Monitoring of reactions of acetophenone with some o-substituted benzaldehyde derivatives in solution media by FT-IR

Chalcones, which are open-chain flavonoid derivatives, are compounds containing  unsaturated carbonyl groups.There are chalcone compounds isolated from plants or synthetically that have various biological activities such as antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antihistamine. For this reason, there are studies in the literature on the synthesis of chalcone derivatives, their isolation from plants and their biological activities. In this study, the reactions of acetophenone with benzaldehyde and some 2-substituted benzaldehyde derivatives (salicylaldehyde, 2-chlorobenzaldehyde and 2-methoxybenzaldehyde) in ethanol-water solvent mixture in the presence of NaOH were carried out at room temperature. Benzalacetophenone, 2-hydroxybenzalacetophenone, 2-chlorobenzalacetophenone and 3-methoxybenzalacetophenone compounds were obtained as products from the reactions. Structure analyses of the synthesized compounds were performed by comparing the IR spectra of the input materials and the products. In the study, the reaction start background identification method was used, which is based on the logic that the vibrations originating from all components at the start of the reaction are ignored by the FT-IR device. The reactions of acetophenone with benzaldehyde, 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 2-chlorobenzaldehyde and 2-methoxybenzaldehyde in solution medium (ethanol-water) at room temperature were monitored by FT-IR using the background identification method at the beginning of the reaction. Changes occurring in the reaction environment over time were examined.