Abstract The preparation of dibenzylideneacetone is a classic experiment in organic chemistry courses in many universities.However,this experiment suffers from some issues,including unclear reaction endpoint,severe leakage and turbid filtrate during the crude product suction filtration process,superficial content design and deficient high-order cognitive demands.This paper innovatively describes the corresponding strategies to address those problems.The acetone in reaction process can reacts with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine to offer acetone-2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone,which can be monitored by thin-layer chromatography,thereby enabling to determine the reaction endpoint indirectly.Inspired by the electrolyte coagulation principle,saturated NaCl solution is added into reaction system to increase particle size and coagulate crude products,which effectively solves filtration issues.At the same time,the addition of saturated NaCl can elevate the poor solvent ratio,suppressing ethanol-evaporation-induced secondary precipitation of product.The influence of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing effects on the reactivity of aldol condensation reaction and product properties is investigated using different substituted benzaldehyde,which enriches the experimental contents and enhances its high-order.The improved experiment exhibits well-defined reaction endpoint,stable reproducibility and strong exploratory value,which can effectively cultivate students’ scientific thinking that integrate theory with practice,as well as enhance students’ comprehensive ability to solve practical problems.
CHENG Shao-Ling, FENG Jia-Xu. Improvement and Teaching Design of Dibenzylideneacetone Synthesis Experiment for Developing Scientific Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Education, 2026, 47(10): 30-37.
