Question

Excedrin Tension headache caplets contain fillers, acetaminophen, and caffeine. Devise a plan and draw a seperation scheme that would separate these 3 components. Cite all sources that you used when designing your separation scheme for Excedrin.

Answer 1

Excedrin is a common painkiller tablet which has (unlike all other painkillers!) THREE major components namely-

We generally use the Acid-base separation scheme for the separation of components of Excedrin.In the following Flow Chart,the separation scheme is outlined-

To perform the extraction process,as pointed out in the table,

• we first grind Excedrin tables in to a grinder and transfer it to a beaker where we add some organic solvent so that all the three components get dissolved into it,DCM or Diethyl Ether can be used for dissolution.We take the Liquid portion and discard the solid.
• We next put the liquid onto a separating funnel where we add 10mL of 1 M aqueous and mixed well and we will obtain an emulsion type mixture where the aqueous layer will be at the bottom and it must be separated and kept into a Beaker(this layer contain the ) and the Organic layer (which contain and ) is kept to settle and the separation is carried thereafter as per the above scheme.