lab synthesis discussion

In synthesis of Aspirin, our total product was 0.65g. Our first trial yielded 0.23g of percipitate. After filtrating what was left in the filter flask a second trial yielded 0.42g of percipitate. We ran two trials due to the appearance of more crystals in the filter flask and because of our low percent yield in our first trial. Our final percent yield was 50%. There are some possible errors we made that caused us to get this low percent yield. First, not all of salicylic acids were added to the test tube, some may have been left on the weight boat; also some salicylic acid solids were sticking on the test tube wall, therefore when mixing with acetic anhydride, those did not react. In part B we did two tests to determine the purity of the product. The first test was the test of color change by using three differenct reagents: our aspirin, the stock aspirin, and salicylic acid. We used our crystal to perform this test twice: the first time with the initial product we obtained; the second time with the crystals we got from the second filtration. All four tests made the solution turned purple. The order from the lightest to the darkest: Our aspirin (second filtration), stock aspirin, our aspirin (first filtration), salicylic acid. The second test was to see if each compound could dissolve in sodium bicarbonate. In order from dissolving fastest to slowest: salicylic acid, our aspirin (second filtration), stock aspirin. These tests showed that our aspirin was more pure than the stock aspirin because in the first test our color was lighter and in the second test our aspirin dissolved more quickly. In part C we made three differenct products and observed their scent. The first product we made was methyl salicylate, and it had the smell of wintergreen; the second product was benzyl acetate and it had the smell of jasmine; the third product was 3-methylbutyl acetate, and it had the smell of banana. In this lab we made aspirin from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride, and tested the purity of our product by comparing to stock aspirin and salicylic acid. We also made three compounds and observed the scent they have and determined those compound?s formulas by knowing the reagents. We made some errors but overall our results were resonable.