Organic Chemistry 2 HELP!!! Below are the IR and mass spectra of an unknown compound. What two possible structures could be drawn for the unknown compound?

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1 Answer
anor277
Jan 20, 2018

You have TWO data points....

Explanation:

#(i)# #"A molecular mass of 86"*g*mol^-1;#

#(ii)# #"The presence of a carbonyl group."# (i.e. the whacking great absorption at #1700*cm^-1# in the IR spectrum.

A tentative formula is thus #C_5H_10O#

This corresponds to approx. 7 ketones, and aldehydes.

Possible candidates are #"2-pentanone"#, or #"3-pentanone"#, or #"pentanaldehyde"#... Clearly there are more possibilities. If you really wanted to identify the compound, you would have to make derivatives of the stuff (the hydrazones would be a good bet), and measure the melting points of at least 2 derivatives.

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