Dehydration of 2-Methylcyclohexanol

Topic: E1 Reactions: Dehydration of 2-Methylcyclohexanol

1. Title Page: Include the title of the experiment (not necessarily the title as written in the laboratory manual), author’s name, name of lab partner (if applicable), class and section for which report was written, and date of submission.
2. Introduction: PRESENT TENSE. A stand-alone section that includes an objective, a purpose, and the background scientific context that supports and leads to your ultimate hypothesis of the experimental outcome.

Objective: What did you set out to accomplish? This may include a description of the overall experimental transformation, a balanced equation, proposed electron-pushing arrow mechanisms, and/or flow charts of procedures (if pertinent to the objective).

Purpose: Why are you doing this experiment? This is vastly different from the objective (see above) and can be somewhat subjective. A purpose could be:

(a) To evaluate the mechanism and resultant product stereochemistry, regiochemistry, and/or overall efficacy of a particular reaction, or to compare these for of a particular class of reactions.

(b) To evaluate any new laboratory techniques. Include a complete description of the theory behind every new laboratory and/or analytical technique employed.

(c) To underscore the importance of the experimental transformation to the general or scientific public. To illustrate this, you could specifically describe any background information that illustrates the industrial, biological, medicinal, or other significance of the objectives listed above.

Hypothesis: What do you predict to be the key result(s) of the experiment? A sound hypothesis should address both the objective and the purpose, and is clearly rationalized using scientific concepts, theories, and/or proposed mechanisms.

Note that the objectives, purposes, and hypotheses should not be written separately or stated directly as “the purpose of the experiment was to…” Alternatively, they should be laced together in well-organized and well-written sentences that flow between paragraphs. Many times, the hypothesis is inferred in the objective, and does not need to be stated explicitly as “the hypothesis of the experiment is…”

Sample Solution