1. What is the purpose of the concentrated sulfuric acid in the first step? The purpose of using concentrated sulfuric acid is to activate the reaction of salicylic acid and acetic anhydride and produce the acetylsalicylic acid, which is aspirin. The sulfuric acid is used to protonate oxygen atom of a carbonyl group of salicylic acid.
2. What would happen if the sulfuric acid were left out? Removal of catalytic acid from the reaction would slow down or not proceed at all because the phenol group on salicylic acid is not strong nucleophile. And it requires an acid substrate to activate the reaction.
4. What is the equation for the decomposition reaction that can occur with aspirin?
6. A student performed the