Organic Tests

AS Chemistry
 Combustion

Alkanes Alkenes
 Combustion
• ALKANES • ALKENES

• Yellowish and slightly • Much smokier flame

smoky flame • Unsaturated
• Saturated compounds compound
• Higher C:H ratio
Alkenes

C=C
Alkenes
Test for C=C double bond

1. Add Bromine water/ Br2 (aq)

Red/Brown colour goes colourless

2. Shake with a few drops of dilute,

acidified potassium managanate(vii)
Purple colour quickly disappears
 - OH Group

Alcohols & Acids

 - OH Group (Alcohols & Acids)

• Add Phosphorus Pentachloride (s)

PCl5 + C2H5OH → POCl3 + C2H5Cl + HCl 

• Steamy fumes of HCl turn damp blue

Litmus Paper red

• HCl forms White Smoke with Ammonia

Carboxylic Acid

- COOH
 Carboxylic Acid - COOH

• Add Sodium or Potassium Carbonate

(or Hydrogencarbonate) Solution

• Effervescence (of CO2)

Primary or Secondary Alcohol
or Aldehyde
-OH
-CHO
Primary or Secondary Alcohol
or Aldehyde

• Warm with acidified (dilute H2SO4)

Potassium Dichromate (VI) Solution

• Orange to Green Solution

• Cr6+ ions reduced to Cr3+ ions

Halogenoalkanes

RX
 Halogenoalkanes
Test
Add a drop of the
halogenoalkane to a little
ethanol.
Mix with silver nitrate solution.
Stand in a warm water bath.
Warm with a solution of sodium
hydroxide, acidify with nitric acid
and then add silver nitrate.
Observations
. Hydrolysis with water slowly
Faint white precipitate after
about 10 minutes.
Cream precipite forms after 2–5
minutes.
Heavy yellow precipitate forms in
seconds
A white, creamy-yellow or yellow
precipitate on adding silver
nitrate.
Hydrolysis is fastest with
iodoalkanes and slowest with
chloroalkanes.
Inferences
produces halide ions from
covalent molecules.
The silver ions form precipitates:
white AgCl forms very slowly
from a chloroalkane;
creamy AgBr forms a little faster
from a bromoalkane
and yellow AgI forms rapidly
from an iodoalkane.
Hydrolysis with alkali produces
halide ions from covalent
molecules. In acid solution the
silver ions form precipitates:
white AgCl from a chloroalkane;
creamy AgBr from a
bromoalkane and yellow AgI
from an iodoalkane.
The order of reactivity reflects the strengths of the carbon-
halogen bonds.

The carbon-iodine bond is the weakest and the carbon-chlorine

the strongest of the three bonds.

In order for a halide ion to be produced, the carbon-halogen

bond has to be broken.

The weaker the bond, the easier that is.

Carbonyl

-C=O
 Test for Carbonyl Group
(in Aldehydes + Ketones not Carboxylic Acids)

Add solution 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine

Thick yellow or red precipitate forms

Carbonyl – Aldehyde/Ketone

-C=O
 Aldehydes
• Warm with freshly prepared Fehling’s
solution or Benedict’s reagent.
• Mixture turns green, then the blue colour
goes and an orange-red precipitate forms.
• Aldehydes reduce copper(II) ions in the
reagent to copper(I) oxide.

Ketones
No Reaction
 Aldehydes –
reduce silver (I) ions to metallic silver

Warm with Tollen´s Reagent

(ammoniacal silver (I) nitrate
Silver produced –
´Silver Mirror´ forms on clean glass or
As dark grey solid

Ketones – No Reaction
 Ketone Test
Warm with solution of Iodine in aqueous
sodium hydroxide

Pale Yellow precipitate forms

CHI3 formed from a ketone containing a

CH3CO- group
 Ketone

R – C=O-R´
Carboxylic Acids

- COOH
 Carboxylic Acids
• Warm a little solid with dilute hydrochloric acid
• Sharp, acrid smell
• Ethanoates give a strong smell of vinegar
Or
• Add a solution of sodium carbonate
• Mixture fizzes and gives off a colourless gas that
turns limewater cloudy white
• Carbon dioxide given off by an acid
cont.
 Carboxylic acids …..cont.
• Add ethanol and warm with drop of conc.
sulfuric acid as catalyst; pour onto sodium
carbonate solution
• Fruity smell of ester – formed from
reaction of acid with alcohol
Or
• Add solid PCl5 to anhydrous compound
• Fizzing – colourless, fuming, acidic gas
forms - HCl
Arenes

Ring
 Aromatic Hydrocarbons
(Arenes)

• Ignite – burns with yellow and very smoky

flame