CHEMISTRY 125 LABORATORY

Name: Balagao, Sherey Mae U. Date Performed: July 09, 2014

Lab Schedule: 1:00-4:00 MW Date Submitted: July 16, 2014
Group No.: 4 Rating:

Exercise No. 3

RECRYSTALLIZATION AND MELTING POINT DETERMINATION

I. OBJECTIVES:
1. To observe the recrystallization process in obtaining pure samples
2. To determine the melting point of recrystallized solids specifically benzoic acid

II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:

 Recrystallization
Weight of the sample = 1.5 g
Weight of the vial = 29.0 g
Weight of vial + crystal = 29.7 g
% yield = Mass of pure sample after recrystallization × 100
Mass of impure sample before recrystallization

= 29.7- 29.0 × 100

1.5
= 46.67%

 Melting point determination

Melting point from literature values - 121° C - 123° C
Melting point range of purified solids - 115° C - 117° C

III. DISCUSSION
Producing pure substances is a very important process. In separating pure from impure
substance, a process called recrystallization is commonly used. Recrystallization is a useful
purification method for most organic compounds that are solids at room temperature. It is
done to remove impurities from the sample. There are two principles behind the process of
recrystallization. The fact that substances tend to be more soluble in a hot solvent than in cold
solvent and that each solute tends to behave as though it were alone in the solvent. Organic
solids, as the principle said are usually more soluble in hot solvent than in a volume of cold
solvent. The process of recrystallization involves dissolution of the solid in an appropriate
solvent at elevated temperature and the following reformation of the crystals upon cooling. In
this way, many impurities will stay in solution and the target compound is purified.

One objective of this experiment was to observe the step in purification of benzoic acid.
The first step in the process was the selection of appropriate solvent but in the experiment,
water was directly used as a solvent. Selection of a proper solvent is the most critical part and
the most important part of the recrystallization process. The solute must be insoluble in the
solvent at room temperature, and as the temperature of the solvent increases, the solubility of
the solute also increases. It is also important that the impurities present are soluble in the
solvent at room temperature and insoluble at higher temperatures. Also in choosing a solvent,
“like dissolves like”, which means that a nonpolar compound will dissolve well in a nonpolar
solvent, and a polar compound will dissolve well in a polar solvent. Next was the dissolution
of the solute using a minimum amount of hot solvent, which was using 40 ml of water in the
experiment. It is very important to only use a minimum amount of hot solvent in order to
maximize the yield of the pure substance. Adding too much solvent to dissolve the solute will
cause the loss of the product after the process. The third step was the decoloration of the
solution. In the experiment, an activated charcoal was added in the process. Activated charcoal
is a carbon that has been treated with oxygen. Recrystallization can remove impurities from
the solution but it doesn't remove all of the impurities, the purpose of the charcoal in the
experiment was to further remove the impurities during the process so that the crystals
forming were as pure as possible. After the decoloration, filtration of the hot solution was
done in order to remove the solid impurities from the organic solution. After the removal of
impurities, the hot filtrate was set aside to cool slowly at room temperature. As the solution
cools, the solubility of the dissolved compound will decrease and the solid will begin to
crystallize from the solution. In the experiment, upon cooling, the benzoic acid crystals come
out of solution as its solubility in the solvent decreases. Filtration was done twice in the
experiment to further remove the impurities or to remove mother liquor which is a part of the
solution that was left over after the crystallization. Then the purified sample was collected in
the filter paper and dried.
 After the process, the amount of sample had been reduced as impurities had been
removed. Calculating the percentage yield was done to know how much of the pure substance
was present in the initial sample. Computing the percentage yield was dividing the mass of the
pure sample after recrystallization to the mass of the impure sample before the process and
multiplying the answer to 100. Percentage yield is a good indicator of the purity of the initial
sample. A high percentage yield implies a low concentration of impurities, where as a low
percentage yield indicates a sample with a lot of impurities.

Determining the melting point of a compound is also one way to test if the substance is
pure. In the experiment, the melting point of a sample was determined by recording the
temperature at which the sample begins to melt and the temperature at which it was
completely melted. A pure substance has a fixed melting point or has a melting range of one to
two degrees while an impure substance melts over a wide range of temperatures at a lower
temperature than the pure substance because impurities tend to depress and broaden the
melting range so that the purified sample should have a higher and smaller melting range than
the original, impure sample.

