Lab report grading rubrics will be identical to last semester. Click here to go directly to the lab schedule.
Your laboratory grade will be 25% of your final grade. Completion of all laboratory work is required, including submitting acceptable reports for each experiment.
Attendance at all laboratory periods is required until your lab work is complete. However, the last three syntheses of the term are operationally simple, and you may, if you can, perform more than one per week. Expectations for the laboratory portion of the course are given in the laboratory manual. All work in the lab must be completed before April 22! Failure to complete all laboratory work, including reports, will lower your final grade in addition to the zero for the incomplete work.
Reasonable excuses will be accepted for absences. Students who must miss a laboratory period must make up the work as best they can; there are open slots in both lab periods, Tuesday and Wednesday. With the exception of melting/boiling point determinations and IR/NMR spectral readings, all work must be performed in the scheduled laboratory time slots.
Printable version of this schedule
Other experiments may be substituted; sufficient notice will be given.
Week of... | Experiment | Report due... |
January 10 | Virtual Spectroscopy Use the SDBS for this Learn to use WebMO (no credit) |
February 4 |
January 17 |
Oxidation of a bifunctional alcohol (p. 149) Product analysis by IR spectroscopy WebMO: predicting IR spectra |
January 28 |
January 24 | 1H NMR analysis of keto-enol tautomerism (p. 101) (see Bruice 18.2)
WebMO: keto-enol stability |
February 4 |
January 31 | Kinetics of the Esterification of Trifluoroacetic Acid (p. 103) | Feb 11 |
February 7 |
Synthesis of an Ether Using Phase-Transfer Catalysis (p. 133)
See "Introduction to two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy" (p. 89) WebMO: stability and molecular orbitals of polyenes |
February 25 |
February 14 |
Qualitative Analysis: Identification of Unknown Organic Compounds (p. 94)
preliminary work with unknowns; taking IR spectra of solids WebMO: rotational isomers of alkanes |
March 4 (WebMO only) |
February 21 |
Qualitative Analysis: Identification of Unknown Organic Compounds (p. 94)
Finish spectroscopy of unknowns WebMO: strain in cycloalkanes |
March 14 |
February 28 | Factors affecting the reactions of alkyl halides (p. 99) | March 18 |
March 7 | No lab (spring break) | |
March 14 | Alcohol Synthesis by Hydroboration/Oxidation (p. 136) | March 25 |
March 21 |
Nitration of methyl benzoate (p. 141)
WebMO: cationic intermediates in electrophilic aromatic substitution |
April 8 |
March 28 | Identification of an unknown C7 ester (p. 96) | April 15 |
April 4 | The Aldol Condensation (p. 152) | April 21 |
April 11 | A Synthesis Using Meldrum's Acid (p. 156) | April 29 |
April 18 | Makeup week. All lab work must be finished this week. Dispose of all product samples.
WebMO: aromaticity in heterocycles will be due at the time of the final examination |
All lab work must be completed by 4 PM on Thursday, April 21 |