[telethrow]

Hi
I am doing some research at school and trying to oxidize a secondary alcohol using manganese dioxide to a ketone.
I am now following the procedure from the link below. ( scroll down to see procedure on the linked page):

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5072050.html

However the result of the IR spectra I see carbonyl band but I also see a huge OH band. So I'm hoping you guys would suggest some other helpful procedure to carry out this reaction to get more ketone product than the alcohol product.

If I get enough of the ketone product than I can use it to make a chalcone out of it.

Thanks in advance.

[chiralic]

Did you isolate and purify your product?

Do you know what is the yield of your procedure?
 
The presence of OH band and C=O band on your IR spectra tell me that you have a mix.

[movies]

Manganese dioxide will only oxidize allylic or benzylic alcohols.  Do you have that?