Amalia Fernndez-Salvador

5th Period
Recrystallization Project; Do It Yourself
Introduction:

Recrystallization is a technique used to purify chemicals. The solution is heated with a unpurified
solution and a pure solution. The solution should be oversaturated and therefore when the
solution when left to rest, purifies by forming crystals. The slower the rate of cooling down the
bigger the crystals will be formed. Also, another factor important to take in account is that
repeated recrystallizion will result in an ever purer crystailline precipitate. The procedure used for
this process will be simple and therefore only two substances will be used.
Materials:
- 6 cups of sugar
- 2 cups of water
- 2 Corning Hot Plate that goes to heat of level 10.
- 4 cups per person. The cups have to be of the same size.
- 4 Pipe cleaner
- 2 Pencil ( to hold the pipe cleaner)
- Big beaker (2000 mL) to contain the 8 cups of solution included.
- Spoon used to remove the crystals which dont want to be grown.
The change of materials was based mostly in an increase of solution, to make the whole
experiment more efficient, and have more samples of the solution to see if the experiment would
actually work. What also changed which made the idea of making more samples, was the factor
that the cups used were bigger than the first time that recrystallization was made in the other
experiment. So, when the solution was poured this time into the glasses, the solution just fitted
into one of the glasses. Yet, the purpose that there should be more solution was accomplished
with this increase by the double of materials.
Methods:
1. In the big beaker place the 6 cups of sugar and mix it with the 2 cups of water.
2. Place the beaker on the hot plate and heat the solution with the highest degree until the
solution dissolves completely.
3. Place some of the solution in one of the cups (so in total you would have to put 4 cups
with the solution)
4. In each of the cups, with the help of the pencil, place the pipe cleaner inside the cup with
a difference of 2 mm with the base of the cup so there is no actual contact between the
pipe cleaner and the cup.
5. Let the solution rest.
6. After two days of rest, (maybe more or less) try to remove your pipe cleaner from the
solution, and reheat the solution in the cup, place the same solution in another cup and let
the pipe cleaner rest again to form the crystals.
7. Let the solution rest again for some time, removing the crystals which you dont want.
After five days, remove the pipe cleaner with the crystals formed and take a good look at
them. Record any findings. Repeat step 6 if there are excess crystals that are not forming
around the pipe cleaner but around the glass.
8. In total your experiment should last 7 days, so the experiment would begin on Monday
and end on Monday.
The change in the methodology was caused mainly by an accident that happened in the last
experiment. In the last experiment, I had a problem with the growing of crystals so I had to melt
the solution which made my glass crack. Then, when I kept on doing the procedure that was
supposed to be followed and finally had the results, I had considerable bigger crystals than the
rest. In this experiment I wanted to see if it was due to the re-melting of the solution that the
crystals grew bigger, and that is why I included those steps in this procedure.

Results:

First Time Doing Recrystallization (Fernndez-
Salvador,2012)
Changes done in the project (Fernndez-
Salvador, 2013)







Classmates results:
The crystals were considerably smaller than what my results had been. As can be seen the base
that appeared in my crystals was bigger and contained bigger crystals. The results of other
researchers were quite similar. Two other researchers had grown crystals just around the pipe
cleaner giving it the perfect shape that it had. Yet, our results were; more crystals and bigger, even
though the shape created at the base didnt exactly match with what was wanted. This photo is
the result of Camila Velas rock candy project which followed the same procedure as I had. Here, it
can be seen that we had more or less the same results, even though I had a bigger amount of
crystals, the shape of the crystals and how big they were was quite similar, which gave efficiency
to the results that we had.



Analysis:
The procedure that was done was followed all the time, with some adjustments considering that
we had a complication on the fourth day that we had to melt it down again because our solutions
had almost crystallized completely, but not around the pipe cleaner which was the objective. So in
the fourth day we had to remove the pipe cleaner with the crystals that had formed before and
melt the rest of the substance, following step 6 again which was alright because the whole idea
was to see if it was this little process of heating again the substance that helped the crystals grow
more. The crystals grew slowly with time, and then the seventh day as was planned we removed
the crystals and achieved this big crystals that we have.

The weight of the crystal was of: 112.9 grams, comparing to the weight achieved last time which
was of 36.7 grams. The result of other researchers weight was less than what I had achieved, such
as the weight of my teammate was of 86 grams which is a lot but still has a lot of difference with
the weight that I achieved.


As I explained earlier, the results with my teammate were very similar. The crystals were big with
rectangular shaped ones, we had a base which was stuck to the base of the cup and had to be
taken away, yet the crystals formed around the pipe cleaner were the same shape and size which
gave this experiment the answer to the question which had been asked through the procedure.
Did the accident that happened the last time affect my crystals? An explanation to the results
which were almost the same with the other researcher which used the same procedure was that,
everything was done exactly the same. We heated up the solution together, and placed at the
same time the pipe cleaner again in the heated solution. This caused us to have the same results.


Conclusions:

The differences that were implemented in this experiment, compared to the last time that
recrystallization was done, were few but precise. First, there was more solution but the same ratio
of sugar to water was used. Secondly, before this experiment the process of recrystallization didnt
include reheating the solution, but this time, this was included at least once, which in this
experiment we did twice due to the excess of crystals that had grown. The results of this
experiment were positive. The change induced in our experiment was quite better because of the
results obtained. The results obtained in this experiment were much better, because the crystals
formed were bigger, more precise on their shape and there were more crystals formed. I think
that the better results wouldve been us because, overall the rest of the groups had good results
but as I said before, our results were bigger, better and precise. The shape of the crystal was
rectangular and the size of them were quite big as well as we had a lot of crystals. For next time I
think that what should be done should be focused in maintenance to form the perfect shape
around the pipe cleaner. When the crystals go around the base you remove them and melt them
down so only the crystals that keep on growing are the ones that are growing around the pipe
cleaner. I would recommend this lab for next year. I think that it is a good process to undergo to
do once an experiment and with the conclusions and the idea that we can do again the
experiment with what we think should be changed to have better results. So, I think that I would
recommend it to next Organic Chemistry classes.