Emaree Stone
Organic Chemistry
October 10, 2019
Lab Partners: Cheyanne Childress, Brandon Tyler
INTRODUCTION:
The goal of this experiment is to extract caffeine from the cola syrup, this will be accomplished
using the microscale procedure. After adding combining 5 mL of cola syrup with 5 mL of water
into a centrifuge tube, 1 mL of concentrated ammonium hydroxide will beaded to the mixture.
After these substances are combined, they will be allowed to separate into different layers. This
process will be repeated 2 more times with the addition of trichloromethane. After allowing the
mixture to separate out into layers, a pipette will be used to extract the caffeine, and the resulting
caffeine will be measured to gain a rough weight (page 17).
NOTEBOOK REFERENCE:
Pages 17-19
CHEMICAL EQUATIONS:
There were no chemical equations in this experiment.
OBSERVATIONS:
When combining 5 mL of water, 5 mL of cola syrup, 1 mL of ammonium hydroxide, and 1.5 mL
of trichloromethane into a centrifuge tube, there was an immediate separation of substances that
could be identified. The substance that rose to the top of the centrifuge tube was the dark tinted
cola syrup, while a clear substance sank to the bottom of the centrifuge tube was a combination
of the ammonium hydroxide and trichloromethane.
DATA:
Chemical Name
Ammonium Hydroxide
Trichloromethane
Cola Syrup
Water
Caffeine
(Page 17, 19)
Starting Amount
1.0 mL
1.5 mL
5.0 mL
5.0 mL
Not Measurable
Ending Amount
Not required to measure
Not required to measure
Not required to measure
Not required to measure
0.3 mL
CALCULATIONS:
There were no calculations preformed in this experiment.
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS:
The amount of caffeine extracted from 5 mL of cola syrup was a total of 0.3 mL, and these
results were not necessarily expected. With that amount of cola syrup, the expectation was that a
greater amount of caffeine would be able to be extracted and measured; however, that was not
the case. With a ending amount of 0.3 mL of caffeine, there were several humans errors that
could have led to the low amount of caffeine gathered such as: sucking up syrup into the pipette,
completing the extraction process a total of 4 times instead of 3, and the anhydrons chloride
calcium pellets being absorbed by the mixture. Each of these factors have the potential to cause
the data to be skewed (page 19).