Question

Acetaminophen is a weaker acid than carbonic acid (H2CO3), but aspirin is a stronger acid than carbonic acid. prepare a flow diagram like the one in this experiment, showing a procedure that can be used to separate a mixture of sucrose, aspirin, and acetaminophen.

Answer 1

first get the sucrose out. the hydroxyl groups make it water-soluble. So try to lower the pH of the mixture to around 1, but not lower orelse you could dehydrate the sugar. This assures that both the aspirin and the acetaminophen are protonated or uncharged. thus, not likely water soluble. Extract aspirin and acetaminophen with an organic solvent that is immiscible with water (CHCl2, diethyl ether, etc.).

Now try separating aspirin from the acetaminophen. Aspirin can be deprotonated rather easily (pKa ~3.5) making it charged and thus water soluble. So to extract the aspirin, extract the previous organic layer with saturated sodium bicarbonate (pH~ 8). This leaves the acetaminophen in the organic layer.

Finally to get the aspirin by itself (w/o NaHCO3), adjust the pH of the solution to ~1 and extract with an organic solvent like before.

sorry my ms office application is not working currently. i just gave the jist try drawing the protocol seeing the panacetin experiment.