Measurement of Ring Strain Using Butanols: A Physical Chemistry Lab Experiment

In this article, a bomb calorimeter experiment and subsequent calculations aimed at determining the strain energy of the cyclobutane backbone are described. Students use several butanol isomers instead of the parent hydrocarbons, and they manipulate liquids instead of gases, which makes the experiment much easier to perform. Experiments show that the estimated strain energy is reasonably close to literature values for cyclobutane.