IR spectrums of formic acid and 1-propanol. What is the difference between the two?

Question

Two bottles of colorless liquids have been in the back of the storeroom. Due to the age of the bottles the labels have fallen off. But it’s known that one is formic acid and the other is 1-propanol. If you were to measure IR of these luqids, what defferences could you use to identify the compounds? Struggling on some college chem homework i need to do. Any help would be amazing. : )

Dillan Pacocha · Accepted Answer

Formic acid is another name for methanoic acid: one carbon atom with a carboxylic acid group on it. (It’s also that strong smell you get when you step on an ant, so you’d really only need to sniff the bottles, not run an IR spectrum!) 1 proponal is a propane molecule (chain of 3 carbons) with an alcohol (OH) group on one end.Both things will have an IR peak due to the O-H bond. It will be slightly different due to the adjacent C=O in the acid, but it’s the peak due to the C=O itself that provides the easiest way of distinguishing between these substances – it will be completely absent in the 1-propoanol.

Dillan Pacocha · Answer

The carboxylic acid will have a stong absorption peak at 1740-1670 cm^-1 (5.7-6.0 um). This peak will be absent in the alcohol.

Mr. Keeley Hilpert

IR spectrums of formic acid and 1-propanol. What is the difference between the two?

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