Discussion The purpose of this experiment was to test the hypotheses that the reaction between a Grignard reagent and an aldehyde leads to the production of a secondary alcohol. In fact, this is what we observed with regards to the experiment results. The addition reaction between the Grignard reagent, phenolmagnesium bromide, and benzaldehyde leads to the formation of diphenylmethanol, a secondary alcohol, as the product. As mentioned earlier, the reaction of the alkyl halide, bomobenzene, and magnesium metal turnings leads to the production of the Grignard reagent. This was observed as there was bubbling as soon as the metal was added to the bromobenzene and ether solution. The chemical structure of this reagent has the magnesium metal imbedded between the phenol ring and the bromide ion of the alkyl halide. This results in a dipole moment along the bond between the carbon and the magnesium atom, and makes the carbon atom resemble a carbanion and act as a nucleophile. This nucleophile is then able to attack the carbonyl group of the benzaldehyde which has electrophilic properties. This was observed in the experiment from the physical changes of the Grignard reagent once the benzaldehyde was added to the flask. As mentioned in the …show more content…
This deemed the percent yield 26% which has a significant deviation from 100% and is outside of the accepted error range. This suggests of the presence of many errors with respect to the procedure and/ or the presence of side reactions as the main reaction was taking place. Moreover, the measured melting point of the crystals was 62° which is not within the theoretical melting point range of 65°-67°, typical of diphenylmethanol alcohol. This also indicated that there was some level of impurity within our obtained product. In fact, this impurity might be the result of an incomplete oxidation of the magnesium