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Myeeka Hammond
May 19,2017

Title: Physical Properties of Organic Molecules

Purpose: The purpose this the experiment is to get familiar with some of the equipment and to be able

to know how to obtain the melting point and the solubility of different substances to be able to identify

the substance.

Introduction: In Organic Chemistry compounds are identified by their physical properties and their

chemical properties. A physical property is anything that does not change the chemical or physical

structure of a compound. On the other hand, Chemical properties are ones that do change the chemical

or structural nature of a compound. The physical properties of a compound can be used to determine

the structure of a compound, how pure a substance is, and how to decontaminate a substance from a

compound. This experiment focuses mainly on the physical properties, like the melting point of a

substance and the solubility of a substance. When finding the melting point of a substance in a

laboratory it is best to find the melting point range because the apparatus does not have a perfect heat

transfer. Typically, the melting point range is within two degrees of a pure substance. Unlike a pure

substance, a mixed compound melts over a wide range. One of the few things that can complicate the

determination of the melting point is that compounds decompose rather than melt. To know if

decomposition has happened is by noticing a change in color, gas evolution, and the melting and

recrystallization due to the formation of a new compound with a higher melting point. Not only is there

a melting point, but there is also a boiling point. The boiling point is the temperature at which a liquid

boil and turns to a vapor. There are two ways in which one can find the boiling point of a liquid, the first

one requires a large amount of material and you simply record the boiling point shown on the

thermometer as the substance distills during a simple distillation. The second choice is to use a micro

boiling point apparatus, which entails heating the substance in a Thiele tube until bubbles are forming

rapidly and continuously from a capillary tube. Once the bubbling has stopped, you have achieved the
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boiling point. Finally, the final topic that will be discussed in this experiment is Solubility. You may already

know one definition for the term solubility, but in Chemistry it refers to the degree to which a substance

dissolves in a solvent to make a solution. The most general rule for solubility is that Like substances

dissolves in like substances. To determine the solubility one must crush a solid finely and place in a test

tube, then add about 2 mL of a solvent and shake test tube to obtain results. If nothing happens in a

room temperature or cold solvent then the substance should be heated to see if any changes occur.

Part 1: Melting point

Materials and Procedure: The materials that were used are the Mel-Temp apparatus, a thermometer, a

few capillary tubes, a crusher, a scoop, a scale and the chemicals that are used were Naphthalene,

Benzoic Acid and unknown B. The initial step to finding the melting point was to obtain a sample, crush

it into a powdered form and out into a capillary tube. To get the powder into the capillary tube it was

dropped down a glass tube until it was packed tightly at the bottom. Once it was in the capillary tube, it

was placed in the Mel-Temp apparatus along with a thermometer and observed to take note of when it

started melting and once it was fully melted into a liquid. After it was taken out of the apparatus, it was

watched to see what happened to the liquid.

Results and discussion: When it comes to finding the melting point, my group and I decided to run each

substance twice to get more of an understanding of what we need to do to figure out what the unknown

substance is. When we were obtaining our chemicals the Urea that we were supposed to use was not in

the fume hood so we used naphthalene in its place. In our first trial for all chemicals tested we found

that when we heated the substance the first time the chemical started to melt at different temperatures

than the range that it is supposed to start melting and when it is completely melted. One observation

that stood out to me was the smell of these solids while being melted. FOverall, we found that the
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second trial that we conducted was a lot more accurate with the right temperatures. For our unknown

substance, we choose to use unknown B. Our experiment resulted in the same numbers in both trials, it

started melting at 128C and was completely melted at 134C. Yes, the melting point range is not

between 1C of each other and I believe it is due to changing the temperature when heating the

chemical in the Mel-temp apparatus. The experiment made me familiar with using the apparatus and it

also made me know how the steps it takes to finding an accurate melting point range for a substance.

Substances Sample beings to Melt Sample completely Other observations

melts
Naphthalene Trial #1- 78C Trial #1- 92C Once the substance
Trial#2- 74C Trial #2- 79C started to heat it
started to smell.
Benzoic Acid Trial#1- 101C Trial #1- 114C Once taken out of the
Trial #2- 114C Trial #2- 124C heat the substance
started to recrystallize
Unknown B Trial #1- 128C Trial #1-134C
Trial #2- 128.1C Trial #2-134.2C

Conclusion: When determining the melting point of a substance, it is necessary to use a powder rather

than a crystalline because it heats more uniformly. You should also always use a clean capillary tube

every time you test a substance because a contaminated substance will result in the incorrect melting

point. One more thing that should always be done is not heat the sample too rapidly. The results of

heating the substance too rapidly is completely wrong. In the first trials of our experiment, we heated

the substance faster than in the second trial just to see what the results would be. We proved this point

to be correct, our first trials were all inaccurate results. When we tested the unknown substance, we

knew better than to heat it quickly, so we took our time In both trails and the end result for both was the

same, maybe about zero point two degrees of each other. Based on the results for the unknown we

choose, my group members and I believe the substance is Cinnamic Acid, which has a melting point of

134C.
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Myeeka Hammond
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Part 3: Solubility Properties of Organic Solids

Materials and Procedure: The solids that we were testing the solubility of are NaCl, Urea, Benzoic Acid

and napthalene. To test to the solubility of these solids we used six different solvents: hexane, toluene,

THF, ethyl acetate, ethyl alcohol and water. Approximately 3ml of each solvent was added to six different

test tubes and about 0.1 grams of each solids added to the solvents. At first, we tested to see if the

solids would dissolve if the solvent was cold and if it did not dissolve we placed the test tubes in a hot

bathe with water at approximately 40-50C. Once taken out of the hot bathe it was left out to see which

solids melted and then allow them to cool. When cool we were to see if any solids that dissolved are

forming again.

Results and Discussions: For the second part of the experiment we were finding the solubility of a few

solids. I do not think this experiment went as it was suppose as only a few substances dissolved. The two

most common solvents that dissolved solutes were water and THF. The other solvents like Hexane,

Toluene, Ethyl Acetate and Ethyl Alcohol did not dissolve as many solutes. Based on these result, it does

prove that polar dissolves polar and non-polar dissolves non-polar.

Solute Hexane Toluene THF Ethyl Ethyl Water

Acetate alcohol
Nacl C I I I PS PS S
Nacl H PS PS I PS PS S
Urea C I I I I I S
Urea H I I I I I S
Benzoic Acid C I I S I I I
Benzoic Acid H PS PS S S S I
Napthalene C I S S I I I
Napthalene H S S S I I I
Conclusion: Most of this part of the experiment proved me right, but a few of them proved wrong.

Based on polarity, Ethyl alcohol and ethyl acetate was supposed to dissolve the solvent Napthalene, but

it did not in our experiment. This could be due to ratio of solvent to solute or maybe even one the
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substances were not pure anymore, as many students were in and out of it and left the containers

uncovered. It is possible that a few more are incorrect, but those two stood out the most to me.

According to the results, Napthalene is the least polar substance, then Benzoic acid, then Urea, and

finally NaCl Is the most polar substance. NaCl is the most polar because it is an ionic salt and Napthalene

is the least polar because it is a hydrocarbon and all hydrocarbons are not polar. Some the substances

did cool down and recrystallize, and this happens because the solvent criteria depend on the solubility of

the compound in the solvent which should be sensitive to the change of temperature. At high

temperatures, the compound should be very soluble in the solvent but, when the temperature goes back

down the solubility of the compound in the solvent is very low.