Discussion..

1. Explain why emulsion can be observed during liquid-liquid extraction?

How to avoid it? If it occurs, what is simple methods to destroy it?
Ans. The emulsion can be observed during the liquid-liquid extraction because of the process of
shaking the separatory funnel. By shaking it too fast, the two solvents will tend to produce an unclear
separation layer, which can cause the method of getting rid of water from the caffeine to be harder.
It can, however, be avoided by shaking the separatory funnel slowly and carefully. In the case that
emulsion actually occurs, there is a simple method of adding sodium chloride into the solution. The
sodium chloride will then act as a compound to trigger the two layers of the solvents to separate more
in which can helps to eliminate the emulsion.
2. Why do we need drying agent (Na 2SO4 ) after finishing liquid-liquid
extraction and before evaporation process?
Ans. After finished liquid-liquid extraction, Sodium Sulfate (Na2SO4) is added before evaporation
process to decrease the amount of water in the solution. Sodium Sulfate will catch water and create
clumps in the solution. Repeat this process until sodium sulfate the added become powder which
mean that it saturated. Then use the filter paper to filter the clumps and start evaporation process.
3. What are errors during the experiment and how to avoid them or
improve your technique?
Ans. During the first part of the experiment, the separatory funnel containing the tea and
Dichloromethane might have been shaken too much, which resulted in the huge amount of bubbles in
the substance. Besides that, the separatory funnel might have not been sitting long enough to let the
bubbles to disappear before releasing the excess Dichloromethane down the beaker. Because of the
bubbles, the caffeine was unable to be extracted as purely as it could be, causing the unclear
separation of the compounds during the TLC technique. To avoid the problems, the experiment should
be conducted from step by step more slowly and carefully. That way the bubbles would be seen less,
giving us a more pure caffeine extract. With the more pure extract, the different compounds would be
able to run up the TLC plate better, allowing us to identify the type of their structure more effectively,
whether they are nonpolar or polar molecules. Besides that, there were some contaminations occurred
during the experiment on the TLC plate. This is due to the fact that there might have been some
particles or molecules of other elements lie on the plate, when it was being transferred from one place
to another. For example, when it was brought to the chamber. This error decreased the purity of the
caffeine. Moreover, the caffeine crude and crystal might have not been put on the plate enough,
which limited the multiple compounds in itself from separating as clearly as it could have been.
4. How Do you know you get caffeine from tea leaves? Is it pure?
Compare your caffeine extract product with the others?
Ans. The cream powder which is the result from the experiment would be determined through the TLC
test and the boiling/melting point test to test whether its caffeine or not. First, TLC test is a process
where 2 or more samples will be identified the similarities or difference by testing their polarity. Since
the same compound will have the same polarity; if the samples are spotted at the same place and
have only one spot, they are the same compounds and pure. However, if they are not the same
compound, they will be in different spots. Moreover, even though they are the same compound but
different in purity, the one that is not pure will be considered as a mixture and leave more than 1 spot
on the plate which means there are many other components in the compound. However, due to the
errors occurred during the experiment, there is no result shown in the TLC plate. Therefore, the result
can not be conclude yet whether they are caffeine or not. But there is another process called melting
point and boiling point test. This test can also help to identify the compound since the pure compound
will have a certain melting/boiling point. However, the boiling/melting point test cant identify clearly
whether the samples are different compounds or just different in purity, because the purity and
different compounds can both affect to boiling point and melting point. So, this process is more
appropriate in determine the purity of the known compounds since the range of exploring is reduced
and more specific. Thus, the result cannot be concluded whether it is caffeine or not due to the error
occurred and the lack of reference. However, predicting that the compound is caffeine, the crude
can be determined its purity by comparing its melting/ boiling point with the pure caffeine which the
result shows that it is not pure because there is a difference in melting/boiling point for 11-13 degree
celsius compares to the pure caffeine. Finally, the caffeine extracted of our group cant be compared
to the other groups because there is no result shown in the TLC plate of our group and during the
melting point/ boiling point process, only a small sample that gathered from many groups is tested.
However, the result should be the same because during the rota vapor process, all of the solution
(caffeine and dichloromethane) is mixed together. Therefore, during TLC test, every groups use the
same sample to test.
5. Determine the strongest intermolecular force present in Caffeine.
The molecular formula of caffeine is C8H10N4O2. Caffeine is a polar molecule because its chemical
structure that contains four different chemicals and each chemical has different electronegativity.
Moreover, its molecular geometry allows the molecule become polar as well because the negative and
positive charges of each atom in the molecule does not cancel with each other. According to its
polarity, the intermolecular forces that can exist between each caffeine molecule are Dipole-Dipole
force and London force. However, the strongest intermolecular force that exists between each
caffeine molecule is the Dipole-Dipole force because London force is just a weak temporary force
that caused by the motion of the electrons of two atoms inside the molecule as they moving closer
near each other. In addition, the Dipole-Dipole force is the strongest intermolecular force because the
attraction of the negative and positive charges.