Determining the identity of an organic unknown

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Assessed practical Debbie Siobhan Warner November 2002

Determining the identity of an organic unknown

When supplied with a organic unknown there are many ways of determining its identity and it is important to use as much information as can be gained to work out the identity of an unknown as many are very similar in physical properties, chemical properties and/or chemical make up.

In this experiment I will be using a flow chart to identify the functional group that the unknowns contain, and once I have suggested this I will then use spectra given to me to determine what the identity of the organic unknown is.

I have been told that the organic unknown, will one of the following functional groups:

Alcohol's

Probably the most common of these functional groups is the "-OH" group, which is known as the hydroxyl group. It is NOT the hydroxide ion, OH1-, as it does not have a charge. The dash in front of the OH stands for a single covalent bond, which is what will be formed between the oxygen and a carbon atom. An aliphatic hydrocarbon that has one hydroxyl group attached to a carbon