Limiting Reagents Lab Report

One of the most important aspects of this experiment is to add the reagents in the specific order. First, the acetone and base solution is added and allowed time to react. This time lapse allows for the formation of carbanions. If all of the reagents were added at the same time, some carbanions would form, and some Cannizzaro products would form as well. Since benzaldehyde was not added until after the carbanion formation, the Cannizzaro reaction should not have happened. This is supported by the absence of a white precipitate, which would indicate Cannizzaro products. Also, the use of a graduated pipette is important to ensure precise measurements of reagents. According to Calculations 2 and 3, the amount of moles of acetone and benzaldehyde are very similar, and this could make determining the limiting reagent difficult. However, precise values yield the lowest possibility for error.

This shows that some impurities are present in the final product. Similarly, the experimental percent yield of 120.2% shows that some issues arose during the procedure. It is impossible to produce a pure product with over 100% yield; therefore, other impurities were present in the product that added weight to the finial mass. This extra weight pushed the yield well over 100%. This source of error could be due to a lack of drying the final product. Since a large amount of water was used to was the solution until a neutral pH was reached, some water was retained in the solid. This leftover moisture could have caused an increase in mass; therefore, the solid should have been dried longer to allow more water to evaporate. Another possible error could be the presence of Cannizzaro products. However, this is unlikely because of the absence of any white