When you’re in the lab, it can sometimes be difficult to remember what reagent and conditions are best for each reaction box. This blog post will help you out with that! Here is a list of the best reagents and conditions for every reaction box:
In the first reaction box, we recommend using sodium chloride as your base solution because it helps prevent any side reactions from occurring.
In the second one, use distilled water as your solvent so that any solutes dissolve quickly without having to heat them up.
When it comes to stirring, make sure you have a stir bar in place before adding anything else. A stir bar will ensure even mixing of your solutions too!
In the third reaction box, you’ll want to use sodium hydroxide as your base solution.
For a solvent in this one, we suggest using chloroform so that any solutes dissolve quickly without having to heat them up.
When it comes to stirring, make sure you have a stir bar in place before adding anything else again! A stir bar will ensure even mixing of your solutions too!
The fourth and fifth reactions are both for purifying products from chemical mixtures by recrystallizing the product with anhydrous ethanol. So when you’re looking at these two boxes, don’t forget about adding anhydrous ethanol (at least 100 ml) as well as concentrated hydrochloric acid.
In the sixth box, we’re recrystallizing a buffer solution with ethanol using potassium carbonate and sucrose as our reagents.
As for conditions in this one, make sure to let your product cool down before adding any new ingredients! We can’t forget that stirring is important too because it gives us homogenous reactions so you want to use an inert material like glass or Teflon (or both) when possible.
The seventh reaction is just going to be purifying products from chemicals by precipitating them out of a mixture using acetic anhydride in acetone as well as water and hydrochloric acid again. Again, don’t forget about making sure there’s room for all the different products to react and that stirring is important!
In our eighth box, we’ll be recrystallizing a buffer solution with ethanol using potassium carbonate.
Conditions in this one are basically like any other so make sure your product cools down before adding anything new or you’re going to mess up the crystals present in there already. Stirring’s still an important part of this process too because it helps us get everything evenly distributed throughout the mixture and gives us homogenous reactions as well which means things can go more smoothly. The reagent used for this reaction is just concentrated hydrochloric acid again but don’t forget about its high toxic content!
Lastly, when recrystallizing buffers with ethanol, it’s important to mix in some water as well.
For this reaction box in particular, we’re going to be using a molar concentration of 0.05 M for the buffer solution with ethanol and just like last time, make sure you take into consideration how much water is needed so that your product can dissolve completely!
You may also want to include a disclaimer about reagents being toxic and harmful if not used properly or disposed of correctly before moving on.
How to Recrystallize a Buffer Solution in Ethanol:
Concentrated hydrochloric acid is a must in this reaction, but make sure to take into consideration the toxic content of hydrochloric acid when working with it.
For this reaction box in particular, we’re going to be using a molar concentration of 0.05 M for the buffer solution with ethanol and just like last time, make sure you take into consideration how much water is needed so that your product can dissolve completely!
Lastly, when recrystallizing buffers with ethanol, it’s important to mix in some water as well.”
You may also want to include a disclaimer about reagents being toxic and harmful if not used properly or disposed of correctly before moving on.
