Experiential Organic Chemistry

This is the first year Honors Organic Chemistry has been offered as an elective in Shorecrest Upper School. In this class students have been learning about a variety of synthetic reactions. Students recently learned about the process of distillation, used to separate a mixture of liquid products, and applied this to the synthesis of an alkene, which is a compound with a carbon-carbon double bond.

Students performed an acid-catalyzed dehydration, using water as a solvent. As the product alkene was generated, distillation was performed to separate the liquid alkene product.

In the top photo, Jeremy Barton '23 carefully isolates his alkene product from a water layer. In the bottom photo Jeremy Barton '23, Sabrina Aboud '22 and Brooke Waldmann '22 observe the distillation of their product.