Alternative Catalyst for the Synthesis of Aspirin

Overview

Abstract The overall objective of this project was to find if microwaves would be a suitable and sustainable catalytic replacement for the synthesis of Aspirin. This was done by creating three goals. The first was to determine if Aspirin could be synthesized in a microwave, second was to synthesis microwave Aspirin of similar purity to sulfuric acid Aspirin, and third was to calculate and compare the yield of microwave Aspirin to sulfuric acid Aspirin. This was done by synthesizing six separate batches of Aspirin using sulfuric acid and six batches of Aspirin using microwaves instead of sulfuric acid. Then the melting point of the Aspirin was measured on all 6 batches along with a pure Aspirin tablet as a control. Next using Beer’s Law and a colorimeter, the spectrometric absorbance was found of the residual salicylic acid in the Aspirin synthesized using microwaves and using sulfuric acid. Finally the percent yield was calculated by massing the Aspirin then calculating the theoretical yield and the percent yield. The average and standard deviation of the six sulfuric acid Aspirin batches, six microwave Aspirin batches and the six pure tablet Aspirin melting point ranges where 126.33°C (1.28°C) - 134.33°C (0.785°C), 130.16°C (2.441°C) -136.16°C (2.740°C), and 133°C (0°C) - 136°C (0°C). The average and standard deviation of the six sulfuric acid Aspirin batches, six microwave Aspirin batches and the six pure tablet Aspirin specific melting point where 134.33°C (1.021°C), 136.5°C (2.649°C), and 136°C (0°C). When these averages where run through an ANOVA test, the P value equaled 0.5790. This shows that there is no significant difference between the Aspirin synthesized using microwave versus the Aspirin synthesized using sulfuric acid or the control Aspirin tablet. When doing Beer’s Law analysis there was no detectable amounts of residual salicylic acid in the six batches of sulfuric acid Aspirins and the six batches of microwave Aspirin. Finally, the percent yield of Aspirin using sulfuric acid was 92.74% while, the percent yield of Aspirin using microwaves was 81.91%. In conclusion, the hypothesis was supported. The data showed that there was no significant difference between the Aspirin synthesized using sulfuric acid and Aspirin synthesized using microwaves.

Competition history

• AJAS 2018 Category not listed

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