One idea was to use the aldehyde (or ketone) hexagon and select another hexagon at random. The work out a method to tell the two organic compounds apart.
Monday, 23 February 2015
Carbonyl Compounds
We are now directing our own learning. We have two lessons to find out as much as we can about aldehydes and ketones:
Thursday, 19 February 2015
Optical Isomerism
The challenge was to make an isomer of butanol which had two possible structures, yet both had the same structural formula:
These are called enantiomers or optical isomers. They are very interesting compounds and important in nature. However, the only physical property that can be used to tell them apart is their ability to rotate plane-polarised light - one isomer rotates it clockwise, while the other rotates it anti-clockwise.
These are called enantiomers or optical isomers. They are very interesting compounds and important in nature. However, the only physical property that can be used to tell them apart is their ability to rotate plane-polarised light - one isomer rotates it clockwise, while the other rotates it anti-clockwise.
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Reflux or Distillation?
1-propanol can be oxidised to either propanal (an aldehyde) or propanoic acid, using the same reagents and equipment. The challenge today was to make both propanal and propanoic acid in two experiments, using the same chemicals and equipment. We need to confirm the production of propanal using Benedict's Solution.
Friday, 13 February 2015
Alcohols - Isomerism and Classification
Our introduction to alcohols revisited a couple of key concepts from last year:
- Make, draw, name and classify all of the structural isomers of C5H12O which contain the alcohol functional group.
- Devise a procedure to distinguish between the three classes of non-cyclic alcohols
Monday, 9 February 2015
Friday, 6 February 2015
Alkenes - isomerism and nomenclature
If a compound has a C=C bond, it contains the alkene functional group. Alkenes have a few different properties and reactions to alkanes because of the double bond (which is unable to rotate). Because atoms/groups can be added to the carbons in the double bond without first having to remove other atoms/groups, we call alkenes unsaturated hydrocarbons.
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Alkanes - isomerism and nomenclature
Alkanes are the most simple of organic compounds. They are saturated hydrocarbons. They exhibit structural isomerism, and cyclic alkanes may have geometric isomers as well.
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Organic Chemistry Hexagons
Each student received 12 hexagons - one for each major functional group that we will learn about. Here is what we need to do with them over the next few weeks:
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