In the 2 week chemistry lab I was given an unknown liquid number 29 that I had to find through the experiments I have been learning about since the beginning of the semester. After conducting the experiments I acquired the empirical formula, molecular weight, molecular formula, density and boiling point temperature to be able to find out what the substance is. Using the molecular formula I am going to look at some websites provided by my professor such as: ChemBlink, ChemSpider and PubChem to help me find which substances I should look into. After I have acquired all the substances with similar molecular formula, I intend to apply the density and boiling point and eliminate the substances that do not quite or do not match my data at all. Once I have acquired the name of the unknown substance, I will run a confirmatory IR to ensure that the unknown substance is what I assume it to be. Talking about molecular formula and carrying out a search in ChemBlink and ChemSpider, I managed to retrieve 5 substances that share the same molecular formula. These 5 substances are 2-propanol also known as isopropyl alcohol, 1-propanol also known as propyl alcohol, ethyl methyl ether also known as methoxyethane, 2-hydroxypropan-2-yl radical and propanol. During my graphical data analysis experiment I was able to recover a density of my unknown volatile liquid of 0.7832 g/mL. The first substance I recovered is 2-propanol also known as isopropyl alcohol which has a density of 0.785 g/mL (ChemBlink). Therefore, 2-propanol has a density very close to my experimental value; I will keep 2-Propanol as one of the options for my unknown 29. My second substance that I recovered is 1-Propanol also known as propyl alcohol has a density of 0.8 g/mL (ChemBlink), 1-Propanol it's out of my experiment... halfway through the document... second test. In conclusion, after a long 2 week experiment on the unknown 29, through determining the density, molecular weight, molecular formula, boiling point and IR spectrum, I was able to identify my unknown 29 as 2- propanol also known as isopropyl alcohol. The density comparison between my experimental data and my actual data was slightly off, but I got close enough to match it. The boiling point was perfect for my unknown and the IR spectrum came out almost the same as I expected. In this experiment I learned how to visualize and interpret the IR spectrum by reading the peaks and fingerprint patterns and thereby select the specific working group to narrow down the suspected organic compound to find my unknown. I also learned how to write a research paper on an unknown liquid and how to piece together data and calculate my unknown substance through some experiments.
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