Chemistry Organic Lab Discussion--Assignment 3 The objective of experiment 13 is to perform a Diels-Alder reaction with a conjugated diene in eucalyptus oil and maleic anhydride, and to identify the unknown diene present in the oil based on the melting point of the product. Sources of error include miscalculating the amount of maleic anhydride necessary to react--as I did, resulting in me having to restart the lab--as well as the usual sources of error such as losing product when the solution is poured from one beaker to another. The percent yield of product was 37%, which can be attributed to losing some of the product in the process of transferring it from one beaker to another, as well losing as some product in the transfer to the weighing paper. The melting point was from 104 to 110 degrees Celsius, which suggests that the product was not purely a-phellandrene since the melting point is about 15 degrees too low. However, since the melting point most closely matches that of a-phellandrene, it may be concluded that this is the prominent diene that is in eucalyptus oil. The IR spectra for the Diels-Alder product shows an appearance of peaks at 2970 and 2944 that are not present in the IR spectrum of maleic anhydride. These peaks are in the functional group region for C-H groups, which makes sense because through the Diels-Alder reaction, new C-H bonds are formed.