The purpose of this lab was to get familiarized with a new technique called reflux to drive a reaction to equilibrium, while at the same time gaining experience with the synthesis of alkyl bromides from alcohols and obtaining and interpreting NMR and IR spectra. In this experiment, NaBr in concentrated sulfuric acid was used to convert an alcohol into Propyl Bromide. This reaction is fairly slow at room temperature, so a vertical condenser attached to the flask is required to heat the mixture to its boiling point. This is called heating to reflux and this reaction follows an SN2 Reaction method. A typical SN2 reaction involves the relocation of a leaving group by a nucleophile. By using methyl and primary halides the reaction is more efficient,
