Chemical and Biochemical Engineering 2206A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Vacuum Flask, Potassium Sulfate, Sodium Hydroxide
27 Oct 2015
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An attempt at the synthesis of a secondary alcohol: The purpose of this experiment was to attempt to reduce a ketone, benzophenone, to a secondary alcohol benzhydrol, using an unknown reducing agent in ethanol solution. The reducing agent was either sodium borohydride or sodium chloride. Percent yield of the product was calculated based from the qualitative and quantitative observations. The crude product was further purified by the process of recrystallization and was determined through a melting point determination. The results were obtained and confirmed from the analysis of infrared spectroscopy by analyzing the distinctive peaks. A reduction is a process used to convert aldehydes and ketones into alcohols. The reduction process consists of creating a new set of c-h and o-h bonds in the molecule. Generally, a commonly used reducing agent is sodium borohydride (nabh4) due to its low reactivity with water in room temperature.
