Para Chlorophenoxyacetic Acid Lab Report

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Introduction The purpose of this experiment was to synthesize para-chlorophenoxyacetic acid. The way that this acid is formed is through a SN2 reaction with chloroacetate and chlorophenolate. During a SN2 reaction, everything occurs in one step. The leaving group, which is usually electronegative, will fall off while the nucleophile attacks the back of the carbon.1 In this reaction, the chlorine will fall of the chloroacetate and the oxygen of the 4-chlorophenolate will replace the chlorine that left the molecule. This will then become one compound forming a compound that looks like para-chlorophenoxyacetic acid. But, it isn’t until the negative charge of the oxygen attacks the positive charge of hydrogen. This hydrogen will then become part of the molecule making it para -chlorophenoxyacetic acid.2 …show more content…

The whole point that drives this process is that a compound’s solubility will increase if the temperature is also increased. The impure compound will be dissolved in a solvent. The solvent can vary depending on the compound. Then it his heated, making sure the whole solid compound is dissolved. Then it will be transferred to an ice bath, this causes the solubility to decrease. This process separates the impurities from the rest of the compound because the impurities will not crystallize as fast as the rest of the compound. Then it can be vacuum filtered to separate the desired compound from the impurities. It purifies the compound by separating the more pure crystals from the impurities.3 This process was performed during the

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