Post on 16-Jul-2015
transcript
Shang Kuan Tsai Chi
July 25, 2011
PattharawadeeThanthranon
What does the word ‘Optimization’ mean?According to Merriam Webster, optimization is a process of making something as effective as possible
With the number of people in the world
increasing, the demands for oil also rise; this
means that oil becomes a lot rarer and a lot
more expensive.
The experiment that is going to be done
during the course of the internship is a reaction
that changes sugar (furfural) into furfural
acetone, a product that can then be further react
to make fuel for cars.
The purpose of the experiment is
to find the base that is the most efficient
in changing sugar to furfural acetone
(C8).
Furfural + Acetone -----> Furfural AcetoneBase
The hypothesis is that NaOH, a strong base, will produce the most furfural acetone when it is allowed to react with the reactants for a long time, because the stronger a base is, the better results it will produce.
1. Lab coat
2. 2-Furaldehyde (0.4145 mL/base)
3. Acetone (0.3676 mL/base)
4. Bases
1. NaOH (0.02 g)
2. KOH (0.028 g)
3. Ca(OH)2 (0.037 g)
4. Mg(OH)2 (0.029 g)
5. Sr(OH)2
6. Ba(OH)2 (0.086 g)
5. Hot plate and stirrer (2)
6. Clamp (4)
7. Stand (2)
8. Bowl (2)
9. Tap water
10. Round-bottom flask 25 mL (2)
11. Gas inlet (2)
12. Cooling Ace (1)
13. Condenser (2)
14. Goggles
15. Magnetic bar (2)
16. Label stickers (6)
17. Micro-pipette (1)
18. Electronic balance (1)
19. Weighing paper (6)
20. Pestle (1)
21. Spatula (2)
22. Joint clip (2)
23. Rubber Tube (1)
24. Tips (12)
25. Gas-Chromatography-Mass
Spectrometer (GCMS)
26. Dropper (4)
27. Syringe (4)
28. Vial (4)
29. Sodium Sulfate
30. Towels (2)
31. BIBASE Rubber support rings (2)
32. Syringe filers (4) (yellow and
pink)
We will be doing 6 reactions (using 6 different bases) in this experiment, but because it will take some time to wait for all of the bases to react one at a time, we
will be doing 2 at once. The following is the procedure…
1. Wrap up the 2 condensers with the towels
2. Set up 2 sets of clamp and stand with 2 clamps
per stand. Make sure the clamp is tightly
clamped
3. Place a hot plate and stirrer beneath the
clamps.
4. Add half bowl of tap water into the bowl.
5. Put the bowl on the hot plate. This is to
prevent a big change in temperature
throughout the day, because water has a high
specific heat.
6. Hold the wrapped up condenser tightly on
the clamp. Make sure the 2 condensers are
hold at the same height and position.
7. Put a gas inlet on the top hole of the
condensers.
8. Hold the 2 tubes from the cooling ace.
9. Plug the tube that pushes water in on the
most bottom hole of one of the
condenser, and the second tube from the
cooling ace on the 2nd most top hole of the
second condenser. This should be done
Gas Inlet
10. Connect the remaining 2 holes on the
condenser with a rubber tube.
11. Set the cooling ace to about 15 degree Celsius
12. Start pumping water from the cooling ace
13. Put a magnetic bar into both round-bottom
flasks. Put a label on the neck of both round-
bottom flasks.
14. Choose 2 bases to work with first (here we will
be doing NaOH and KOH first).
15. Put the 2 bases on weighing paper; one
base per paper.
16. Fold the paper in half so that the bases are
enclose inside
17. Use a pestle to crush the bases into smaller
pieces
18. Measure the amount needed for the 2
bases (as written in the equipment list)
using an electronic balance.
**The next 3 steps should only be done for bases that cone in small grains, not the ones that are powder (Step 17-19)
Pestle
19. Put the bases into the 2 round-bottom flasks;
one bases per flask.
20. Measure 0.4145 mL (to the nearest thousandth)
of 2- furaldehyde using a micropipette.
21. Pour the furfural into one the round-bottom
flasks
22. Change the tip of the micropipette to prevent
any contamination of the next chemical.
23. Measure 0.3676 mL (to the nearest thousandth)
of acetone using the micropipette.
24. Pour the acetone into the same round-bottom
flask
25. Repeat step 22-26 again but this time put the 2-
furaldehyde and acetone into the other round-
bottom flask.
26. Take both round-bottom flasks underneath the
condensers held on the clamps.
27. Use a joint clip to hold both flasks to their
condenser; one clip per flask.
28. Turn on the stirrer to 300 rpm.
29. Wait for the reaction to happen for the next 3
hours.
30. Stop the cooling ace
Hot plate and Stirer
Magnetic Bar Spinning in a Flask
25. Stop the stirrer
26. Remove the joint clips and the round-
bottom flasks
32. Using a dropper, suck out the entire crude
product that is in the flasks into syringes
with yellow filters.
33. Carefully, squeeze the crude product in
the yellow syringes into 2 vials.
Syringe Filter
36. Add Sodium Sulfate into the 2 vials to remove
any water in there. Make sure to add until the
sodium sulfate will slightly move when we
shake the vials.
37. Using new droppers, suck out the liquid
portion from the vials, and squeeze them
into new syringes with pink filters.
38. Carefully, squeeze the liquid into new vials.
39. Close the cap of the vials.
40. Repeat all steps again for 2 more times, but
change the bases to the next 2
Mi shaking the solution
After finishing all the steps, we also did a shorter version of the experiment just to test and
compare the results that we got. This time we did the experiment exactly the same way, but instead
of waiting for 3 hours, we waited only 1.
