20439 Laboratory: Organic Chemistry 1
Credits: 2 intermediate credits in Chemistry
Prerequisites: One of the following: Organic Chemistry or Organic Chemistry for Biology Students
Authors: Dorota Czarkie, Chava Gal, Itzhak Dotan
This laboratory course is based on subjects studied in Organic Chemistry (20456) or Organic Chemistry for Biology Students (20282), and some additional topics. Students acquire work skills unique to an organic chemistry laboratory, perform experiments independently, analyze the findings, and become acquainted with various methods used to identify structures.
The course includes six 5-hour laboratory sessions conducted at the Open University laboratory.
Topics: Chlorination – synthesis and familiarity with SN1 and SN2 nucleophilic substitution reaction mechanisms using various techniques. Following reaction progress and using IR and GC to identify and characterize products; Elimination – synthesis and familiarity with E1 and E2 elimination reaction methods. The study of dehydration reactions as an example of elimination reactions, using distillation techniques; Esterification – study of the esterification reaction mechanism; Friedel-Crafts acylation – synthesis and acquaintance with the mechanism of electrophilic aromatic substitution using various techniques and IR and GC to identify and characterize products; Grignard reaction – in this session, students learn to prepare an organometallic compound under inert conditions, work-up procedures that include evaporation, and use the re-crystallization technique to obtain a pure product; Compressibility, oxidation and rearrangement – organic synthesis that involves several consecutive stages and combines various techniques.
1There is some overlap in the content of this and other courses. For details, see Overlapping Courses.