Since the other compounds that could be in the sample had high melting points, the substance contained mostly acetanilide. Despite the melting point range for the substance recovered from organic solution III being relatively narrow compared to the other two, the melting point was high for the aspirin. This indicates that the substance contained an impurity, and after analyzing the spectrum, this impurity was most likely caffeine, which has a higher melting point. According to the IR spectrum, organic solution IV did contain caffeine as predicted, but there are peaks that indicate the substance recovered also contained acetanilide. The acetanilide contributed peaks that interfered with a clear analysis of the spectrum, but upon close inspection, there are peaks in the 2950 cm-1-3150 cm-1 range that are indicative of …show more content…
The organic solution that contained acetanilide was the most pure due to the melting point not being raised, but there were still some caffeine and aspirin present according to the IR spectrum. The other two organic solutions had significantly more impurities as indicated by both the IR spectra and the wide range of the melting points and deviation from the literature values of the predicted compound contained. Organic solution IV, which was supposed to contain only caffeine, also contained acetanilide. When the extraction of organic solution I was conducted, some of this layer was left in the funnel, and unlike later in the experiment, the leftover organic solution was left in aqueous solution I when the methylene chloride was added. This oversight allowed some acetanilide to be contained in organic solution IV. Organic solution II, which was supposed to contain only acetanilide, also contained some residual caffeine and aspirin. This fact indicates that more of the hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide should have been added to force the caffeine and aspirin into solution. Also, more vigorous mixing could have been performed to aid in the reactions taking place in the