Explain The Chemical Test For Simple Identification Of Colourless Organic Liquids

Task 3:
The chemical tests used in order to carry out and collect these results are useful for the simple identification of colourless organic liquids and ones that are often found at the scenes of crime. The first test carried out was the Lucas test which was used to identify a variety of alcohols following the contribution of a given solution, from carrying this out I could then identify that primary and secondary alcohols were present with one tertiary alcohol also being present however despite this given the colourless liquid that formed it is questionable as to whether the first conclusion that it was a positive test is reliable as if this were the correct results two layers should have formed one being an insoluble layer or emulsion and the other a colourless layer. Therefore from carrying out this test it can be concluded that colourless solution was a primary alcoholic solution. Additionally it can be concluded that this particular test was reliable as it gave the conclusion whether there was an alcohol present or not however along with every other test there is always a level of ambiguity when it comes to the results as often a fixed conclusion couldn’t be made due to the nature of the results being unclear.
The next test carried out was the carboxylic acid test as the name suggests this test is carried out in
In order to carry out this test the following procedures must be carried out including agitating the carbonyl compound within 0.5cm3 of methanol and then adding 3cm3 of dinitrophenylhydrazine. These tests were carried out on butanol, butanone, unknown a and unknown b which could all be concluded as positives tests given the large amount of yellow to red that formed. This test is therefore one of reliability as it indicates immediately whether aldehydes and ketones are