[purplefrog]

hi,

I'm struggling to answer a question my chemistry teacher set. He asked us to imagine we had any equipment needed but only the following chemicals to determine which of 3 unknown compounds is the nitrile, amine and amide.

NaOH, H2SO4, Sodium Carbonate, Indicators/Test Papers, Brady's, Tollen's, Triiodoform, Sodium Nitrite

so far I have got:

Amide: add NaOH --> nothing happens --> heat --> test gas with damp red litmus/indicator paper --> blue (due to ammonia given off)

not sure how to test for amines/nitriles as they both seem to do the same things chemically :s

any help is appreciated

[illusionz]

Amines are bases so can be detected with indicator, leaving the last one to be the nitrile.

[EierVonSatan]

Any equipment? An IR spectrometer would make quick work of it

[illusionz]

(Original post by EierVonSatan)
Any equipment? An IR spectrometer would make quick work of it

Yeah I thought that but you don't see them very often in schools!!

[EierVonSatan]

(Original post by illusionz)
Yeah I thought that but you don't see them very often in schools!!

No true, but I don't think it's an experiment that will actually be done. Chemical tests should be avoided where ever possible

[illusionz]

(Original post by EierVonSatan)
No true, but I don't think it's an experiment that will actually be done. Chemical tests should be avoided where ever possible

Yeah, it's strange. 2 years of organic/inorganic work at university and also worked for about 6 months at an organic synthetic chemical company, I've only ever used nmr/IR to work out what I've got, never chemical tests. Seems rather pointless teaching it at schools.

The same applies to an extend with the iupac nomenclature.