Experiments with Bichloride of Mercury

Chemistry is an empirical science. Scientists often pose questions to understand the chemistry in everyday life and seek answers to these questions. To achieve this, scientists follow a definitive series of steps that together make up the Scientific Method. This approach involves making observations, asking questions, building a hypothesis, conducting experiments, analyzing results, and forming a conclusion. 

Oxymercuration–reduction of alkenes is one of the major reactions converting alkenes to alcohols. It involves the hydration of alkenes with mercuric acetate in a mixture of tetrahydrofuran and water, forming an organomercury adduct. This is followed by a demercuration step in which the adduct is reduced to an alcohol using sodium borohydride.

Predicting Precipitation
The equation that describes the equilibrium between solid calcium carbonate and its solvated ions is:

Chlorination and bromination are important classes of electrophilic aromatic substitutions, where benzene reacts with chlorine or bromine in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst to give halogenated substitution products. A Lewis acid such as aluminium chloride or ferric chloride catalyzes the chlorination, and ferric bromide catalyzes the bromination reactions. During the bromination of alkenes, bromine polarizes and becomes electrophilic. However, in the bromination of benzene, the bromine...

The precipitation titration curve demonstrates the change in concentration of one reactant with the volume of titrant added. During the titration of chloride ions with silver nitrate, the precipitation titration curve is divided into three regions: before, at, and after the equivalence point. Before the equivalence point, low redissolution of the sparingly soluble silver chloride precipitate gives a low silver ion concentration. However, in the second region, representing the equivalence point,...

Benzylic halogenation takes place under conditions that favor radical reactions such as heat, light, or a free radical initiator like peroxide.