[winkler92]

I am currently doing an experiment with different isomers of butanol and propanol and I need to find the rate of reaction of them. I was wondering if there were any very common and fairly easy reactions to calculate the rate of reaction. I am aware of the oxidation of alcohol but this process is too long and complicated for simply finding the rate of reaction.

Thank you

[cliverlong]

Add sodium to alcohol and measure (in gas syringe) rate volume of hydrogen production or rate of loss of mass if do not capture the hydrogen ??

[winkler92]

Thanks for this answer but unfortunately my school lab doesn't have any pure sodium or any alkaline. I've tried NaCl but as I had predicted it didn't work. Are there any other common reactions?

Thank You

[plankk]

I don't know exactly that you want to show the diffrence between the rates of reactions or you want to measure them. If the first one, think about Lucas test. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_reagent

[winkler92]

Sorry for not being specific enough. I am interested in actually measuring the Rates of Reaction and then comparing them. After that I need to relate it to a real life situation which is why it would be helpful if the reaction is one that commonly occurs. I know that this is difficult to have a common reaction for all of the different structures. If worst comes to worst I could just react it with HCl or another acid but there aren't any strong real world connections.

Thank You