Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / Paper 1 / 1 / a / i / Solution

A is pentane-2,3-dione, $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_3\mathrm{C}(=\mathrm{O})\mathrm{C}(=\mathrm{O})\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_3$. Its index of hydrogen deficiency is $(2\times 5+2-8)/2=2$, accounted for by two ketone carbonyls. The two resonances near 200 ppm, together with the three saturated carbon signals and the proton integrals, identify an unsymmetrical adjacent diketone rather than an ester or an alkene-containing structure.

The assignments are the carbonyl-adjacent methyl at ${\delta }_C=23.7$, the methylene at $29.2$, and the terminal ethyl methyl at $7.0$ ppm. The two carbonyl carbons give $197.5$ and $199.8$ ppm. Their individual ordering is not uniquely established by the supplied one-dimensional spectra; either ordering between the methyl-side and ethyl-side carbonyls should be kept tentative without a correlation or another independent assignment. In the displayed attached proton test phase convention, the two methyls have one sign, while the methylene and the nonprotonated carbonyls have the opposite sign. The solvent signal near 77 ppm is not a sixth carbon of A.