lab report

Alkenes – Synthesis of Cyclohexenes
Objective:
The synthesis of alkenes is performed by dehydrating subsequent alcohol group using strong acid followed by strong neutralising step, in common concentrated phosphoric acid or sulphuric acid is used for dehydration step.
The above step shows the elimination reaction where leaving group (X) departs with electron (bonding) results in abstraction of adjacent carbon with absence of bonding electron. (hydrogen in common) and in general classified as elimination (H+/X-) loss. The mechanism commonly follows three methods/steps in common through E1, E2 & E1CB mechanism to get alkene as final product.
Step 1: The carbocation is formed by leaving group X with departing electrons results in formation of intermediate carbocation which loses proton in subsequent step to form alkene a double bond product through E1 step (first-order elimination).
Step 2: The second method/step is losing both proton (H+) and X- simultaneously through one-step mechanism commonly called as E2 (second-order elimination) where B(base) gets abstracted by H+ (proton).
Step 3: The third possible mechanism is abstraction of proton by base prior with elimination of X to form alkene product with carbanion as intermediate product.
The objective of this experiment is to synthesis cyclohexene by dehydration of cyclohexanol using concentrated phosphoric acid which undergoes E1 mechanism (carbocation intermediate).
The proton from phosphoric acid (H+) protonates oxygen atom in cyclohexanol to form oxonium ion to carbocation by decomposition of hydroxyl ion to water molecule. The carbocation results in formation of cyclohexene via elimination of proton (adjacent) since it cannot rearrange to stable carbocation.
The azeotropic distillation...