Synthesis and Analysis of Aspirin in Three Hours

An instrumental lab experience, specifically designed for visiting high school students and/or non-science majors, was developed around the synthesis and analysis of aspirin. Previous experiments involving aspirin synthesis have yielded limited success with aspirin being synthesized by students less than 50% of the time. Combining aspects from various synthesis protocols, a new aspirin protocol was developed that yielded successful synthesis of high quality aspirin 98% of the time. This protocol was tested by several groups including high school students, non-science majors, and allied health students. The synthesis was also coupled with an introduction to chromatography by allowing students to perform both thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to test the purity of their synthesized product.