ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a guide for the detection of the various salient functional groups which may be present in the organic molecules. Chemical reactions employed in resin spot testing may involve both charged (ionic) and neutral (molecular, atomic) species. Organic reagents are widely used in such qualitative resin spot tests, affording mostly the formation of colored compounds and, accordingly, the color tests. Furthermore, in the field of organic analysis resin spot testing has been found to be especially useful for identifying the compounds containing basic nitrogen as well as carbonyl compounds. Inasmuch as the functional groups are the reactive parts of the compound, their chemical reactions are the key to the classification and identification of most organic compounds. Most compounds exhibit reactions for each of the functional groups present, and the detection of each group makes the next step of the identification process.
