Practical skills

For core practicals and required practical techniques for each, please see core practicals section here.

When preparing and purifying organic solids, several standard laboratory techniques are employed:

Organic Preparation

Quickfit apparatus is essential for safe and accurate reaction setups:

• Distillation is used to separate liquids with different boiling points or to purify a product.
• Heating under reflux allows continuous boiling without loss of volatile reactants or solvents, ensuring complete reaction.

Purification of Organic Solids

• Filtration under reduced pressure (vacuum filtration):
  Removes solid product from reaction mixtures rapidly and cleanly.
• Recrystallisation:
  A method to purify solids based on solubility differences.
  Dissolve the impure solid in a hot solvent, then cool to recrystallise the pure compound.
• Melting point determination:
  A pure solid has a sharp, well-defined melting point.
  A broad or depressed melting point range suggests impurities.

Summary

• Quickfit apparatus enables safe setups for distillation and reflux.
• Filtration under reduced pressure removes solid products effectively.
• Recrystallisation purifies solids by solubility differences.
• Melting point determination is used to assess purity.