Experimental:
Week 1: In the first week of the experiment we started by boiling 100 mL of distilled water in a
400 mL beaker on a hot plate. After the water came to a boil the beaker was removed and the three tea
bags
...
Experimental:
Week 1: In the first week of the experiment we started by boiling 100 mL of distilled water in a
400 mL beaker on a hot plate. After the water came to a boil the beaker was removed and the three tea
bags, which were previously weighed, were added to the hot water and the contents were stirred for
approximately two minutes. The tea bags were then removed and placed between two watch glasses to
squeeze as much liquid as possible out of them before disposing of the tea bags. The solution was then
cooled by swirling the flask in cold water and placed into a seperatory funnel. This set up was found in
appendix M.
20 mL of dichloromethane was added to the funnel. The contents were stirred and vented
according to the procedure in appendix M. The layers were allowed to separate and then the bottom
layer of dichloromethane was drained into a clean 125 mL Erlenmeyer flask. This step was repeated two
more times. Then the aqueous layer was poured out the top of the funnel into a labelled beaker. The
approximately 60 mL of dichloromethane extracts were returned to the funnel and extracted twice with
20 mL of cold 6M NaOH. It was important to note that the aqueous layer was on top and the caffeine
was in the dichloromethane layer, which was on the bottom. Each time we withdrew the
dichloromethane layer into the labelled flask and the water into the labelled beaker. Afterwards, we put
the dichloromethane layer back into the seperatory funnel for the next wash.
Finally, we washed the dichloromethane with 20 mL of cold distilled water, and the
dichloromethane was poured into a clean Erlenmeyer flask. A teaspoon of the drying agent was added.
The flask was swirled and stood for five minutes and was then decanted into another flask. In the fume
hood, the dichloromethane was removed by heating very gently on a hotplate. Off-white crystals formed
and the weight of the crude product was obtained. The melting point was also calculated
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