Buy from Amazon.com, $9.99 for paperback, $6.99 for Kindle
Lab Procedures and Safety
General Lab Procedures and Conduct and Lab Safety Agreement
“PPE Lab Experiences Worth Sharing” from Flinn Scientific
“Why You Need to Wear Safety Glasses” (from Periodic Videos)
Runaway Hot Plates – it really happens!
A Visual Guide to Chemistry Glassware (from Compound Interest)
Chem 12A Lab Equipment Check Sheet
Microwave Assisted Organic Reactions
Lab Experiments
New Reflux Equipment with air cooled condenser (findenser) and heat on inserts
Simplified IR Correlation Table (from chem.wisc.edu)
Lab Activity C. Chromatography
Lab 1. Fun in the Organic Chemistry Lab: How Much Aspirin Is In My Aspirin?
Lab 2. Go Their Separate Ways: Separation of an Acid, Base, and Neutral Substance by Acid-Base Extraction
Lab 3. Smells Good: Microwave Essential Oil Extraction
Lab 4. Right Hand/Left Hand: Stereochemistry – Enantiomers and Diastereomers
Lab 5. Mixing Chemicals: Introduction to Organic Reactions
Microwave Assisted Organic Reactions
Lab 6. Switch One for Another: Synthesis of an Alkyl Halide from an Alcohol (Substitution Reaction)
Lab 7. Get Rid of It: Synthesis of an Alkene from an Alcohol (Elimination Reaction)
Lab 8. It Depends: Effect of Substrate and Base on Substitution and Elimination Reactions of Alkyl Halides
Lab 9. Front or Back? Stereochemistry of Bromine Addition to trans-Cinnamic Acid (Addition Reaction)(revised with corrected melting points)
Lab 9. Stereochemistry in Reactions Notes
Optical activity in reactions video
Lab 10. Make Up Your Mind: Free Radical vs. Polar Addition of HBr to Alkenes
Why Lab?
In science, observations are made to discover, learn, and understand what’s going on in nature. In science courses, hands-on activities are the best way to make observations and learn science. As such, the laboratory is a very important part of this course. You may be asked questions related to these labs on lecture quizzes. In Chem 12A lab, experiments demonstrate and elucidate concepts discussed in lecture. You will learn basic organic chemistry macroscale and microscale lab techniques to separate, purify, and isolate organic substances, and characterization techniques to identify these substances. You will also gain an awareness of organic substances. Although many organic substances pose safety concerns, e.g., flammability, toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, the Organic Chemistry lab is a safe environment as long as you are aware of the nature of these substances and their proper use and handling.
You will work in a group of 2 in lab. Make sure each team member contributes equally to each experiment. However, each student is responsible for doing each lab assignment individually. Expect to spend the entire lab period in lab.
Lab Grade
Your Lab Grade consists of the following assignments:
15 Lab Activities (weekly)
Lab Activities are designed for you to apply and practice the objectives discussed in lecture to lab and to develop skills in collecting data, analyzing data to obtain results, and interpret your results to draw conclusions. I encourage you to work with your lab partner or other Chem 12A students on these Lab Activities but you must submit each Lab Activity individually due at the end of each Wednesday’s lab.
Lab Safety Factor
The Lab Safety Factor will be determined by your lab instructor at the end of the semester. It will be based on your attendance (including being on time), your timely submission of lab assignments, your observation of lab safety rules and regulations, your lab technique, and your initiative and cooperation (ability to do your own work and an equal share of group work, ability and willingness to work, collaborate, and cooperate with other students). If you arrive late; hand assignments in late; do not observe lab safety, e.g., don’t use eye protection, endanger the safety of your peers and instructor; have poor lab technique, or no one likes working with you, you will receive a low lab safety factor grade and a lower lab grade.
Lab Policies
1. Safety glasses or goggles are required in lab. Prescription glasses are an adequate substitute for safety glasses/goggles. For students who wear contact lenses, you will need to wear safety glasses/goggles over your contact lenses. Try to be aware of your safety as well as the safety of others in lab.
2. FAILURE TO CHECK-IN YOUR LOCKER, whether you drop the course or complete it, results in a $25 LAB FEE plus a charge for any broken or missing equipment.
3. All labs must be performed to pass this course.
4. Late lab assignments will be penalized 5% per calendar day.
5. The chemistry lab has 14 computers.
a. You cannot store your lab data and results on the hard drive of a computer you are using. Please bring a flash/thumb drive to store lab files or upload your files to a cloud storage service, e.g., Google Drive or Drop Box.
b. Each computer is connected to a network printer. You will need to supply your own printer paper.
c. These computers are connected to the internet so you can look up scientific information. Please do not download images, files, or software onto these computers.