Objectives- This course is designed to introduce students to the experimental methods and techniques that organic chemists use routinely, including:

• 1. the synthesis of organic molecules

  2. the determination of physical properties of molecules

  3. purification techniques

  4. spectroscopic analysis

  5. record keeping

Finally, we expect you to become aware of the hazards of working in a chemical environment. This will include recognition of hazardous situations and materials, methods to avoid accidents, safe disposal of waste chemicals, minimization of your exposure to hazardous chemicals, and how to respond in the case of accidents.

Format- The material covered in each laboratory section is a reflection of the research interests of the instructor for that section.  All sections, however, involve the synthesis, purification, and characterization of organic molecules.  During the first semester students work with model compounds to develop the basic skills that organic chemists routinely use.  In the second semester they apply those skills to the preparation of "target" molecules, structurally unique compounds that are related to the model compounds investigated previously.

Instructors- The laboratory sections of the course are taught by Professors Newton, Prudenté, and Tracy.  Information specific to each instructor's laboratory section is available via the link to that instructor's name:

Hank Tracy (tracy@usm.maine.edu)

Office: 352 Science

Phone: 780-4425

Required materials-

• • A bound laboratory notebook with duplicating carbon paper.

  • A thumb drive with at least 1GB.

  • OSHA-approved safety glasses.

Recommended text-

• • Microscale Techniques for the Organic Laboratory, 2nd edition, by Mayo, Pike, and Trumper; New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., ISBN0-471-24909-2.  

Attendance- Attendance is required.  If you are unable to attend your regularly scheduled lab section, it may not be possible to make up the work you missed. In no case will anyone be allowed to make up any work if they have not notified their instructor in advance that they will be unable to attend lab.

Safety- An organic chemistry laboratory is a hazardous place to work. There are ever present dangers of fires, explosions, cuts, and poisonings. There are also more subtle, but no less dangerous hazards, such as carcinogens and teratogens. In this laboratory we attempt to minimize these hazards. When an experiment has traditionally called for the use of a highly toxic reagent, we have tried to find a less toxic substitute. We have also reduced the scale on which we work: this lab is done on the micro-scale. This means that most of the experiments involve masses of less than 500 mg and volumes of less than 5 mL. Even on the micro-scale, however, there are still dangers. The most notable, and the easiest to avoid, is the danger of getting chemicals in your eyes.  To minimize this possibility you must wear OSHA-approved eye protection in the lab. There are no exceptions! If you do not have appropriate eye protection, you will not be allowed to work in the lab. In addition, we recommend that you wear old clothes in the lab and that you use the disposable plastic gloves that we provide. The laboratory is equipped with a safety shower, a fire blanket, fire extinguishers, and an eye shower. You should know where all of these safety devices are located and be familiar with their use. 

Notebooks- You must have a bound laboratory notebook. It is not acceptable to keep notes, any notes, on scrap paper. Your notebook is your scrap paper. It is not supposed to be a work of art. It is intended to contain all the information that is necessary for you, or another person, to reproduce the experiment that you performed. That is the primary criterion for a good notebook: if it contains enough detail that someone unfamiliar with the experiment could perform it by following your notes, it is a good notebook. Otherwise, it is not. This means that your writing must be legible. You should develop the habit of recording your notes at regular intervals throughout the afternoon. It is not acceptable to work from 1:30 until 4:15 and then try to summarize your day's work- too much detail is lost. The section entitled "The Laboratory Notebook" on pages 36-39 of your manual provides guidelines for you to follow. In terms of style, write your notes in the first person, past tense, active voice. Do not use the third person, past tense, passive voice shown on page 38 of your manual. You should strive to write concisely.

While you should not follow the grammatical format shown on page 38 of the manual, you should include a title, an equation describing the reaction to be performed, and information about the reactants, solvents and products as shown on page 38. In addition, you should include a topic sentence at the beginning of each experiment. A topic sentence provides the reader with an overview of what is to come. A topic sentence puts things in perspective. A reasonable topic sentence for the example discussed above might be "I tried to prepare a sample of isopentyl acetate by reacting isopentyl alcohol with acetic acid."

Remember, the purpose of your notebook is to help you develop the ability to keep accurate scientific records of the work you do in the laboratory. This skill is important in biology, physics, and other experimental disciplines as well as in chemistry. Some students write their procedure in their notebook before coming to the lab. That is not acceptable. It is okay to prepare an outline of the procedure you intend to follow before you come to lab. In fact, we recommend that you do so. Such an outline might contain, for example, a list of equipment you will need, the sequence in which you plan to perform the various steps of the experiment, and calculations of the masses, volumes and molar quantities of the chemicals you will use. In order to complete many of the experiments in the allotted time, you will have to perform some operations simultaneously. An outline, prepared in advance, will help you choreograph such work.

Finally, you should record your notes in ink. If you make an error, cross it out with a single stroke. Do not erase or obliterate your mistakes.

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