ENV124

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

EXPERIMENT 3
REACTIONS OF CARBONYL COMPOUNDS

STUDENT NAME: ASYRANI ZULAIKHA BINTI MOHD ZUKI

STUDENT ID: 2020472802
PROGRAMME CODE: HS113
COURSE GROUP: P2HS1132A1
INSTRUCTOR NAME: DR. AZRINAWATI MOHD ZIN
START DATE OF ASSIGNMENT: 12 JULY 2021
DATE OF SUBMISSION: 16 JULY 2021
OBJECTIVE

1. To carry out some simple chemical tests in order to distinguish between aldehydes and

Ketones.

2. To identify and unknown compound.

CHEMICAL REAGENT AND APPARATUS

Benzaldehyde, ethanal, butanone, unknown carbonyl compound, brady’s reagent, fehling solution,
5% silver nitrate, 1M ammonium hydroxide, 5% dilute sosium hydroxide,schiff’s reagent,distilled
water,iodine solution, 10% NaOH,water bath, test tubes, test tubes holder, droppers.

INTRODUCTION

Aldehydes and ketones represent an important class of organic compounds containing a carbonyl
functional group, C=O. In aldehydes, the carbonyl group is attached to a hydrogen atom and an
aliphatic or aromatic group. Methanal (formaldehyde) is an exceptional case in which the carbonyl
present in the compound is attached to two hydrogen atoms. In ketones, the carbonyl group is
attached to two aliphatic or aromatic groups.

Because the carbonyl group is present in both aldehydes and ketones, the two classes often react
similarly. With the same reagent, aldehydes usually react faster than ketones, mainly because there is
less crowding at the carbonyl carbons. One of the tests that can be used to identify the presence of
aldehydes and ketones is 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrozine test, which is also known as Brady’s test. The
formation of orange - yellow precipitate indicates the presence of carbonyl group in the compounds.

In addition, aldehydes are more susceptible to oxidation because of the hydrogen atom attached to
the carbonyl group. Aldehydes can be easily oxidised to carboxylic acids whereas the carbonyl group
in ketones are not oxidised easily. This difference in reactivity is the basis for the distinction of
aldehydes and ketones. Several tests such as Fehling’s test, Tollen’s test and Schiff’s test are useful
for differentiating between aldehydes and ketones. For the Fehling’s test, the formation of a brick-red
precipitate indicates a positive test. A positive Tollen’s test is indicated by the formation of silver mirror
or a black precipitate, whilst a positive Schiff’s test is denoted by a change from pale yellow
(colourless) to deep red-violet solution. Apart from that, iodoform test can be used for the detection of
ethanal (acetaldehyde) and all methyl ketone. A positive iodoform test is indicated by the formation of
a yellow precipitate.

In this experiment, several reactions that illustrate the similarities and differences between aldehydes
and ketones will be performed and then these tests will be used to identify an unknown carbonyl
compound (Unknown X).
PROCEDURES

PART A - BRADY’S TEST

1. 1ml of ethanal, benzaldehyde, butanone and unknown carbonyl compound was placed into 4 test
tubes respectively.

2. 2 drops of Brady’s reagent were added to each test tubes.

3. The test tubes was shake and being observed.

PART B - FEHLING’S TEST

1. 1ml of ethanal, benzaldehyde,butanone and unknown carbonyl compound was placed into 4 test
tubes respectively.

2. 2ml of fehling solution were dispensed into each 4 tst tubes.

3. All the test tubes were put into a boiling water for about 20 minutes.

4. The precipitates formed were determined and recorded.

PART C - TOLLEN TEST

1. 2ml of ethanal,benzaldehyde,butanone and unknown carbonyl compound were placed into 4

different test tubes respectively.

2. 2.5 ml of silver nitrate solution were dispensed into each test tubes.

3. The test tubes then were shaken gently.

4. 1M of ammonium hydrocide was added around 1 to 5 drops into each test tubes with a gentle
shaking until the precipitate dissolved in every test tubes.

5. 5 drops of dilute NaOH were added into each tets tubes.

6. All the information of any silver mirror were observed and noted.
PART D - SCHIFF’S TEST

1. 1 drops of ethanal, benzaldehyde, butanone and unknown carbonyl compound was placed into 4
different test tubes respectively.

2. 1ml of schiff reagent was added into each of test tubes.

3. All the test tubes were shake gently and all the colour changes were observed and noted.

PART E - IODOFORM TEST

1. 3 drops of ethanal, benzaldehyde, butanone and unknown carbonyl compound were placed into 4
different test tubes respectively.

