[beheada]

So, I've made several attempts at identifying this with the information I have, but have yet to come to a satisfactory conclusion. Information:

Yellow crystalline solid.
Nonpolar compound (dissolves easily in ether, chloroform, insoluble in water)
Melting point determined at 89-91 C (after purification)
And the IR spectrum of the compound has peaks at medium strength between 3400-2800 and in the fingerprint STRONG peaks from 1700-1100 up and down.


I've narrowed my choices down to acenaphtene and phenoxyacetic acid. Phenoxyacetic acid looks too polar and its MSDS says its "off-white"?

Acenaphthene's IR spectrum looks different than mine (slightly) but it is nonpolar, MSDS says it's a yellow crystalline and the MP range is a tad bit higher than mine at 95.

Which way to go?

[zeshkani]

Take an NMR in CDCl3, and also did you run any test on the unknown to prove certain things ??
if you think its Acenaphthene, did the IR show anything in the 1600 regin, because there should be a pretty sharp  peak, and also maybe run a Mass Spec and compare that to the peak data of Acenaphthene
maybe post the NMR or IR here

[organic help]

Here's a test you might want to try:

http://www.wellesley.edu/Chemistry/chem211lab/Orgo_Lab_Manual/Appendix/ClassificationTests/carboxylic.html

it is a test-tube test and will show up positive for the Phenoxyacetic acid, but neg for the Acenaphthene.  Test is based on reaction of the carboxylic acid with a base, which will definitely not happen with the Acenaphthene.

Hope this helps. 

[Yggdrasil]

You should be able to tell the difference between the two by IR.  Do you see a C=O stretch in the IR?  Also, do the medium peaks ~3400-3200 resemble an O-H stretch?

[Yarr]

For phenoxyacetic acid the following bands should appear in the IR spectrum: strong and broad band centered at 3000 cm-1, two medium peaks at about 2550 and 2650 cm-1, a strong peak at about 1705 cm-1, a strong peak near 1220 cm-1, a strong band near 750 cm-1, and a medium-strong band near 690 cm-1.