Reviews three experiments which can be used to introduce microscale techniques. Highlights the benefits and advantages of having undergraduate students prepare and purify derivatives on the small scale. (ML)

Describes a comprehensive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiment designed to introduce undergraduate organic chemistry students to measurement/interpretation of NMR parameters. Students investigate chemical shift analysis, spin-spin coupling, peak integrations, effect of deuterium oxide extraction, and comparisons with literature spectra;…

Describes a project involving the integration of inorganic and organic chemistry by a study of copper determination involving an organic complex. (TS)

Background information, procedures, and results are provided for a series of graduate/undergraduate polymer experiments. These include synthesis of poly(methylmethacrylate), viscosity experiment (indicating large effect even small amounts of a polymer may have on solution properties), and measurement of weight-average molecular weight by light…

Provides background information, procedures, and results of an experiments designed to introduce undergraduates to the technique of steam distillation as a means of isolating thermally sensitive compounds. Chromatographic techniques (HPLC) and mass spectrometric analysis are used in the experiment which requires three laboratory periods. (JN)

Focuses on molecular weight and molecular weight distributions (MWD) and models for predicting MWD in a pedagogical way. In addition, instrumental methods used to characterize MWD are reviewed with emphasis on physical chemistry of each, including end-group determination, osmometry, light scattering, solution viscosity, fractionation, and…

Presents computer assisted instruction (CAI) applications involving prelab simulations of organic chemistry experiments in advance of performing the actual experiments. Tables present the PLATO lessons used in the laboratory; and a comparison of average times for students to complete laboratories with and without the PLATO system. (CS)

The synthesis of 1,4-diphenylbutadiene by means of the Wittig reaction is presented as suitable for organic chemistry students at the end of a basic laboratory program to apply laboratory skills and display understanding of the use of phase transfer catalysis and its application in syntheses. (CS)

This experiment is designed to acquaint the student with a macromolecular synthesis of a crown ether type compound. The starting materials are readily available and the product, a cyclic polyether, belongs to a class of compounds that has aroused the interest of chemist and biologist alike. (Author/BB)

In this experiment, benzylic hydrogen reactivity is used to prepare dimers of a variety of alkyl benzenes, and the benzylic hydrogen reactivity of these compounds are compared. (BB)

This simple two-phase procedure for the oxidation of secondary alcohols to ketones is applicable to a wide variety of substrates and is also ideally suited for the undergraduate laboratory. (BB)

Describes a titration procedure done in glacial acetic acid. (BB)