Synthesizing Aspirin Lab Report

Rachelle Joosse
March 24, 2023
SCH 4U
Miss. Den Dekker
Introduction
Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) or aspirin is an active ingredient in willow bark. The ASA must be
synthesized from the reaction between salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. Afterwards the crude
product must be purified by recrystallization. Finally, the percent yield will be determined.
However, the main purpose of the experiment was to synthesize aspirin. The experiment started
with salicylic acid and acetic anhydride which we hope turned into acetylsalicylic acid and acetic
acid. Many pieces of equipment were used in the making of the aspirin. Pipettes were used to get
specific amounts of solutions. A weigh scale was used to get three grams of salicylic acid, filter
paper, and filter paper with crystals, as well as the final product. A 600 mL beaker, 125 mL
Erlenmeyer flask, thermometer, watch glass, hot plate, glass stirring rod, graduated cylinders,
etc. Were all used to get to our final product, aspirin.

Methods
Start by preparing the hot water bath. The 600 mL beaker will be filled half full of water and put
on a hot plate till the water is a gentle boil. They weighed out exactly three grams of salicylic
acid and put it into a clean 125 mL Erlenmeyer flask. They went to the fume hood and got
precisely 5 mL of acetic anhydride to put into the Erlenmeyer flask. Stirred it with a stirring rod
until it dissolved. After it has dissolved (or if the compound was stirred for five minutes without
dissolving) only three drops of the H2SO4 were added and stirred. The Erlenmeyer flask was
placed in the hot water bath for 15 minutes and was stirred occasionally. A clean thermometer
was placed inside the flask. NO water should get into the flask. After 15 minutes the flask was
removed from the hot water bath and 20g of crushed ice and 20 mL of ice water was added to the
Erlenmeyer flask. The flask was placed into an ice bath and stirred constantly for ten minutes. A
piece of filter paper was weighed to the nearest 0.01g and put inside the filtration apparatus.
After the contents of the Erlenmeyer flask were filtered, they were washed with 10 mL of ice
water. When the filter paper and crystals were dry, the mass of the filter paper and crystals were
determined. All the crystals were scraped into a labelled 100 mL beaker. 9 mL of ethanol were
measured out and 6 mL were added to the crystals, when the crystals didn’t dissolve, the rest of
the ethanol was added to the crystals. A hot plate was used to warm up the solution so it would
dissolve. The ethanol cannot get to 75 degrees C. After it dissolved 18 mL of hot water (90-
100°C) was added to the solution. The beaker was covered with a watch glass and cooled to
room temperature. There were ASA crystals that were filtered using the same method stated
above. Once the crystals were dried their mass was determined.

Results
C7H6O3 C4H6O3 C9H8O4 CH3COOH
n (mol) 0.021718671 0.021718671
g/mol 138.13 180.17
g 3.00 3.91
Figure 1: Determining theoretical yield of acetylsalicylic acid.
 Weight or Volume Weight with crystals
Salicylic acid 3.00 g N/A
Acetic anhydride 5 mL N/A
1st Filter paper 1.56 g 6.51 g
2nd Filter paper 1.57 g 4.18 g
Ethanol 9 mL N/A
Figure 2: Exact weight of different properties and tools.

Actual Yield * 100%

Theoretical Yield
= 2.61 * 100%
3.91
=67%
Figure 3: Percent Yield of acetylsalicylic acid.

Step Number What occurred

& Section
A: #3 When the salicylic acid touched the anhydride, it turned a bit whitish.
A: #4 The solution did not dissolve after five minutes of constant stirring but we
went on with the experiment.
A: #6 Was put into hot water bath at 1:06 and taken out at 1:23.
A: #7 Solution taken out of hot water bath.
Was jellylike and not completely dissolved.
A: Between #7 I accidentally broke our thermometer…
& #8 No noticeable physical reactions occurred.
B: #4 All 9 mL of ethanol were added, was also heated up, and it finally dissolved.
B: #4 The crystals were there, and no stirring was needed to induce crystallization.
Figure 4: All properties and observations that were made.

Discussion
There is a large percentage error and there are quite a few reasons for that. One of the
first would be that the salicylic acid and the acetic anhydride did not dissolve when added to
each other. The next was that I thought that I had to put the Erlenmeyer flask in the 20 grams of
crushed ice and 20 mL of ice water. When I actually had to put the crushed ice and ice water
inside the Erlenmeyer flask. The flask was also in the hot water bath for an extra two minutes as
I was busy getting the ice and ice water. However, the main reason would have been that we are
making our aspirin in a high school lab that is not sterile and definitely not as accurate as an
actual lab is. That is why the percent error as stated in Figure 3 is 67%.
I conclude that this aspirin is not suitable for human consumption. Everyone used the
same equipment, the time that was supposed to be followed would not have been exact, and most
if not all of the equipment was washed with soap and tap water, making it unsterile. I would
highly recommend going to your local drugstore to buy your aspirin, rather than using the ASA
that the SCH 4U class made.