The synthesis of aspirin is a part of many undergraduate organic synthesis labs and is frequently used in qualitative organic analysis laboratory for the identification of salicylic acid. We have found that aspirin can be synthesized on microscale by a simple and efficient procedure that eliminates the heating step employed in literature procedures and gives a pure, ferric-negative product (no purple color with alcoholic ferric chloride solution).
KeywordsCeric ammonium nitrate, carbohydrates, monosaccharides, disaccharides.
ClassroomIn this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. We may suggest strategies for dealing with them, or invite responses, or both. "Classroom" is equally a forum for raising broader issues and sharing personal experiences and viewpoints on matters related to teaching and learning science.Identification of carbohydrates is a part of qualitative analysis in undergraduate chemistry laboratory. As a class of organic compounds, carbohydrates are detected by the Molisch test. Tollens', Fehling's and Benedict's tests [1] help to further classify them as reducing and non-reducing carbohydrates. In order to identify an unknown carbohydrate as a monosaccharide or a disaccharide, the Barfoed's test is commonly performed [1,2]. However, students seldom report satisfactory results from this test. We have observed that a test using ceric ammonium nitrate reagent gives more satisfactory results. The performance and results of these reactions are reported here.
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