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The Dehydration Of 2-Methyl-2-Butanol Was Performed Using

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The dehydration of 2-methyl-2-butanol was performed using sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid in order to synthesize alkene products 2-methyl-1-butene and 2-methyl-2-butene. After carrying out steam distillation to isolate the organic alkenes from aqueous components within the reaction mixture, the purity and characterization of the products were then assessed through various analytical methods including Gas Chromatography (GC), Infrared Radiation (IR) Spectroscopy, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Imaging. Through the characterization of the final products, it was found that little impurities remained in the final reaction solution and according to the GC, no alcohol remained in the vial after the reaction was complete. The actual yield …show more content…

The products of interest within this experiment are 2-methyl-1-butene and 2-methyl-2-butene from sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid catalyzed dehydration of 2-methyl-2-butanol. The reaction mixture was then separated into its separate alkene components by steam distillation and then analyzed by gas chromatography (GC), Infrared Radiation (IR) spectroscopy, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging. Gas chromatography is an analytical technique that is able to characterize if specific compounds exist in a reaction mixture, even if they are in low quantities, assess how much of a compound exists within a reaction mixture relative to other components within the sample, and determine the purity of an isolated product. In the case of this experiment, gas chromatography is used to analyze how pure the alkene reaction sample was and if any remnants of impurities or 2-methyl-2-butanol remained in the sample after isolation of alkene components. Results and Discussion Mass (g) Alcohol (Before dehydration) 2.3478 Alkene (After dehydration) 0.6675 0.6675/2.3478 x 100=28.4% Based on prior calculations, expected yield for the alkene products was 79.5%. The actual yield was not as high, resulting in a 28.4% yield. Even with this relatively small yield, the reaction still went to completion as indicated by the GC results in Figure 2. This is known because there is no presence of 2-methyl-1-butanol within the GC spectra. Only the two desired alkene products with

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