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Multistep Synthesis Lab Report

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Multistep Synthesis Of Benzilic Acid From Benzaldehyde Jesus Pena L20326354 Lamar University CHEM 3112-Spring 2017 April 26th, 2017 Abstract: Benzilic acid is used in many aspects of industry. These types of industry are the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. This process of taking benzaldehyde and using a multistep synthesis procedure makes making benzilic acid fairly cheap. This is mainly due to the fact that benzaldehyde is a cheap starting material and is very resourceful. The overall objective of the experiment was to obtain benzilic acid with the use of the multistep synthesis procedure which consist of a benzoin condensation, oxidation of benzoin, and a final molecular rearrangement of benzil. This is a fairly long experiment …show more content…

Next having already measured out 30ml of 95% ethanol and 5ml of 3M aqueous NaOH, added the 30ml of 95% ethanol and proceeded to put into ice bath. Added the 3M aqueous NaOH slowly as to not exceed a temperature of 20°C. Proceeding with the reaction a total of 15.10ml of benzaldehyde was added and allowed to reflux over the course of an hour. Once reflux was done mixture was allowed to crystallize and the product, benzoin, was collected with vacuum filtration and washed with cold water along with two 10ml portions of cold methanol. The second step required taking the weight of benzoin and halving it in order to know the amount of ammonium nitrate to obtain. So, 3.142 g of ammonium nitrate and 35ml of acetic acid were added into a round bottom flask and ammonium nitrate was allowed to dissolve. 0.165 g of copper (II) acetate and the benzoin were added to the round bottom flask. This was then added to the reflux apparatus and allowed to reflux for about an hour. After reflux mixture was added to 100ml of crushed ice and cooled afterward was vacuum filtrated and washed with water and 50% ethanol. Benzil was now the product

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