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Guidelines for writing a formal report for non-technique, synthetic experiments in organic chemistry lab, including heading, purpose, reaction scheme, experimental procedure, results and discussion, and post-lab questions. It also includes common mistakes to avoid and tips for discussing results.
Typology: Lecture notes
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The Formal Report Every non-technique, synthetic experiment requires a formal report. It is a bit different from thenon-formal reports and the template is also different. Download the formal report template on the course website, and please follow the guidelines below.
The following text has been adapted from: Callam, C. S; Paul, N. P. Organic Chemistry Lab Manual , The Ohio State University, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2009.
Pre-lab, notebook and lab technique are all worth 5 points each. Heading (5 points) : Each formal report should begin with a heading, which includes the title of the experiment performed, your name, the name of your teaching assistant, and the submission date of the report. Purpose (5 Points): The purpose statement should include the names of reactants, reagents, and products and explain the type of reaction that is being performed (for example: alkylation, acylation, condensation, amidation, esterifica-tion, nitration, substitution). When appropriate, use the phrases “acid-catalyzed” or “base- catalyzed” to speak more generally about conditions, but detailed descriptions of solvents or other reaction conditions should be avoided. Overall, the purpose should contain enough information to draw the reactants and product(s) but not give specific details of how the experiment was conducted. Reaction Scheme (5 Points) : This graphical representation is the most clear and straightforward means to describe a chemical reaction. The reactants (starting materials AKA substrates) are shown to the left of the arrow, reagents in excess, catalysts, and solvents as well as temperature and reaction time are written above and below the arrow, and the products and byproducts are shown to the right of the arrow. There is only one accepted mean to present a reaction scheme: use of a chemical structure drawing program,
such as ChemDraw^1 , to create your own graphic. Do not hand-draw or cut and paste the reaction scheme from the lecture notes or an internet source. If necessary, refer to the ChemDraw Lab you did at the beginning of the semester. Your TA will award no points for inclusion of someone else’s work. Experimental Procedure (25 Points) This section should be as necessarily detailed as a recipe so that another organic chemist could reproduce the experiment. See the example on page 5-6 of this handout for a well-written procedure. Results and Discussion (35 Points) – 15 points for results portion, 20 for discussion portion Results Portion: You should restate all product results (BPs, MPs, yields, etc.) in tabular form, including any characterization (IR, GC) that was obtained and discuss the actual results and what they mean. E.g., “The results of this experiment are summarized in the table below.” Table 1. Example results in tabular form. Columns can be added and deleted as necessary. Reaction Product Melting Point (°C) Boiling Point (°C) Percent yield Characterization 2 - methyl- 1 - butene Methods Used Not Obtained Not Obtained 75 GC and 1 H-NMR
Discussion Portion: First Sentence : “The starting materials were reacted using conditions specific to the reaction being performed and the target product was obtained in XX% yield.” The first sentence of the discussion is a more detailed version of the purpose statement but distinct since it refers to the physical state and percent yield of the product. End Sentence(s) : “The identity and purity of the product was assessed.”
(^1) ChemDraw is available free of charge using your umass email address. See the document “ChemDraw Tutorial” posted on the course website for instructions on how to obtain this software.
The Most Common Mistakes