Analysis of aspirin tablets on a microscale

Macro photograph of white tablets marked with the word aspirin

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Try this microscale class practical to analyse aspirin tablets and find out how much salicylic acid is present. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

In this experiment, students prepare a set of standard solutions with different colour intensities from a standard salicylic acid (2-hydroxybenzoic acid) solution. They then carry out an analysis of aspirin (2-ethanoyloxybenzenecarboxylic acid) tablets, using microscale filtration to produce a solution for comparison.

Students match the intensity of the colour produced from their aspirin solution with the standard solutions already prepared to determine how much salicylic acid was in the aspirin tablet.

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