While taking group photographs in conferences, seminars, workshops, etc. Indian chemists and researchers prefer to say ‘benzene’....instead old one ‘cheese’ to make happy faces. But what do we know about benzene? As a chemist do we really know the struggle faced by the researchers to derive its structure? Who discovered benzene? Who synthesized benzene for the first time? I hope this blog will be quite useful for those who are willing to know the answers of the above mentioned questions. Benzene What we know today about benzene? Benzene is a colourless organic flammable liquid with characteristic odour which boils and freezes at 80.1 and 5.5 °C respectively. It is immiscible with water and has low density than it (water). The molecular formula of benzene is C 6 H 6 where all the C-C and C-H bonds are of equal length. Benzene is a planar aromatic molecule where all carbon atoms are SP 2 hybridized. The aromatic nature can be evidenced from its NMR spectrum. I...
Adulteration Study: Revisiting Starch Iodine Reaction Dr. Anand S. Burange Department of Chemistry, Wilson College, Chowpatty, Mumbai anand.burange@wilsoncollege.edu.in ; asgburange@gmail.com In this modern era, young generation is quite busy with their mobiles, laptops and other modern engineering feats for the recreation. They hardly get time to read books and to observe the world around. Lack of knowledge is one of the responsible factors for the degradation of moral values in a society we live. We consume lot of packed foods and sweets especially in India on occasion of various festivals. Do we really bother about the adulteration in variety of food products? In our present work, our undergraduate students purchased variety sweet samples ( Pedha: malai pedha, kesar pedha , etc) from various sweet shops in Mumbai (Area: Nalasopara). And the sweets were further evaluated for the presence of starch as one of the potential adulterants. Typically, slurry ...