IV. CONCLUSION
Therefore, the process of recrystallization or purification of samples was observed in the
experiment. Here are the summary of the process; selection of an appropriate solvent,
dissolution of solute, decoloration if necessary, filtration, crystallization, collection of the
purified sample, and drying. Also the melting point of purified benzoic acid was determined
by noting what temperature it started to melt and the temperature in which it was melted
completely (115°C-117°C).The obtained melting point was compared to the melting point of
the impure sample which is 121°C-123°C, the difference of the obtained melting point to the
melting point of the impure sample is greater than 2°C, this means that the obtained melting
point was not that pure and contains some impurities.

V. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:
1. How does the use of fluted filter paper hasten filtration?
- Fluted filter paper hastens filtration by increasing its surface area. Fluting also
facilitates the flow through the filter body, speeding the process. The combination of larger
filtering area and facilitated flow increases the speed of the filtering process.
2. A mixture of three compounds A, B, C, is to be separated and purified by crystallization. Their
solubilities in g/100mL of Ethanol are:

A B C
Cold 1.05 5.6 4.2
solvent
Hot solvent 20.5 2.3 3.5

a. If a mixture containing 4.0 g each of A, B, C is recrystallized from 100 mL of ethanol, which

compound could be obtained pure?
-4.0g-1.05g = 2.95g; 2.95 g of pure A ppt's out of solution. Only compound A will be obtained
pure. When cooling, the solubility of B and C are still greater than the 4.0 g/100 ml that is
dissolved (5.6 > 4.0 and 4.2 > 4.0) so neither B nor C precipitates out of solution.

b. If the filtrate from a.) is evaporated to 50 mL, which compound(s) will separate upon cooling?

-The filtrate contains (1.05 g A + 4.0 g B + 4.0g C) dissolved in 100 ml of ethanol before it is
evaporated . If the filtrate is evaporated to 50 ml, (1.05 g A + 4.0 g B + 4.0g C) is dissolved
in 50 ml ethanol. Upon cooling, the solubilities are :
1.05 g/100 ml = 0.525 g of A / 50 ml solution
5.6 g/100 ml = 2.8 g of B / 50 ml
4.2 g/100 ml = 2.1 g of C / 50 ml
A. 1.05-0.525 = 0.525g of A will precipitate out of the solution.
B. 4.0-2.8= 1.2g of B will precipitate out of the solution.
C. 4.0-2.1= 1.9g of C will precipitate out of the solution.
Thus all compounds will separate upon cooling.

What is its purity?

-Total mass= 0.5g +1.2g+1.9g = 3.6 g
so %A=0.5/3.6=14%A
%B=1.2/3.6=33%B
% C = 1.9 / 3.6 = 53% C
 3. A mixture containing 2.0g of A and 8.0g of B is to be separated and the components are
purified by one crystallization from 100 mL of solvent. Their solubilities are given below;

A B
Cold Hot Cold Hot
Ethanol 0.5 10.0 5.0 20.0
Acetone 5.0 20.0 0.1 8.0
Water 0.6 15.0 0.5 10.0

a. What solvent would you choose? Support your choice by means of a schematic diagram.

b. What is its purity, theoritically of A and B after one recrystallization?

1.4g A + 7.5g B =8.9g total

So %A = 1.4g/8.9g = 15.73%

%B = 7.5g/8.9g = 84.27%

VI. REFERENCES:
 http://www.studymode.com/essays/Recrystallization-Of-Benzoic-Acid-516675.html
 http://editions.sciencetechnologyaction.com/lessons2
 http://www.ce.gxnu.edu.cn/organic/net_course/content/Crystallization/Answers.htm
 http://spot.pcc.edu/~gbackes/ORGANIC/CH%20241/Labs/The%20Crystallization
%20Procedure.htm
 http://orgchem.colorado.edu/Technique/Procedures/Filtration/Filtration.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_liquor
 http://www.wiredchemist.com/chemistry/instructional/laboratory-tutorials/determination-of-
melting-pointS
 https://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/equipment/recrystallization.html
 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_advantage_of_using_fluted_filter_paper
 https://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080623050808AAUzmQ8