Organic compounds determination, general

In addition to affecting boiling points and melting points, intermolecular forces determine the solubility properties of organic compounds. The general rule is that like dissolves like. Polar substances dissolve in polar solvents, and nonpolar substances dissolve in nonpolar solvents. We discuss the reasons for this rule now, then apply the rule in later chapters when we discuss the solubility properties of organic compounds. 

Since the experimental discovery of TPA, multiphoton excitation has become a popular tool in the photochemical sciences to determine the excitation energy of states with parity forbidden transition [3-54], Transitions that are parity forbidden by one-photon (OP) excitation can thus become allowed by two-photon (TP) excitation. TP excitation spectroscopy localizes the energetic position of TP excited states, which cannot be observed by OP excitation. These pioneering works confirmed many quantum chemical studies predicting the existence of TP excited states and therefore experimentally completed the pattern of electronic transitions in organic compounds. In general, TP excitation had been mainly limited to academic interest until the end of the 1980s [2-24, 26-45, 47-52, 55-69]. 

Before the advent of NMR spectroscopy infrared (IR) spectroscopy was the mstrumen tal method most often applied to determine the structure of organic compounds Although NMR spectroscopy m general tells us more about the structure of an unknown com pound IR still retains an important place m the chemist s inventory of spectroscopic methods because of its usefulness m identifying the presence of certain functional groups within a molecule... 

As extensive as the SDBS is, don t be disappointed if the exact compound you are looking for is not there. There are, after all, millions of organic compounds. However, much of structure determination (and organic chemistry in general) is based on analogy. Finding the spectrum of a related compound can be almost as helpful as finding the one you really want. 

---