How to be a Successful Organic Chemist

36 A key task is therefore to select and present meaningful data, and not just dump all your data into the report. If you have acquired an IR (or NMR) spectrum, a copy of the spectrum should be included in this section. (2) Things to watch out for: Two common examples of irrelevant data include mass of glassware and mass of filter paper. Appearance, consistency of a product and other physical properties of a similar nature, are also inappropriate. Make sure that the tables are formatted correctly. (3) Some examples: Good Table: Good Table: Section 6. Interpret the obtained results (or what did your data mean?) (1) General: In many cases, interpretation of data is the most challenging component of any report. The key feature of an interpretation is that it says something about the data that relates to the purpose of that experiment. There are two important scenarios: If the purpose of the experiment is to identify an unknown sample, then the interpretation extract information from the data that says something about the identity of the unknown. If the purpose of the experiment is to synthesize a compound, the interpretation must extract information that describes the identity and purity of the target compound. The natural tendency is to write interpretations that are far too long. A good interpretation is exact, pre- cise, and addresses the purpose of the experiment. Such information can be: 1. TLC (says something about purity and identity) 2. Melting point (says something about purity and identity, especially when compared to a knownmelting point) 3. IR data (says something about which functional groups contained in the sample, which might indicate the presence or lack of the suspected product) 4. Yield (says something about the success of the reaction) 5. Boiling point (says something about the identity of the compound) Table 1. Synthesis table Compound Mw, [g/mol], m, [g], n, [mmol], Yield, [%], Benzaldehyde NaBH 4 1,1-diphenylmethanol 182 38 184 0.21 0.10 0.19 1.2 2.6 1.0 - - 83 Table 2. IR data Bond Observed value [cm -1 ] Literature value [cm -1 ] O-H C-H (sp 2 ) C-H (sp 3 ) 3550 3010 2985 3200-3600 3090-3005 2985-2800