Question

Please hypothesize how the following procedural changes would influence the outcome of our synthesis. Please explain your expectations. a. Use of acetone instead of paraformaldehyde, b. use of phenol instead of mesitylene, c. reflux for 800 minutes (instead of 80 min).

Answer 1

Solution:

a) In chemical reaction if an solvent acetone is used instead of paraformaldehyde leads to poor crosslinking and permeation of the formed product, not favored as a volatile of acetone affects product while exposing to high temperature results in product loss.

b) the same hypothesis of product loss mentioned in part (a) applies to use of phenol instead of mesitylene.

c) The reflux time is an important factor in distillation process, if the exposed duration for reflux is 10 times than suggested duration (800/80 = 10 times high) the formed product quality will be very low and normally not suggested for high reflux exposure.