| Quote: | Originally posted by Mumbles
Asprin would, by my knowledge, produce methyl acetate, or at least Acetic Acid, in addition to Methyl Salicyliate. I've tried the one with the
asprin posted by Madog. I get an acetic smell. I got a green viscous liquid, that eventually solidified. I didn't purify the asprin at all.
Asprin breaks down in the presence of Sulfuric acid to Acetic Acid and Salicylic acid.
Now, since you actually did use a catalyst, I'm not sure what went wrong. Methyl Salicyliate is a liquid. http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ME/methyl_salicylate.html Perhaps a longer heating period is needed. One test I can think of is to dissolve it in
water. Add a small amount of baking soda. The acid should be neutralised and give off CO2 at a decent rate. Methyl Salicylicate probably wont.
There is the problem of Sulfuric remaining though.
Neither product are too soluble in water however. |
I got the picture I took of the final product developed and I can now clearly see a liquid layer on top of the mix-I just assumed the crystalls were
the ester because that was the most obvious change on addition to water. the crystalls I am now sure are just SA.
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