Diels Alder Reaction Lab

Introduction: As it is taught throughout school, all living things are made up of cells. These cells are carry out all the necessary functions to keep the human body well maintained including chemical reactions and other complex tasks. In order to carry out these functions, it’s vital for the cell to possess a membrane. Cells create cholesterol, which is a cyclic fatty-product that maintains the cells permeability. Cholesterol is also synthesized to create steroid hormones, and also vitamin D. The way scientists synthesize this cyclic product is through a Diels-Alder reaction. This reaction is very important in the synthesis of many other antibiotics and cyclic drugs. (Gujral, 2013) A Diels-Alder reaction is reaction between a conjugated …show more content…
For this reaction, 0.1g of anthracene and 0.57g of maleic anhydride was used. During the second part of the experiment, the product was recrystallized. The total amount of crystals recovered was found to be 0.051g. From there the next step was to find the molarity of the reactants. The formula used to calculate the molarity was the weight of the sample divided by its molar mass. Given that the molar mass of anthracene is 178.2g, the moles of anthracene used was 0.00056M. Given that the molar mass of maleic anhydride was 98.1g, the moles of maleic anhydride used was …show more content…
The next thing that was found was the percent yield which is equal to the actual yield over the theoretical yield times 100. Since the theoretical yield was 0.00056M, the result was a 34% yield. The melting point was found to be 262.7 oC, which lies within the correct range theoretically. The results of the TLC plate testing also concluded that the product was pure. The spot from the product appeared half way up the card while the anthracene was at the top and the maleic anhydride was at the bottom. This single dot indicates a pure