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Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: brycebb on December 09, 2012, 11:47:50 AM

Title: quick help validating stoichiometric calculations.
Post by: brycebb on December 09, 2012, 11:47:50 AM
Hey guys, in my organic chem class we have to do a multi-step synthesis experiment.  In it, we have to make adipic acid from cyclohexanol.  After doing research, I found that the reaction to create the adipic acid from this reagent involves using 15M nitric  acid, and after consulting with my instructor he said we could in fact do this reaction.  Now when trying to figure out how much of each reagent to use, our goal is to make 1g of adipic acid, I really couldn't draw all of the products being made because of how many mechanisms are involved in getting the final product.  My instructor told me that I shouldn't really have to worry about the stoichiometric coefficients when determining the products as they should be just 1:1.  So when doing this, I got 1.46g of cyclohexanol, or 1.51mL, is needed to get 1g of adipic acid.  But here is where I had some confusion, when trying to figure out how much acid to use, I did this.  1.46g(1/100.1602g)(1mol nitric acid/ 1mol cyclohexanol)(1L/15mol nitric acid)=0.21.... L of nitric acid required, or approximately 200mL of acid required.  This seems way off, can anybody give me some insight or help on this?
Title: Re: quick help validating stoichiometric calculations.
Post by: brycebb on December 09, 2012, 01:47:29 PM
nevermind guys, I found my error. simple arithmetic error.
Title: Re: quick help validating stoichiometric calculations.
Post by: sjb on December 09, 2012, 03:45:32 PM
Hey guys, in my organic chem class we have to do a multi-step synthesis experiment.  In it, we have to make adipic acid from cyclohexanol.  After doing research, I found that the reaction to create the adipic acid from this reagent involves using 15M nitric  acid, and after consulting with my instructor he said we could in fact do this reaction.  Now when trying to figure out how much of each reagent to use, our goal is to make 1g of adipic acid, I really couldn't draw all of the products being made because of how many mechanisms are involved in getting the final product.  My instructor told me that I shouldn't really have to worry about the stoichiometric coefficients when determining the products as they should be just 1:1.  So when doing this, I got 1.46g of cyclohexanol, or 1.51mL, is needed to get 1g of adipic acid.  But here is where I had some confusion, when trying to figure out how much acid to use, I did this.  1.46g(1/100.1602g)(1mol nitric acid/ 1mol cyclohexanol)(1L/15mol nitric acid)=0.21.... L of nitric acid required, or approximately 200mL of acid required.  This seems way off, can anybody give me some insight or help on this?

If the nitric acid is 15M, then the "(1L/15mol nitric acid)" seems the wrong way around. Just check by putting the full units for the 1/100.1602g step.