Hydration Of Alkene Lab Report

Introduction In this experiment, exo-norborneol was produced by a hydration of alkenes by using an acid and excess water. Hydration of alkenes is the acid-catalyzed addition of water to a carbon-carbon pi bond that leads to the formation of an alcohol. Norbornene is a bridged cyclic hydrocarbon, this molecule contains a double bond that induces significant ring strain, and therefore, it is highly reactive. In order for this reaction to occur, equilibrium must be established between the hydration and dehydration processes. To drive the reaction, double bonds must be hydrated with excess water; to complete the reaction, an alcohol must be dehydrated by water removal. In this experiment, norbornene is the alkene and exo-norborneol is the alcohol product. The purpose of this procedure was to form a pure sample of exo-norborneol by reacting norbornene with an acid and excess water. Anhydrous sodium sulfate is used in order to remove water from the final product.
This is followed by a nucleophilic attack from the water to the less sterically hindered side of the carbocation, which leads to the formation of exo-norborneol, not endo-norborneol. Based on the data obtained, Table 1 demonstrates that when obtaining the percent recovery of exo-norborneol, over half was recovered. Percent yield and accuracy have an inverse relationship, meaning, because the percent yield was high, the accuracy of the melting point was low. According to Chemicalbook, the melting point range of exo-norborneol is 124 -126 °C. Table 2 demonstrates that the exo-norborneol product had a slightly low melting point range. Typically, a low melting point range is due to impurities being present in the final product. These impurities could include norbornene, water, sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide, etc. Therefore, the exo-norborneol product prepared, was not entirely