Positive:
+ There were some real student success stories that would not have happened in the usual laboratory sequence. I felt like all of the student groups really made and effort to put together a quality lab.
+ Whether or not students completely understood the experiments they were developing, they did have an opportunity to think [...]
Crystallization:
This week we harvested crystals from those reactions that gave a precipitate and attempted to obtain a solid from those reactions that had not spontaneously formed a precipitate. The two reaction mixtures with 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid tended to form precipitates the most readily, but not all of them did. The two reaction mixtures with 2,4,6-trihydroxybenzoic acid [...]
For OChemOnline it is essential to increase the intersection between 1) People with internet skills able to perform simple internet tasks, 2) Organic Chemistry laboratory instructors and students, and 3) Individuals motivated to contribute to and benefit from an online community. Skills are important, but they do not seem to be the major obstacle. Everything [...]
The Ugi reactions are up and running.
The combinations we are investigating are:
students
Aldehyde
Amine
Carboxylic acid
isocyanide
8
3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde
methyl
amine
3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid ●monohydrate
p-toluenesulfonyl
methyl isocyanide
5
3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde
methyl
amine
2,4,6-trihydroxybenzoic acid ●monohydrate
p-toluenesulfonyl
methyl isocyanide
5
3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde
methyl
amine
3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid ●monohydrate
p-toluenesulfonyl
methyl isocyanide
5
3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde
methyl
amine
2,4,6-trihydroxybenzoic acid ●monohydrate
p-toluenesulfonyl
methyl isocyanide
The combinations with the gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid) precipitated very quickly. I was a little alarmed about that so I instructed the Wednesday group to weigh out all their compounds first [...]
This week a number of electronic Social Networking chemists are traveling to New Orleans for the Spring 2008 American Chemical Society National Meeting. It seems ironic that eSocial Networkers perceive a need to promote their projects in a face-to-face Social Networking situation. I other words, no matter how prolific and how proficient you are at [...]
Source(s): This lab was developed from a recent JCE article: Wade P.A.; Rutkowsky S.A.; King D.B. A simple combinatorial experiment based on Fischer esterification – An experiment suitable for the first-semester organic chemistry lab. J Chemical Education 2006, 83(6), 927-928. This, of course, is a version of the ever-popular “banana-oil” lab found in a multitude [...]
Source(s): This lab was developed by a team of students from a recent JCE article: “Vanillin Synthesis from 4-Hydroxybenzaldehyde.” Douglass F. Taber, Shweta Patel, Travis M. Hambleton, and Emma E. Winkel, J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 1158. An online version of the lab was available at http://valhalla.chem.udel.edu/vanillin.pdf
Changes to published procedure
We scaled up the procedure – [...]
