CHEM 2325      Organic Chemistry II Lab



Credits:   1.0

Taught by:   Sarah Morgan Black

Semesters offered:   Fall; Spring

Formats:   laboratory

Prerequisites:   Chem 2310 and 2315
Concurrent enrollment in Chem 2320 required.

Course Description:

This course is the second of two semesters of organic chemistry laboratory, and is designed to give you hands-on experience with the techniques, principles, and reactions of organic chemistry. You should have successfully completed Chem 2315, and should be concurrently enrolled in Chem 2325 unless you have special permission from the instructor.

The lab experiments have been designed to correlate with the material covered in the lecture course, and you will be expected to apply knowledge such as reactions, mechanisms, and properties of organic molecules learned in Chem 2310 and 2320 to the procedures in Chem 2325. However, you will receive a grade for each course independently.

Course Objectives:

  • Practice safe handling and proper disposal of laboratory chemicals.
  • Perform necessary calculations such as stoichiometric amounts of reagents and % yields.
  • Accurately and objectively record experimental procedures and data and draw appropriate conclusions from experimental results.
  • Perform and explain the principles behind operations such as filtration, rotary evaporation, recrystallization, liquid-liquid extraction, TLC analysis, column chromatography, melting point determinations, and distillations, and obtaining IR spectra.
  • Synthesize organic compounds by running a reaction, isolating, purifying, and characterizing the product(s).
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the thought processes involved in organic synthesis by analyzing results from a virtual laboratory program.
  • Identify unknown compounds using IR and NMR spectra, melting and boiling points, and chemical tests.
  • Perform chemical demonstrations suitable for an audience of elementary school children.


Required Materials
  1. Laboratory Manual for Chem 2315 and Chem 2325 by Sarah Morgan Black
  2. Lab Notebook (with carbon tear-out pages)
  3. splash-proof safety goggles
All of these items are available from the Dixie College Bookstore. If you purchased the lab manual last semester, you don't need to get a new one, as both semesters are covered in the manual. If you still have enough pages in your lab notebook, you may continue to use it. To qualify as splash-proof, your goggles must fit tightly to your face and cannot have any holes.

All other materials, including equipment and chemicals, are provided using your lab fee. On the first day of lab, you will be issued a tub with equipment worth considerably more than your lab fee you are responsible for the contents, and will be checked out at the end of the semester.