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Practice
Descriptive and laboratoryNational 2019

A chemist has isolated a solid carboxylic acid of unknown formula from a medicinal herb. Which experiment will be most useful in assessing the purity of the isolated material?

19% of national qualifiers got this right

Explanation

draft

Purity of a solid organic compound is classically assessed by its melting point behavior.

  • A pure crystalline solid melts sharply over a narrow range (often ≤1–2 °C).
  • Impurities disrupt the crystal lattice, causing the melting point to be lower and the melting range to broaden.

So simply measuring the melting point (and comparing the sharpness/range to literature values for the pure acid) quickly reveals whether the isolated solid is pure or contaminated.

The other techniques listed give information about identity or quantity, not purity:

  • Titration with NaOH tells you the equivalent weight or moles of acidic protons present, which helps determine molar mass/identity, but a contaminated sample could still titrate cleanly if the impurity is non-acidic — it doesn't reveal purity.
  • Combustion analysis gives the empirical formula (mass % C, H, O), useful for identifying the compound, not for detecting small amounts of impurity.
  • UV-Vis spectrophotometry is useful for compounds with chromophores and for quantitative concentration measurements, but many carboxylic acids lack strong UV-Vis absorption and this method isn't a standard purity check for isolated solids.

Hence, melting point determination is the most direct and useful purity assessment.

A

Correct: a sharp, narrow melting point matching literature values indicates a pure solid; a depressed or broadened range signals impurities.

B

Tempting because titration determines equivalent weight/identity, but a student choosing this confuses acid-base titration (quantifying moles of acid) with a purity test — impurities that aren't acidic wouldn't be detected.

C

A student picks this thinking elemental composition (C, H, O percentages) proves purity, but combustion analysis only gives an empirical formula/identity, not evidence of a second component mixed in.

D

A student assumes any spectroscopic method can detect impurities, but UV-Vis requires a chromophore and is used for concentration/identity of colored/absorbing species, not for general purity assessment of a solid carboxylic acid.

Concept · Melting point as a purity criterion for solid organic compounds

USNCO 2019 National Part I exam, question 11. © American Chemical Society; reproduced for non-commercial practice.