BCB III: Organic Chemistry

Abstract

Organic synthesis; purification of organic substances by recrystallization, distillation, column chromatography, and extraction; characterization of organic substances using IR-spectroscopy, thin-layer chromatography, and melting point analysis; writing scientifically accurate reports.

Objective

The students are able to independently prepare, purify and characterize organic compounds, carefully document their experiments, and write scientifically accurate reports. They can describe and explain the underlying reaction mechanisms and connect them with their knowledge from lectures in organic chemistry. Students are able to navigate a synthesis laboratory and are familiar with the relevant safety aspects.

Content

Part I: Basic operations: Learning the most important fundamental operations for the purification, separation, isolation, and analysis of organic compounds: fractional distillation; extractive separation techniques; chromatography; crystallization; IR (possibly UV, ^1H NMR) spectroscopic methods for structure determination; thin-layer chromatography; melting point analysis. Part II: Organic chemical reactions: Preparation of organic compounds. Initially single-step, later multistep syntheses. The preparations include a broad range of classical and modern reaction types.

Resources