These and other reactions which differentiate aldehydes from ketones (silver mirror) result from the oxidizability of the aldehydes, due to the presence of an additional hydrogen on the carbon atom.

Knowledge of the oxidizing potential of the Fehling's solution is necessary to answer question 3, so that this topic has to be discussed prior if the students are not familiar with it.

Learning objectives

• Aldehydes can be distinguished from ketones by their reaction with fuchsin-sulphurous acid solution (Schiff's solution) and with Fehling's solution.
• The reactions of both solutions results from the oxidizability of aldehydes. Ketones cannot be oxidized.

Benefits

• Easy teaching and efficient learning by using interactive experimentation PHYWE-Software
• Experiment is part of a complete solution set with experiments for the topic Organic Chemistry matched with international curriculum: all topics are covered