I had to react 1-propanol with NaBr and H2SO4. I refluxed for one hour and when attempting to separate out the product (product was supposed to be 1-bromopropane) via sep funnel either could no longer distinguish between the organis layer and the aqueous layer, or there was never a layer to begin with.

Question

I washed it with water, and two 15ml washes of sodium bicarbonate.

I added about 5g of NaBr, and used about 20ml of sulfuric acid. I did this reaction four times, making sure my 1-propanol was my limiting reagent. I'm not sure where I could have gone wrong. It is a possibility that during the reflux stage the temp got too high and I may have accidentally boiled off my product?

I was alloted 8grams of starting material and that was all. I used about 2grams of the 1-propanal and tried this reaction four times, why did it not succeed?

Answer 1

DrBob222 how about some help here?

Answer 2

I had to do this same reaction, only I used 10g NaBr and 25 mL of sulfuric acid, also without success. When my partner and I set up the distillation following reflux, our distillation apparatus blew apart because our lab instructions neglected to direct us to add a boiling stone. We didn't reflux quite as long due to lab session time constraints, but we also were unable to collect any product. We assumed it was due to the explosion of the distillation set-up...but now I'm wondering because of this question...I would also be interested in an explanation for Meredith's issue.

Answer 3

skundle