Panacetin Painkiller Extraction

EXPERIMENT 2

I. Introduction

A. Extraction and Evaporation: Separating the Components of “Panacetin.” The

purpose of the experiment was to separate Panacetin into its components to use their

solubilities and acid-base properties. Panacetin contains aspirin, sucrose and an unknown

component that may be either acetanilide or phenacetin.

B. The diethyl ether (C2H5OC2H5 ) dissolved the aspirin (C6H4(OCOCH3)COOH) and the

unknown to leave the sucrose (C12H22O11) solid behind. The sodium hydroxide (NaOH)

converted the aspirin (C6H4(OCOCH3)COOH) into sodium acetylsalicylate. Hydrochloric

acid (HCl) was used to precipitate the aspirin (C6H4(OCOCH3)COOH) from the aqueous

layer.

II. Procedure/Results

A. TO SEPARATE SUCROSE-0.400g of Panacetin were weighed and

transferred to a tared 15-mL screw-cap centrifuge tube. 8.0mL of diethyl ether were

added to the centrifuge tube. The solid was dissolved in the solvent by shaking the tube.

The solid in the tip was broken up with a spatula. The centrifuge tube was centrifuged for

3 minutes and the liquid was transferred to a second centrifuge tube. The first tube, with

the solid, was left under a fume hood while the rest of the diethyl ether evaporated. It was

put in the lab drawer to be weighed the following week. Amount of sucrose was

calculated

TO SEPARATE ASPRINThe

diethyl ether in the centrifuge tube was extracted with two separate 3mL portions of

1M sodium hydroxide. After the first extraction, the top (not bottom as stated in the

manual) layer was transferred to a beaker. The bottom layer was transferred to another

beaker and the top layer was put back into the tube. Another extraction was done and the

diethyl ether layer was transferred into a 4-dram vial.

2mL of 6M HCl were added to the combined aqueous extracts and stirred. The pH

reached 2. The mixture was cooled