With the help of Daniel Dennis, we successful in obtaining the data needed to compare the two processes to produce diphenylacetyene. The mechanism shows the elimination reaction that was applied to obtain the final product. As mentioned before, the hydroxyl group in KOH acted as a strong base and a strong nucleophile to deprotonate the meso-stilbene dibromide. This is done quickly do to the fact that it the proton antiperiplanar to the leaving group which is the bromide. The bond between the proton and the carbon shifted between the two carbons to form a double bond. Bromine became the leaving group so that the alkene could be formed which is known as (E)-1-Bromo-1,2-diphenylethylene. Another elimination reaction occurred with the product still being in the KOH. This reaction is done …show more content…
The melting point that was obtained and the literature value had a difference of 2 degrees, this explains that it has a melting point depression. The color of it was light brown, which showed signs that it has impurities. Even after recrystallization, the purified product still did not experience a melting point width, but still suffered from a melting point depression. Even its color was still the same after the cleansing process. The only positive outcome out of the reaction was that it had a percent recovery of 65.8%, which was higher than the 20% recovery from reaction A. An excel sheet was emailed to students to compare results and calculate the average weights, melting points, percent yields, and percent recovery. The ones that posted their results on the excel sheet seem to have obtained similar outcomes. One thing that is significantly different is that other groups obtained a higher percent recovery for reaction A. The experiment might be improved by using meso-stilbene dibromide that was pure and not use the meso-stilbene dibromide that had impurities and was created by other