Essay On Synthesis Of Aspirin

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Discussion 19 The purpose of this experiment was to synthesize and purify of Aspirin and Oil in wintergreen. While determining the purity through analytical techniques. During the first part of the lab the crude sample of acetylsalicylic acid, Aspirin, was synthesized. The synthesis of Aspirin shows a general trend of chemical reactions known as esterification reactions. The compound containing a hydroxyl group reacts with a compound containing a carboxylic acid group, producing an ester molecule and water. Since this reaction is slow, the lab used acetic anhydride instead of acetic acid to drive the reaction to completion. As a result, the chemical formula is C7H6O3(s) + C4H6O3(l) → C4H8O4(s) + C2H4O2(l) The mass of aspirin produced was 6.051g producing a high percent yield …show more content…

Since salicylic acid is insoluble in water, a method called recrystallization was used, by mixing with ethanol. Ethanol is non-polar which makes it a great solvent for salicylic acid. The solution was cooled so that the Aspirin was no longer soluble and it left the impure salicylic acid in the solution and the solid left was pure aspirin. The mass of the pure aspirin produced was 0.609g which gave a low percent yield of 20.32%. The low % yield was probably due to unsuccessful recrystallization. Recrystallization shows a very reasonable way to eliminate unwanted impurities. Part 4 of this lab showed a way to observe impurities by comparing the melting point of crude and pure samples. Since impurities are to be shown in the crude sample it would have a lower melting point and larger range. The known melting point of aspirin is to be 135 oC. The crude sample had a melting point range from 69oC to 81 oC. While the Pure sample melting point range was from 116oC to 125oC. Since the Pure sample was still below 135 oC, this shows that there are still some impurities

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