I have 1 nitrogen atom and the rest is all carbons and hydrogens, so it's some kind of solid amine (not soluble in water, acid or base) and it's not very reactive and there's nothing else in there in terms of atoms. It's melting point is close to about 35 degrees C but there's a lot of stuff out there with similar melting points. I also have its molecular mass, but there's still like 20 possibilities, or more.
So I was wondering, how reliable is a derivative for identifying unknown pure compounds?
I was thinking about turning it into an amide as a derivative but are their melting points or other features distinct from others? Like if I had several amines and turned them all into amides, are all of the amide derivatives very distinct by melting points?