** After each experiments, don’t forget to wash everything with acetone!
Data 1: 3 hours
Information of the Different BasesBases Observation
of the Base
itself
Pictures Molar
mass
Amount
that is
actually
needed
Amount
that we
put
Solubility (scale
of 1-5, with 5
being the most
soluble)
Observation of the results (color
change, and energy needed to push it
out from the syringe filters)
Gas-Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer
(GCMS)Results
NaOH Small white
grains
(smaller
than KOH)
40 g 0.02 g 0.0251 g 5 The color was still the same as when
we started; odor also stayed the same.
There were formation of
furfural acetone, but
also a lot of C13.
KOH Small white
grains
56.11 g 0.028 g 0.0281 g 5 The color was still the same as when
we started; odor also stayed the same.
Easy to squeeze out from the syringe.
Ca(OH)2 White
powder
74.10 g 0.037 g 0.039 g 1 The product got clearer when
squeezed out of the yellow filter,
because it got separate from the
polymers; there were chunks of
polymers in the flask. Very hard to
squeeze out from the syringe filter.
Left with high amount in
reactants, because they
didn’t react properly and
thoroughly
Mg(OH)2 White
powder
58.33 g 0.0292 g 0.029 g 4 The product got lighter and clearer
when squeezed out of the yellow filter,
because it got separate from the
polymers.
Left with high amount in
reactants, because they
didn’t react properly and
thoroughly
Sr(OH)2 White
powder
121.64 g 0.061 g 4 The product got lighter when
squeezed out of the yellow filter,
because it got separate from the
polymers.
Left with high amount in
reactants, because they
didn’t react properly and
thoroughly
Ba(OH)2 White
powder
171.36 g 0.086 g 3 The product got lighter when
squeezed out of the yellow filter,
because it got separate from the
polymers.
Left with high in
reactants, because they
didn’t react properly and
thoroughly
The peaks at about 8.8 to 9.5 (time) indicate amount
of Furfural Acetone produced
The peaks at about 18.3 (time) indicate amount of C13 produced
The peaks at about 3.5 to 5.5 (time) are the
amount of initial reactants left
unreacted.
Data 2: 1 hour
Information of the Different BasesBases Observation
of the Base
itself
Pictures Molar
mass
Amount
that is
actually
needed
Amount
that we
put
Solubility
(scale of
1-5, with 5
the most
soluble)
Observation of the results (color
change, and energy needed to push it
out from the syringe filters)
Gas-Chromatography-Mass
Spectrometer (GCMS)
Results
NaOH Small white
grains
(smaller
than KOH)
40 g 0.02 g 0.024 g 5 The color was still the same as when
we started; odor also stayed the
same. Easy to push out from the
syringe.
Still has high amount of
unreacted reactants, but also
has a very small amount of
furfural acetone and tinier
amount of C13
KOH Small white
grains
56.11 g 0.028 g 0.0291 g 5 The color was still the same as when
we started; odor also stayed the
same. Easy to push out from the
syringe.
Still has high amount of
unreacted reactants, but also
has a very small amount of
furfural acetone and amount
of C13
Ca(OH)2 White
powder
74.10 g 0.037 g 0.0325 g 2 The product got lighter when
squeezed out of the yellow filter,
because it got separate from the
polymers.
Left with high amount in
reactants, because they didn’t
react properly and thoroughly
Mg(OH)2 White
powder
58.33 g 0.0292 g 0.0271 g 5 The color didn’t change from when
we first started when squeezed out
from the filter.
Left with high amount in
reactants, because they didn’t
react properly and thoroughly
Sr(OH)2 White
powder
121.64 g 0.061 g 0.061 g 4 The product was very hard to squeeze out from the syringe filter, and the ones squeezed out have a
lighter and clearer color.
Left with high amount in reactants, because they didn’t react properly and thoroughly
Ba(OH)2 White
powder
171.36 g 0.086 g 0.0852 g 4 The color did changed to become lighter and clearer when it is
squeezed out from the yellow syringe filter.
Left with high amount in reactants, because they didn’t react properly and thoroughly
-3
The results (graph) show that my hypothesis was correct because stronger bases did indeed produce better results! Secondly, the set of reaction that was done 3 hours also proved that the hypothesis was correct because it got better results than the set that was done in 1 hour. The reasons are because stronger bases make the reaction possible and by waiting for a longer time, we are allowing more furfural and acetone to react, thus producing more furfural acetone. That’s why the reaction was incomplete when we used weaker bases (alkaline earth hydroxides).
However, there was a partial mistake in my hypothesis. This is because when bases get too strong, they might cause further reactions among furfural acetone and the reactants, forming C13. This is why NaOH also produced a large amount of C13 in addition to C8. If we were to do another set of experiment but for 24 hours, there might be some C21 because the products may start to react with each other more often. So in conclusion, KOH should the best base for my experiment, because its basic strength is just right. But as the graph implies, KOH didn’t produce the best results, which means that we must have done something wrong during the process, making the reactants unable to react with each other properly.
There may have been some errors, both human and measurement errors, throughout the experiment, causing slight mistakes in our data and result. Some of the errors might have been inaccurately measured the mass of the base used, not reacting all the bases that were added to the flask, not setting the micropipette to the appropriate value, and not enough sodium sulfate was added. Next time, we would be more careful as so to be more accurate in our results.
Dr.EkasithSomsook
P’AmonwanSayasiri(P’Baitong)
And everyone else in Mahidol