2. 3ml of distilled water were added into each 4 test tubes.

3. 10 drops of iodine were added into each test tubes.

4. The dark brown solution was observed,

5. 10%NaOH solution was added into each test tubes.

6. The test tubes were warmed in a water bath around 60°C for 1 minutes.

7. The formation of precipitate was observed and recorded.

RESULTS

TEST

COMPOUND BRADY’S FEHLING’S TOLLEN’S SCHIFF’S IODOFORM

ETHANAL Orange Brick-red Silver mirror Pinkish Light yellow

precipitate precipitate formed purple color precipitate
formed formed solution formed
formed

BENZALDEHYDE Yellow No reaction No reaction Pinkish Turns to

precipitate colour colorless
formed solution solution
formed

BUTANONE No changes No reaction No reaction Faded pink Light yellow

solution precipitate
formed formed

UNKNOWN X No changes No reaction No reaction Faded pink Light yellow

solution precipitate
formed formed

DISCUSSION

Aldehydes and Ketones are organic compounds that consist of the carbonyl functional group, C=O.
The carbonyl group that consists of one alkyl substituent and one hydrogen is the Aldehyde and those
containing two alkyl substituents are called Ketones. In this experiment, a few test were conducted to
test for the presence of aldehydes and ketones. Tollen’s Reagent was used to determine whether a
substance is an aldehyde or ketone, which shows that aldehydes are easily oxidized while ketones
are not. The Iodoform reaction would have a positive result if there is a pale yellow precipitate.The
Tollen reagent is a chemical reagent for the determination of the presence of functional groups of
aldehyde or α-hydroxylic ketone. A solution of silver nitrate and ammonia is used for the reagent. The
precipitation of elemental silver, which frequently produces a characteristically "silver mirage," shows
a positive test with the Tollen reagent at the inside of the reaction jar.Since hydrogen atoms are
present in the aldehydes, oxidisation is made simpler, and a mirror-like image is therefore formed on
the test tubes. Therefore, these compounds tested Tollen's reagent positively. Ketones are said, since
no response has happened in most of the substances tested negative. The colourless solution has
not changed because Ketones are less oxidizable.For the iodoform test, A pale yellow precipitate in
the test tube would show a positive result. Benzaldehyde includes chemicals which have shown
positive for this test. Meanwhile, schiff test is a chemical test used to check for the presence of
aldehydes in a given analyte. This is done by reacting the analyte with a small quantity of a Schiff
reagent.In general, ketones do not lead to this reaction. The heat should not be exposed to the
reaction. With Schiff ‘s reagent, those ketones give a light pink hue, so light pink colour formation is
not a positive test. Last but not least,from this experiment, we can tell that compound x is actually a
methyl ketones. In this experiment, methyl ketones was identified by iodoform test. This is because,In
the iodoform test, the unknown is allowed to react with a mixture of excess iodine and excess
hydroxide.When methyl ketone is heated with iodine in the presence of sodium hydroxide, yellow
precipitate of iodoform is obtained. Hence, methyl ketones are characterized by iodoform test.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the difference between aldehydes and ketones?

The difference between an aldehyde and a ketones is The carbonyl group that consists of one alkyl
substituent and one hydrogen is the Aldehyde and those containing two alkyl substituents are called
Ketones.

2. What is the chemical formula of the brick-red precipitateformed in fehling’s test.

C2H3OO

3. What causes the formation of silver mirror in Tollen’s test?

Silver ions in the presence of hydroxide ions come out of solution as a brown precipitate of silver(I)
oxide, Ag2O(s). This precipitate dissolves in aqueous ammonia, forming the diamminesilver(I) ion,
[Ag(NH3)2]+.

4. Explain the formation of yellow precipitate in iodoform test?

The formation of yellow precipitate in iodoform test is because its formed a positive result which is
given by an aldehyde or ketone containing hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group.

5. Apart from the test used in this experiment, name one other test that can be carried out to
distinguish between aldehydes and ketone.
Oxidation test. This is because only aldehyde will oxidized.

6. Give simple chemical test to distinguish between the following pairs of the compounds :

i) Hexanal and 2-hexanone

Tollen’s Test

ii) Propanal and benzaldehyde

Fehling’s Test

iii) 2-pentanone and 3-pentanone

Iodoform’s Test

CONCLUSION

As the conclusions, the purposes of this experiment is to carry out some simple chemical tests in
order to distinguish between aldehydes and Ketones and to identify and unknown compound. From
the result, we can conclude that we can distinguish between ketones and aldehydes by conducting a
few tests. Last but not least, the objectives of this experiment have been achieved.