Identifying a Constituent of “Panacetin” Essay

The Consulting Chemists Institute has been asked to analyze the drug preparation of Aspirin to find out what percentages of aspirin, sucrose, and drug preparation. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the unknown component of panacetin. Panacetin contains aspirin, sucrose, and an unknown component. Dichloromate reacts with Panacetin to produce the sucrose as an insoluble solid. Aspirin is removed from the solution by reacting with sodium bicarbonate. The aqueous layer reacts with hydrochloric acid, the unknown component can then be isolated by evaporating the solvent from the dichloromethane solution. Observations and Data: Aspirin reacted with Sodium Bicarbonate to form salt, sodium acetylsalicylate. The reaction caused fizzing and gas. When hydrochloric acid was added to sodium acetylsalicylate the solution bubbled, sizzled, and gave off heat. All precipitates were white. Substance Mass Panacetin 3.00g Aspirin 0.849g Sucrose 0.212g (weighed wet) Unknown 1.995 (burned) Results and Discussion: The results I got were close to the expected results. During the Isolation of the Unknown component, water splashed on our sucrose sample before we could weigh it and we burned the unknown, skewing the masses. However, there could have been incomplete mixing with dichloromethane, incomplete extraction of precipitation of aspirin, incomplete drying of the recovered components, or  losses from transferring substances from one container to another. Calculations: % Recovery = sum of the masses of all components/mass of panacetin started with  0.212g+0.849g+1.995g/3.01g = 101% %Composition = (Amount of Component/Sum of the masses of all components)*100 %Composition of Sucrose = (0.212g/3.056g)*100  =6.9% %Composition of Aspirin = (0.849g/3.056g)*100  = 27.8% % Composition of Unknown = (1.995g/3.056g)*100  = 65.3% Experimental: 3.01g of Panacetin was dissolved in 50mL of dichloromethane. The mixture was put through gravity filtration. Sucrose was set aside. The filtrate was then put through a separatory funnel and put into two 30mL portions of 5% sodium bicarbonate. 11mL of 6M hydrochloric acid was slowly added to the mixture. The mixture was cooled for ten minutes and aspirin was collected via vacuum filtration. A filter flask attached to a trap and aspirator was used to evaporate the solvent from the dichloromethane solution. All precipitates were white and crystalized.