Question

Chemists everywhere were horrified by a 2019 report that palladium absorbs into stir bars and catalyzes “metal-free” cross-couplings. For 10 points each:
[10e] The best way to avoid such “phantom reactivity” is to soak the stir bar in this mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, under the assumption that if this mixture can dissolve gold, it ought to be good enough to clean a stir bar.
ANSWER: aqua regia
[10h] The paper also raised fears of metals contaminating these hard-to-clean discs of porous sintered glass, which are used in spargers (“SPAR-jurs”) and vacuum filters to separate solids.
ANSWER: frits [or fritted glass; accept fritted funnels]
[10m] Contamination is gratifyingly obvious in this reaction, since its radical electride intermediate degrades Teflon and turns stir bars black. This reaction is run at negative 78 degrees Celsius and forms cyclohexadienes.
ANSWER: Birch reduction [or Birch–Benkeser reaction]
<Chemistry>

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Summary

2023 ACF Nationals04/22/2023Y2113.33100%33%0%

Data

Columbia AUC Berkeley B1001020
Indiana AColumbia B100010
Cornell BNYU A1001020
Duke AChicago C100010
UC Berkeley AImperial A100010
Michigan AIllinois A100010
Georgia Tech BMinnesota B100010
Chicago APenn A1001020
Rutgers AVanderbilt A100010
WUSTL BTexas A1001020
Yale BPurdue A100010
Chicago BJohns Hopkins A1001020
Florida AToronto A100010
WUSTL ASouth Carolina A100010
Yale AOhio State A1001020
MIT AGeorgia Tech A100010
Houston AMinnesota A100010
Iowa State ANorth Carolina A100010
Brown ANorthwestern A1001020
Cornell AVirginia A100010
Maryland AHarvard A100010