Lab report on gas chromatograph and the optical activity of carvones.

Optical Activity of Carvones Kyle Peterson Chem. 243a Matt Judd, Sec. 25 Date Performed: 10/29/03 Abstract: The objective of this experiment is to use Gas Chromatography to distinguish between two enantiomers of carvone from caraway oil and spearment oil and to find the 2 carvone's optical activity as well as percent carvone in spearment and caraway oil. It was found that S-carvone had an optical activity of 0.0047 and R-carvone had an optical activity of 0.516 and that spearment oil …

…molecule's structure is the same except that a few atoms are bent in different positions via the chiral center. Because the 2 carvones are of the same physical properties but have different optical rotation, they are enantiomers. All errors in this lab that could have occurred must be do to calculation or machine fault, due to the fact that no experiment was actually done. Samples were merely tested in a GC machine and calculations were made.