Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description

Chemistry discussion, revision, exam and homework help.

This thread is sponsored by:
Announcements Posted on
Important: please read these guidelines before posting about exams on The Student Room 28-04-2013
Sign in to Reply
  1. Freyma's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 146
    Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    I really need help on this today, or at the latest, I need it by 12pm Tuesday 23rd. So I'd really appreciate if anyone could help and + rep to anyone who does, as a little thank you

    I have an experiment on Aspirin synthesis, and I really need help with 2 questions.

    1) Calculate the the percentage yield (based on moles) of crude aspirin.

    Information I am given:
    Molar mass of salicylic acid = 138
    Molar mass of asprin = 180

    I know how to calculate percentage yield. My question is what percentage should I be expecting, roughly?

    2) Describe Aspirin (after crystalisation)

    What should I expect it to look like? i.e what is the mark scheme likely to be looking for.

    Edit: Also, if anyone can link to a mark scheme for a practical on Aspirin synthesis I would be eternally grateful, thanks.
    Last edited by Freyma; 23-04-2012 at 19:21.
  2. illusionz's Avatar
    • Overlord in Training
    • Posts: 2,560
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by Freyma)
    x
    I'd expect anything between 60-80% yield to be honest. Depends on how many steps and what purification methods you used.

    As for the appearance, again depending on purification method either a white powder or a white crystalline solid.
  3. Freyma's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 146
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by illusionz)
    I'd expect anything between 60-80% yield to be honest. Depends on how many steps and what purification methods you used.

    As for the appearance, again depending on purification method either a white powder or a white crystalline solid.
    Thanks for the response. I used a Büchner funnel twice to purify it. How will this effect my results?
  4. illusionz's Avatar
    • Overlord in Training
    • Posts: 2,560
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by Freyma)
    Thanks for the response. I used a Büchner funnel twice to purify it. How will this effect my results?
    If you didn't perform a recrystallisation then I'd expect you've got a powder rather than crystals right?

    Also assuming you only washed the solid with cold solvent on the funnel your yield should be fairly good.
  5. Freyma's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 146
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by illusionz)
    If you didn't perform a recrystallisation then I'd expect you've got a powder rather than crystals right?

    Also assuming you only washed the solid with cold solvent on the funnel your yield should be fairly good.
    I did do a recrystallisation.
  6. illusionz's Avatar
    • Overlord in Training
    • Posts: 2,560
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by Freyma)
    I did do a recrystallisation.
    Oh, you just said you used a Buchner Funnel which isn't very descriptive!! If you did a recryst then you should have some nice shiny white crystals. However a recryst can do horrible things to your yield so could be anything from 50% upwards really.
  7. Freyma's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 146
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by illusionz)
    Oh, you just said you used a Buchner Funnel which isn't very descriptive!!
    I'm Sorry. :cry2:

    (Original post by illusionz)
    If you did a recryst then you should have some nice shiny white crystals. However a recryst can do horrible things to your yield so could be anything from 50% upwards really.
    Okay, thank you for the help.
  8. mytutoring's Avatar
    • New Member
    • Posts: 21
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    it could depend on a whole lot of things, just write up your results as you found them. embelishing can result in v serious consiquences. if this is an UG course you can fail for making data up.
  9. Freyma's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 146
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    (Original post by mytutoring)
    it could depend on a whole lot of things, just write up your results as you found them. embelishing can result in v serious consiquences. if this is an UG course you can fail for making data up.
    I plan to. However, I wouldn't have used the words "crystaline solid" had I not made this thread. That was my purpose. To get the terminology right
  10. sunshinesmile10's Avatar
    • Respected Member
    • Posts: 229
    Re: Aspirin Synthesis: Yield and Description
    your percentage yield may be over 100% due to excess water...
    also the aspirin should be white crystals. Probaly have some unreacted Salicylic acid in there too so if youve dried it properly maybe about 70% yield
Sign in to Reply
Share this discussion:  
Article updates
Moderators

We have a brilliant team of more than 60 volunteers looking after discussions on The Student Room, helping to make it a fun, safe and useful place to hang out.

Reputation gems:
The Reputation gems seen here indicate how well reputed the user is, red gem indicate negative reputation and green indicates a good rep.
Post rating score:
These scores show if a post has been positively or negatively rated by our members.