Experiment
Determination of Melting and Boiling Points 1
Objectives
1) To determine melting point and boiling point of unknown compounds.
2) To identify a solid unknown by measuring mixed melting points.
3) To properly use general apparatus in organic chemistry laboratory.
Introduction
The melting point of a compound is the temperature at which the solid phase is in
equilibrium with the liquid phase. A solid compound changes to a liquid when the molecules
acquire enough energy to overcome the forces holding them together in an orderly crystalline
lattice. For most organic compounds, these intermolecular forces are relatively weak.
The melting point range is defined as the span of temperature from the point at which the
crystals first begin to liquefy to the point at which the entire sample is liquid. Most pure organic
compounds melt over a narrow temperature range of 1-2 °C.
The presence of a soluble impurity almost always causes a decrease in the melting point
expected for the pure compound and a broadening of the melting point range. In order to
understand the effects of impurities on melting point behavior, consider the melting point-mass
percent composition diagram for two different fictitious organic compounds, X and Y, shown in
Figure 1. The vertical axis represents temperature and the horizontal axis represents varying mass
percent compositions of X and Y.
Figure 1. Melting point-mass
percent composition diagram
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