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12/8/2010
Experiment 10
Purpose:
In this experiment, the essential oil found in clove buds was extracted. What’s more is the
structure of the major component in the oil was to be determined. The compound is known to
have a molecular formula of C10H12O2, an infrared spectrogram of the major component was
Procedure:
Thermometer
H2O
Essential oil
Clove mixture
Image 1: Modified distillation apparatus
of a separatory funnel. In this funnel, water was held and added to the distillation mixture, as the
4.920 grams of ground cloves were added to a boiling flask along with 50 mL H2O. Cold
water was run through the condenser and the boiling flask was connected to the distillation
apparatus. Heat was applied to the flask (denoted by ∆). The distillation continued for about 90
minutes, in which time an additional 300 mL of water was added to boiling pot. When the
After distillation, the oil needed to be separated from the water mixture. To do so, the oil
was extracted with two 40 mL portions of dichloromethane. The dichloromethane solution was
dried with magnesium anhydride and then evaporated over hot water into a cold water trap. In
all, (Some amount) grams remained. This is believed to be the essential oil found in cloves.
IR spectrogram data was provided by the lab instructor; its interpretation and presentation
follows.
Results:
As stated, the ground cloves were distilled in a modified distillation apparatus. The
temperature of the vapor was 100°C, so water was added to the system as it was distilled into the
oil. After 95 mL of distillate were collected, it was washed with dichloromethane and dried with
An IR spectrogram was provided for both the minor component and major component in
clove oil. Areas of note in the minor component are: a very active band over 3000 1/cm, there are
also large bands over 1800, 1500, and 1200 (1/cm). For the major component: a comparatively
less active band over 3000 1/cm, a sharp band above 3500 1/cm, and some sharp bands between
The purpose of this experiment is to identify the molecular structure of the clove oil
extracted from the raw cloves tested. The chemical structure of the clove oil component in this
experiment is C10H12O2. There are multiple structures that can be formed by this chemical
formula, but based on the results acquired from this experiment certain functional groups can be
identified to help figure out the structure of the major component in this experiment.
The IR spectrogram results of the major component show that there are three sharp bands
(image 2). The single sharp band above 3500 1/cm possibly suggests that there is a methyl group
attached to oxygen separate from the rest of the structure. This observation is supported by a
short wide active band over 3000 1/cm that appears to have a total of eight spikes and is about a
third of the height of the sharp band above 3500 1/cm. This suggests a ring structure due to the
number of hydrogen atoms in the structure and this is supported by the location of short wide
active band being around a wavelength of 3000 1/cm. The lack of a second spike like the one
above 3500 1/cm suggests that the second oxygen contributes to an alcohol group. The two sharp
bands in the IR spectrogram between 1300 and 1600 1/cm may possibly point to an alkene.
Taking this information into consideration the major product of clove oil appears to have a