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for wittig reaction: After the reaction mixture is added to the top of the silic

ID: 1027456 • Letter: F

Question

for wittig reaction:

After the reaction mixture is added to the top of the silica gel column, the instructions state:

“Open the stopcock and drain the column until the meniscus is just above the top layer of the material. Add another 0.5 mL of solvent and repeat the process to ensure that all of the desired products are adsorbed onto the silica gel. This process ensures that none of the desired products are dissolved in solution above the column.” Why is this procedure important? How would the TLC plates look different than your prediction in Q1 if a student skipped this step?

Explanation / Answer

Open the stopcock and drain the column until the meniscus is just above the top layer of the material. Add another 0.5 mL of solvent and repeat the process to ensure that all of the desired products are adsorbed onto the silica gel. This process ensures that none of the desired products are dissolved in solution above the column.” Why is this procedure important?

This step is important because the products should be adsorbed on silica gel. If they are dissolved in the solvent, they do not adhere to silica gel and the order of the polarity of the compounds would be disturbed.

How would the TLC plates look different than your prediction in Q1 if a student skipped this step?

If the student skips this step the products would not be loaded on the colum properly and a mixture of coumpounds would run out of the column. This wouldnt lead to a successful purification of the compounds.