Organometallic Compounds and Catalysis: Synthesis and Use of the Wilkinson’s Catalyst
The emphasis of this experiment was to examine Wilkinson’s catalyst in several homogenous chemical reactions. It was interesting to see how the catalyst had a higher catalytic activity compared to its other derivatives. H NMR was extensively used in this experiment.
It was this experiment that truly taught me the importance of cleaning and drying our glassware properly. On the NMR scan, I was able to identify impurity peaks from the solvents such as acetone or even water.
There was a product that seemed very hard for my fellow classmates to obtain. This was trans Rh(CO)Cl(PPh3)3. I realized the trick in obtaining this product was by cooling it in an ice bath for 15 minutes and adding 6 drops of cold ethanol. Many of my classmates used warm ethanol instead of also putting it in an ice bath. I learned that patience is everything.
