Aspirin Synthesis Lab Report
Aspirin Synthesis
Introduction
Out of all the pharmaceutical drugs in the worlds, aspirin is made the most. Any potential pharmacist must be familiar with synthesizing the drug. The goal of this lab is to synthesize as much pure aspirin as possible. The reactants, acetyl anhydride and salicylic acid, must react in phosphoric acid. With phosphoric acid as a catalyst, the reaction yields aspirin and acetic acid. The equation for the reaction is as follows:
“(CH3CO)2O + HOC6H4COOH □(→┴yields ) CH3CO2C6H4CO2H + CH3COOH” (French et al, 82). Aspirin and salicylic acid have similar properties, but many choose aspirin for medicine because it is not as acidic as salicylic acid. The limiting reagent limits how much product can be synthesized. Once …show more content…
In the lab, 1.7019 grams of salicylic acid were used and 3.01 milliliters of acetyl anhydride were used. From this, 1.0512 grams of aspirin were formed. The limiting reactant was salicylic acid, and the theoretical yield of aspirin was 2.220 grams of aspirin, so the percent yield of the reaction was only 47.4%. When the iron solution was added to test purity, the aspirin solution just barely turned lilac. This means that the aspirin produced was very pure. With these results, the overall purpose of the lab was not achieved. While the aspirin produced was very pure, there was very little produced; less than half of the potential of the reaction was achieved. There were possible errors in these calculations. A small amount of the aspirin produced was spilled, so the calculated mass of aspirin was slightly incorrect, which could account for the low percent yield. To test purity, a small amount of the produced aspirin must be dissolved in a solution to add the iron compound; however, the aspirin did not fully dissolve in the solution when the purity was tested. This small amount of undissolved aspirin could account for an error in the tested purity. Another error that could have altered purity is that some spilled aspirin was placed back into the sample. This would obviously introduce impurities into the sample. There are probably many other sources of error that account for the failure to meet the purpose of the
Introduction
Out of all the pharmaceutical drugs in the worlds, aspirin is made the most. Any potential pharmacist must be familiar with synthesizing the drug. The goal of this lab is to synthesize as much pure aspirin as possible. The reactants, acetyl anhydride and salicylic acid, must react in phosphoric acid. With phosphoric acid as a catalyst, the reaction yields aspirin and acetic acid. The equation for the reaction is as follows:
“(CH3CO)2O + HOC6H4COOH □(→┴yields ) CH3CO2C6H4CO2H + CH3COOH” (French et al, 82). Aspirin and salicylic acid have similar properties, but many choose aspirin for medicine because it is not as acidic as salicylic acid. The limiting reagent limits how much product can be synthesized. Once …show more content…
In the lab, 1.7019 grams of salicylic acid were used and 3.01 milliliters of acetyl anhydride were used. From this, 1.0512 grams of aspirin were formed. The limiting reactant was salicylic acid, and the theoretical yield of aspirin was 2.220 grams of aspirin, so the percent yield of the reaction was only 47.4%. When the iron solution was added to test purity, the aspirin solution just barely turned lilac. This means that the aspirin produced was very pure. With these results, the overall purpose of the lab was not achieved. While the aspirin produced was very pure, there was very little produced; less than half of the potential of the reaction was achieved. There were possible errors in these calculations. A small amount of the aspirin produced was spilled, so the calculated mass of aspirin was slightly incorrect, which could account for the low percent yield. To test purity, a small amount of the produced aspirin must be dissolved in a solution to add the iron compound; however, the aspirin did not fully dissolve in the solution when the purity was tested. This small amount of undissolved aspirin could account for an error in the tested purity. Another error that could have altered purity is that some spilled aspirin was placed back into the sample. This would obviously introduce impurities into the sample. There are probably many other sources of error that account for the failure to meet the purpose of the