Grignard Reaction Lab Report

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The Grignard reaction is a robust organic synthesis method for creating carbon-carbon bonds. One application of Grignard reagents is their use in activating nitrous oxide, a compound initially thought to be inert towards Grignard reagents—Tskhovrebov, et al. show that primary and secondary aliphatic Grignard reagents readily react with nitrous oxide to form hydrazones.1 Grignard reagents can also be used in cross-coupling reactions (iron) involving alkenyls/aryl carboxylates to create good carboxylate electrophiles, as elucidated by Li, et al.2 Figure 1: Preparation of Grignard Reagent (Phenylmagnesium Bromide)
In this experiment, a Grignard reagent was prepared using bromobenzene and magnesium in diethyl ether (Figure 1). An aprotic solvent (diethyl ether) was used because Mg0 reacts readily with protic solvents to form Mg2+. Figure 2: Formation of 1,1-Diphenylethanol with Grignard Reagent
Afterwards, the Grignard reagent was added to acetophenone to form 1,1-diphenylethanol. Ammonium chloride was added to protonate the oxyanion (acid workup).
Results and Discussion

Figure 3: Grignard Reaction Mechanism …show more content…

First, the reaction was conducted using clean, dry glassware in an inert atmosphere (anhydrous ether) to minimize side reactions involving the Grignard reagent. In particular, water can react with the Grignard reagent (very basic) to form benzene and magnesium hydroxide bromide: C6H5MgBr + H2O → C6H5 + MgOHBr. We also added acetophenone to the Grignard reagent dropwise because the reaction was very exothermic; a noticeable amount heat was produced (Figure 3). After forming 1,1-diphenylethanol, we washed the crude sample (1,1-diphenylethanol with impurities) with cold hexane to remove impurities such as acetophenone and bromobenzene. Cold hexane was added (rather than ambient temperature hexane) to minimize 1,1-diphenylethanol

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