When looking over Chapter 13 one of the muddiest points for me is looking at infrared spectroscopy data and determining what the compound may be. Infrared spectroscopy can be defined as measuring the absorption of the infrared radiation of organic compounds. However, for the absorption to occur the energy of the photon must match the difference of the energy between two states. When a molecule absorbs radiation from the IR it can cause the bonds to bend, stretch which can cause deforming bond lengths and angles. So since different kinds of bonds vibrate at different frequencies they can absorb different frequencies of IR radiation, which then the functional group can be determined. To determine a particular bond on the IR spectroscopy one must look at the bond strength and atom mass due to the fact that bonds form into four predictable regions of an IR spectrum.
References:
1. Characterization techniques for Organic Compounds. 25 January 2011. <http://www.chem.uky.edu/courses/che232/FTL/C1309.pdf>.
2.Infrared Spectroscopy. 25 January 2011. <http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/Spectrpy/InfraRed/infrared.htm>.
3. Infrared Spectroscopy. 25 January 2011. <http://www.prenhall.com/settle/chapters/ch15.pdf>.
