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Topic: Identification of an unknown compound  (Read 9540 times)

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beckymarie

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Identification of an unknown compound
« on: November 28, 2004, 09:59:21 AM »
Hey, any help people can offer with this will be really appreciated!
I'm trying to plan a sequence of experiments to identify a compound which is either...
an alkene
a primary alcohol
a tertiary alcohol
an aldehyde
a ketone
a carboxylic acid
an ester
phenol

I've already worked out experiments to test for each, but i'm concerned about which order to do each experiment in, because of the potential risks of adding chemicals to an unknown substance!
The tests i'm doing are the bromine water test for alkenes, iron (III) chloride test for phenol, 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine to test for aldehydes/ketones, acidified potassium dichromate to test for aldehydes, phosphorus (v) chloride test for OH group, calcium carbonate to test for carboxylic acid, and hydrolysis under reflux to see if it is an ester.
Does anybody know any risks that would determine the order these experiments have to be done in?
For example, if one of these tests is unsafe to perform on a carboxylic acid, i would have to do the carboxylic acid test first to ensure it is not a carboxylic acid before i do that test etc. I'm really stuck on this!
Thanks for any *delete me*
Rebecca

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Re:Identification of an unknown compound
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2004, 01:57:49 AM »
Divide sample into parts, and do test separately
AWK

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