Organic Chemistry I and laboratory 1

Module Organic Chemistry I and laboratory (Module 2)

• The course aims to provide the student with the fundamental notions of safety to be adopted in an Organic Chemistry laboratory and to provide basic knowledge of the theoretical and practical aspects of the main Organic Chemistry laboratory techniques.
• The course aims to provide knowledge of the common purification techniques of organic compounds and the basic methodologies for their recognition and characterization.

• The concepts illustrated during the lectures will be applied during the laboratory sessions.

• At the end of the course the student will be able to independently carry out the purification and characterization of an organic compound working in safe conditions and to prepare a scientific report.

With reference to the Dublin Descriptors, the expected learning outcomes are:

D1 - Knowledge and understanding: students will acquire the rules to work in safety knowing the danger related to chemicals for the environment and human health; they will become familiar with the safety data sheet of chemicals used in the laboratory; they will have a thorough knowledge of the organic chemistry laboratory equipment and of the standard laboratory procedures for the preparation and purification of organic compounds.

D2 - Ability to apply and understand: students will able to: manipulate organic compounds strictly comply with safety regulations; use the main equipment present in a basic organic chemistry laboratory; and report the experimental activities in a faithful and systematic way in the laboratory notebook.

D3 - Independent judgment: students may be able to plan experiments similar to those performed during the course, independently. At the end of the course it is necessary to know how to use the collected data in a critical and correct way, correlating to the corresponding theoretical concepts.

D4 - Communication skills: ability to communicate in written and oral form, through

the use of an appropriate language the experimental data, including problems encountered

and possible solutions.

D5 - Learning Skills: Students may be able to apply a standard technique used in organic chemistry lab autonomously, showing the ability to deal with a problem through the application of acquired skills during the course. Finally, students will develop learning and in-depth skills to easily face subsequent organic chemistry laboratory courses.

INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES AND/OR DSA.

As a guarantee of equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students can ask for a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and on teaching objectives of the discipline. It is also possible to ask the departmental contacts of CInAP (Center for Active and Participatory Inclusion - Services for Disabilities and/or DSAs), in the person of professor Vera Muccilli.

The teaching will be delivered through theoretical lectures and laboratory activities (6 CFU in total). Theoretical lessons are preparatory to the laboratory.

Some changes may be introduced with respect to what was previously stated if teaching move from face-to face lectures to mixed or remote way, in order to comply with the program envisaged and reported in the syllabus.

Knowledge on the chemical properties of the main elements of the periodic table, types of  chemical bonds, non-covalent interactions, equilibrium constant in chemical reactions, acid-base reactions, is mandatory. 

The attedance is mandatory. The student must attend at least 70% of the total number of hours of the course (see section 3.1of teaching regulation)

THEORY

1. The Organic Chemistry laboratory: rules to work in safe in the organic chemistry laboratory; labelling of chemical compounds

2. Laboratory glassware

3. Characteristics of pure and mixed solvents

4. Heating and cooling techniques

5. Determination of physical constants: boiling point, melting point

6. General techniques for purification of organic compounds: filtration; crystallization;

solvent extraction; distillation (at atmospheric-, reduced-, fractional-pressure and in steam current)

7. Synthesis of esters and their hydrolysis in basic conditions: application to obtain the anti-inflammatory drug aspirin and soap. Determination of reaction yield

8. Chromatography: adsorption chromatography: column and thin layer chromatography

LABORATORY EXPERIENCES

1. Crystallization of an organic molecule

2. Purification of a mixture containing benzoic acid by crystallization

2. Solvent extraction: liquid-liquid partition and separation of two organic molecules

4. Synthesis of aspirin

5. Simple distillation of an impure alcohol

6. Hydrolysis of fatty acid esters: soap preparation

7. Extraction of pigments from spinach leaves and separation by chromatography on

column

8. Thin layer chromatography

Joaquín Isac-García, José A. Dobado, Francisco G. Calvo-Flores, Henar Martínez-García. Experimental Organic Chemistry Laboratory Manual. Ed. Elsevier Scienc

K. L. Williamson, K. M. Masters. Macroscale and Miscoscale Organic Experiments. Ed. K. Williamson, Houghton Mifflin

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

The teaching material prepared by the teacher (slides, handouts), in addition to the recommended texts, will be available through the STUDIUM platform.

The learning assessment procedure include an oral examination, integrated with module 1.

The examination will ascertain: (a) the acquisition of the basic concepts of the course and the ability to connect them to each other and to the experiments carried out in the laboratory; (b) the ability to clearly explain the concepts using scientific language adequately, (c) the ability to use and quantitatively interpret experimental data by applying the concepts and methodologies acquired during the course.

The oral test will focus both on the discussion of a laboratory experience and on topics of the theoretical course. During the exam, knowledge of the course topics will be assessed: level of correctness of the answers; correctness in the presentation of the topics; profit in laboratory activity.

The student must produce a detailed report on each experiment. This will be delivered (also by email) within 7 days from the execution of the laboratory experience. At least 15 days before the exam date, the student have to communicate the participation to the exam in order to receive the reports.

The outcome of the learning assessment will also take into account the laboratory reports.

In the event that, for contingent reasons, it is necessary to activate distance learning, the examination will take place with the provisions of the regulatory requirements that will be specifically approved by the University bodies.

The most frequent questions (not the only possible ones) concern:

 -Distillation: theory of distillation; types of distillation; Glassware used to assemble the distillation apparatus; description of the isobar diagram.

 -Extraction with solvents: use of liquid-liquid partitioning for the separation of molecules with different chemical properties, description of the principle, glassware used, application examples.

-Characteristics of solvents: protic, aprotic, polar, apolar solvents.

 -Chromatography: types of chromatography, theoretical principles of column chromatography, characteristics of TLC chromatography. 

 -Work-up of a chemical reaction.