Dehydration of menthol: Development of an undergraduate organic laboratory experiment

Abstract

By Aya Samra, Pre-pharmacy

Advisor: Christopher Gulgas

Presentation ID: PM_C11

Abstract: Menthol is a naturally occurring molecule containing an alcohol functional group which can be readily dehydrated to form a variety of alkene products. The goals of this project were to (1) customize and fine tune the dehydration procedure and (2) characterize the product mixture using infrared (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies as well as gas chromatography (GC). The reaction was successful in producing a mixture of menthene products which was analyzed to identify major products. The procedure was then adapted to be employed at the microscale level in the organic laboratories at UC Blue Ash. The reaction procedure and characterization methods shall be presented.