The authors describe an upper-division forensic chemistry experiment using glycolic acid and sodium glicolate to demonstrate the problem with analyzing an organic acid without deritivization and to analyze the products of silylation.
This article describes an upper-division forensic chemistry experiment. The experiment involved using glycolic acid and sodium glycolate as analogs of γ-hydroxybutyric acid and its sodium salt; it demonstrated the use of silylation in GC–MS analysis and gave students the opportunity to work with a commonly used silylating reagent, N,O-bis[trimethylsilyl]trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA). GC–MS was used to show the problem with analyzing an organic acid without derivatization and to analyze the products of silylation. Publisher Abstract Provided