Synthesis of Aspirin Lab Report
Abstract:
The goal of this experiment was to synthesize aspirin. In this experiment aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid, was synthesized from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. In the reaction the hydroxyl group on the benzene ring in salicylic acid reacted with acetic anhydride to form an ester functional group. This method of forming acetylsalicylic acid is an esterification reaction. Since this esterification reaction is not spontaneous, sulfuric acid was used as a catalyst to initiate the reaction. After the reaction was complete some unreacted acetic anhydride and salicylic acid was still be present in the solution as well as some sulfuric acid, aspirin, and acetic acid. Crystallization, which uses the principle of solubility, was then used to remove most of the impurities and caused the acetylsalicylic acid to precipitate out of the solution. Next, the crude product was then purified by adding water which further lowered the solubility of acetylsalicylic acid and dissolved some impurities from the crystal of aspirin. The aspirin was then isolated from the solution using a vacuum filtration apparatus. The percent yield of crude aspirin product was 91.89%. To purify the crude aspirin product a recrystallization procedure was performed. The percent yield of the purified aspirin product was 5.77%. Next a phenol test was performed on the crude aspirin product, the purified aspirin product, and salicylic acid as a control. The phenol test was to test the purity of the aspirin product that was created during the experiment. The crude aspirin product and the purified aspirin product had no color changes and remained orange when mixed with the iron (III) chloride solution, which means that there were no phenol groups in both the crude aspirin product and the purified aspirin product. The lack of reaction with the iron (III) chloride revealed that both the crude aspirin product and the purified aspirin product were pure aspirin. The salicylic acid turned
The goal of this experiment was to synthesize aspirin. In this experiment aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid, was synthesized from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. In the reaction the hydroxyl group on the benzene ring in salicylic acid reacted with acetic anhydride to form an ester functional group. This method of forming acetylsalicylic acid is an esterification reaction. Since this esterification reaction is not spontaneous, sulfuric acid was used as a catalyst to initiate the reaction. After the reaction was complete some unreacted acetic anhydride and salicylic acid was still be present in the solution as well as some sulfuric acid, aspirin, and acetic acid. Crystallization, which uses the principle of solubility, was then used to remove most of the impurities and caused the acetylsalicylic acid to precipitate out of the solution. Next, the crude product was then purified by adding water which further lowered the solubility of acetylsalicylic acid and dissolved some impurities from the crystal of aspirin. The aspirin was then isolated from the solution using a vacuum filtration apparatus. The percent yield of crude aspirin product was 91.89%. To purify the crude aspirin product a recrystallization procedure was performed. The percent yield of the purified aspirin product was 5.77%. Next a phenol test was performed on the crude aspirin product, the purified aspirin product, and salicylic acid as a control. The phenol test was to test the purity of the aspirin product that was created during the experiment. The crude aspirin product and the purified aspirin product had no color changes and remained orange when mixed with the iron (III) chloride solution, which means that there were no phenol groups in both the crude aspirin product and the purified aspirin product. The lack of reaction with the iron (III) chloride revealed that both the crude aspirin product and the purified aspirin product were pure aspirin. The salicylic acid turned
Cited: Aguilar, Andrea. "Synthesis of Aspirin Part B."CourseHero. N.p.. Web. 7 Mar 2014. . "aspirin." PubChem. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Web. 7 Mar 2014.