How do you determine a structural formula?

1 Answer
anor277
Jul 2, 2017

How else but by experiment........?

Explanation:

A chemist would routinely perform combustion analysis to get #%C,H,N#, this could be used to determine the #"empirical formula"#. A determination of molecular mass could then be attempted, and this then gives the #"molecular formula"#, which is a whole number multiple of the #"empirical formula"#. Given the molecular formula we might take melting points of the compounds and its derivatives, or use spectroscopic techniques, and get an idea of the connectivity.

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