Synthesis of Aspirin Lab Report

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Aspirin is a most widely bought and used drugs for pain, fever and inflammation. Its main ingredient, salicylic acid, is irritating to the stomach and the drug must be modified. This experiment synthesizes aspirin with the use of salicylic acid as reactant. The experiment yielded a more acceptable, less irritating drug.

Background of Experiment and Lab Concepts

Present records say that more than 15,000 pounds of aspirin are sold daily (Smith n.d.). It is effective in relieving or reducing different body pains. The first to successfully synthesize it was Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853 by creating acetylsalicylic acid but did not market his discovery. A German chemist Felix Hoffman in 1899 who worked for the Bayer Company picked up Gerhardt's concept. It worked on his father's arthritis and Hoffman convinced his company to market the amazing drug. It was patented with the name aspirin on February 27, 1900 (Smith).

This experiment will synthesize aspirin using salicylic as the limiting reactant with acetic anhydride.
The synthesized product will be kept for a week in a locker to allow the crystals to dry. The dried product will be weighed a week later to determine the resulting amount of aspirin. The theoretical and actual results will be compared to come up with the percentage yield. Adding the reactants in the molar ratio in a given equation by stoichiometry and allowing the reaction to complete will bring out only products at the end of the experiment. But adding more of one of the reactants will yield a greater amount of aspirin, which will be determined by the moral amount of that reactant, which was not previously present in the greater amount. The limiting reactant determines the actual product amount.

3. Lab Data

A 400-ml beaker is half-filled with ice water and enough tap water is added to cover the ice. Place 60 ml into a 150 beaker and coll it in the ice-water. An empty plastic tray is.....

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