Laboratory Tutorials

The synthesis, purification, and identification of compounds are perhaps the most common tasks of the chemist.  The techniques used for syntheses vary greatly, but always require decisions about what type of glassware to use, whether to heat or cool the reactants, and so on.  The purification of solid products is often done by recrystallization, while liquids are purified by distillation.  Compounds can be identified by a great variety of sophisticated techniques, but often the initial task is to determine what elements are present and in what amounts.  Elemental composition can be done by many procedures, but classical gravimetric and volumetric analyses remain among the most reliable.

The operations given here are for the basic techniques that you will encounter in these procedures of purification and identification.