atom145

Yeah, I meant melting point and for some reason stupidly mistyped. It's solid at room temperature and I'm the only one doing it as we have to choose our own project (it's for Advanced Higher Chemistry in the Scottish system). There's no set goal since you choose your own (I chose this from a list of projects done in previous years) but I think the point is to apply chemistry at Advanced Higher level to postulate a sensible structure - the examiner won't know what the compound really was. I have learnt a bit about electrophilic substitution of halogens but not in the context of a bromine water test. I suspect the IR and UV equipment wasn't in particularly good condition- it was a portable kit that goes round every school in southern Scotland, and it didn't help that I had to rush through them. Thank you so much for all the time you've spent! I really appreciate it.

It's for a project in my final year of school that makes up part of my final grade. I'm confident it doesn't contain sulfur or a halogen, as my teacher (who chose the compound) implied as much, as he didn't want the fusion test to be necessary. And unfortunately I can't rerun the IR as I used a portable IR kit which the school only had for a day. As far as I understand, because the sample was solid when I ran the IR, the left hand side of the graph would have been suppressed. Are there any carbohydrate compounds which fit these results you could suggest? Even just more tests I could use to gather data? I've got some free time in the next few days due to exam leave and was hoping to get any remaining tests done.

The carboxyl group obviously. I don't have a molar mass or any formula. And I can't find an alken- or alkynoic acid with a melting point anything like that high. I've attached an IR and UV/vis spectrum. The UV/vis might be a bit dodgy though and I don't have access to the equipment any more. Any thoughts about further steps? I don't have access to the equipment for mass spectrometry or NMR and I'm not sure what other reactions or techniques I could use to help identify it.

I'm trying to identify an unknown white crystal experimentally. It dissolves in NaOH (but not water or HCl), and bubbles are evolved when it's added to a solution of sodium bicarbonate so it's acidic. Its boiling point is between 105-130 degrees C. It decolourises bromine water, so it must be unsaturated. This suggests an alkene or alkyne, but I'm not familiar with acidic unsaturated compounds except fatty acids, and that isn't consistent with the boiling point. Does anyone have a clue what this could be? Until it decolourised bromine I was convinced I had benzoic acid on my hands, but since aromatic groups don't undergo addition that doesn't make sense. It doesn't smell of anything, and when I added it to a flame it smelt a bit like burnt rubber.