Tetraphenylcyclopentadienone

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Experiment 9: The Aldol Condensation
Chris Chen*, Erica Chang, Work Station 4
Section 544, Green Lab, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77840 The sole purpose of performing the lab was to utilize aldol condensation reactions to synthesize a cyclopenta-dienone, while using UV spectrophotometry and computer visualization to further understand the dienone. In the beginning of the lab, the tetraphenylcyclopentadienone (TPCP) was synthesized using dibenzyl ketone and benzyl under extremely basic conditions. The synthesis process could be further understood by observing the mechanism portrayed in Figure 1. According to the figure, the dibenzyl ketone will first loose an alpha hydrogen to form the enolate intermediate. …show more content…

This is a contribution of the conjugated structure of the molecule that permits the absorption of the electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum of 400-700nm wavelength. In addition, the TPCP compound adopts a propeller shape in its three dimensional conformation. This can be described by the four phenyl rings are rotated out of the plane from the central ring due to the steric repulsion between the compounds. Lastly, after undergoing the synthesis process approximately 0.2 g of purified TPCP product was yielded. In other words, the theoretical yield was found to be 1.067 g, while the percent yield was determined to be 18.750%. (The calculations done to receive these digits could be found in the Calculations section of the article at the end of the article) The absorbance of the compound at 330 nm and 480 nm was predicted to be 1.1 and 0.2 respectively. Furthermore, the concentration of the TPCP using the equation displayed in the Calculations section at the end of the article was found to be 3.729*10-4 (330 nm) and 3.290*10-4 (480 nm). Some possible errors raised during the synthesis and spectrometric analysis of TPCP include the insufficient mixing of the hexane and TPCP, in which will result in the low absorbance of the compound. Additionally, the low yield is contributed from the loss of product during filtration.
Calculations
TY: 0.3 g (Benzil)* 1 mol (Benzil)/108.14 g (Benzil)*384.49

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