Aspirin Lab Day 1

Because my partner Lauren and I passed the prelab questions, we got to do the Aspirin Lab.

On the first day, we first weighed out 5.00 g of salicylic acid, added 7.00 mL of acetic anhydride, and 8 drops of sulfuric acid to an Erlenmeyer flask.

Then, we assembled a hot water bath in an 800 mL beaker and placed the flask with the chemicals into the bath. Once it started boiling, we let it boil for 15 minutes.

Once it finished heating, the flask was removed and left to cool for 3 minutes on the lab bench. Then 15 mL of ice cold water was added to remove the excess acetic anhydride.

We mixed the content and left it to crystalize for the next day.

If you wanted to know the actual process of how aspirin crystalizes, check out this awesome website to learn more!