CLASSIFICATION TESTS FOR CARBOXYLIC ACIDS AND DERIVATIVES

31 Montenegro, Francesca Isabel P., 32 Padilla, Roy Antonio L., 33 Paguio, Christine C., 34 Panizales, Beryl Jane C.

Group Seven, 2A-Ph, Faculty of Pharmacy, UST

Abstract

The study aimed to classify the different sample compounds according to the four classification tests conducted. The classification tests used were Hydrolysis, Aminolysis: Anilide Formation, Alcoholysis: Schotten-Baumann Reaction, and Hydroxamic Acid Test. While the samples used were Acetyl Chloride, Acetic Anhydride, Benzamide and Acetamide, and Ethyl Acetate. Each classification test was done separately from the others and used specific compounds from the given samples to be experimented on.

Introduction

Carboxylic acids and their  derivatives are the most abundant of all organic compounds in living organisms and in laboratory. The most common derivatives of carboxylic acids are acyl halides, acid anhydrides, esters, and amides. They contain acyl group attached to a nucleophilic molecule that replaced the -OH group of a carboxylic acid. Carboxylic acids and their derivatives are involved in many industrial processes and most biological pathways . Acyl halides are used as a starting material for synthesis due to its reactivity. Amides, like acids and esters, are abundant in living organisms- proteins, nucleic acids, and manypharmaceuticals have amide functionalgroup. All carboxylic acid derivativesyield the parent carboxylic acid uponreaction with water. Furthermore, onederivative can be converted intoanother, provided the former is morereactive than the latter (3). Carboxylicacid derivatives react with the samemechanism the nucleophile attacks thecarbonyl carbon, forming an unstable

tetrahedral intermediate, which modifies a carboxylic acid derivative by eliminating the weakest base. The types of nucleophilic acyl substitution that acarboxylic acid derivative undergoes are hydrolysis, aminolysis and alcoholysis

The objective of this experiment is to differentiate the reactivities of carboxylicacid derivatives and to distinguish itusing classification tests. It also aimedto explain through chemical equationand mechanisms the reactions involvedin each tests.

University of Santo TomasFaculty of Pharmacy

Organic Chemistry - Laboratory