch Locally | Watch YouTube
    2. Grignard Reaction Part 2: Reaction. This video is 33 minutes in length. Watch Locally | Watch YouTube
    3. Grignard Reaction Part 3: Isolation. This video is 44 minutes in length. Watch Locally | Watch YouTube
    4. Grignard Reaction Part 4: Characterization. This video is 22 minutes in length. Watch Locally | Watch YouTube
  • Multistep Synthesis of Benzilic Acid, February 18, 2021

    The Multistep Synthesis of Benzilic Acid is actually three individual experiments. In the first stage we react benzaldehyde with thiamine hydrochloride to produce benzoin. In state two benzoin is oxidized to benzil. Stage three reacts benzil in a base catalyzed isomerization reaction to afford benzilic acid. Each of the three labs will be broken into individual video segments of reaction, isolation, and characterization. These three experiments will be combined into a single formal report on the synthesis of benzilic acid.

    Step 1 - Synthesis of benzoin from benzaldehyde

    1. Benzoin Part 1: Synthesis. This video is 16 minutes in length. Watch Locally | Watch YouTube
    2. Benzoin Part 2: Isolation. This video is 15 minutes in length. Watch Locally | Watch YouTube

    Step 2 - Oxidation of benzoin to form benzil

    Step 3 - Base catalyzed isomerization of benzil to form benzilic acid

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