EXPERIMENT 1: ISOLATION OF CAFFEINE

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY II (CHM 557)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UITM)

Objective
1. To perform extraction caffeine from tea bag.
2. To determine percentage of caffeine in the tea bag.

Introduction
The purpose of this experiment was to perform extraction caffeine from tea bag and determine
percentage of caffeine in the tea bag. The experiment was used BOH tea brand with weight
2.0610g to extract caffeine by using a solid-liquid and liquid-liquid extraction techniques.
Extraction techniques are used to isolate and remove particular compounds form another
substance. Which is non-polar substances will be more soluble in the non-polar solvent and
polar substances will be more soluble in polar solvent.
A solid-liquid extraction method was used first to extract the caffeine room the tea bags to by
dissolving sodium carbonate in hot water and creating an aqueous sodium carbonate solvent.
In order to bring the caffeine molecules out of the tea bags and into the aqueous solution.
Common polar solvents are water often with acid or base (like NaHCO3) added to control the
pH. Salt (NaCl) is often added to increase the polarity and help exclude organic solutes.
Because caffeine is water-soluble and is a base, sodium carbonate must be added to the hot
water to prevent it from reacting with the acids present and to ensure it remains a base.
In liquid-liquid extraction, two layers are needed- an organic layer and an aqueous layer- that
are both immiscible in water. Solvents normally chose by their miscibility in water, they should
have relatively low boiling points for faster and easier extraction, and they should be enervative
with the other substances being used in the experiment. In this experiment, the caffeine is
extracted into methylene chloride from water. . Caffeine is more soluble in organic substances
so the disintermediation was used with a separators funnel to extract the caffeine from the
aqueous sodium carbonate (the aqueous layer) and into the organic layer. The remaining
organic layer that included the caffeine was dried using anhydrous calcium chloride let’s since
they are neutral and enervative and would not disrupt any further reactions. It was then distilled,
and then the remaining disintermediation was evaporated, leaving crude, greenish-white
crystalline caffeine.

1
 Discussion
Throughout of experiment, the main objective have been achieve to extract caffeine
from tea bag by using solid – liquid extraction and liquid – liquid extraction. The tea leave
contain variety type of compounds. One of them is caffeine. Caffeine contain in the tea bag
was extract by using hot water to absorb into aqueous layer because caffeine is water-soluble.
Tea bags to by dissolving sodium carbonate in hot water and creating an aqueous sodium
carbonate solvent. This was done to form a sodium salt derivative of tannin compounds
contained in tea. Tannins have a phenolic group and also hydrolyses to form an acid. They can
react with sodium carbonate to form a salt. The salt is soluble in aqueous solution. Therefore,
it does not separate into the organic layer. Besides that, caffeine is water-soluble and is a base,
sodium carbonate must be added to the hot water to prevent it from reacting with the acids
present and to ensure it remains a base. In liquid – liquid extraction, there were two layers are
needed in which an organic layer and an aqueous layer. For the organic layer was used
dichloridematane because it was non-polar and relatively low boiling points for faster and
easier extraction. While water was polar thus it will form two layer. Caffeine is more soluble
in organic substances so the disintermediation was used with a separators funnel to extract the
caffeine from the aqueous sodium carbonate and into the organic layer. The remaining organic
layer that included the caffeine was dried using anhydrous calcium chloride. It was then
distilled, and then the remaining disintermediation was evaporated, leaving crude, greenish-
white crystalline caffeine.
Besides that, second objective was able to achieve to determine the percentage of
caffeine contain in tea bag. The total mass of caffeine able recover from the tea bag only was
0.0538 in which 2.6% from whole what of tea beg. Base on the theoretical the caffeine contain
in the tea bag only between 2% to 1%. The product may be no pure enough due to the some of
the organic layer and aqueous layer were not separate enough cause some of other compound
contain in tea bag present in the final product or the caffeine was not extract well from the tea
bag. Some improvement able to look after in the experiment are make sure the organic layer
and aqueous layer form two layer well and also add new method to purify the caffeine to get
pure product
Conclusion
Throughout of the experiment the main objective were able to achieve by able to
perform extraction caffeine from tea bag and also able to determine percentage of caffeine in
the tea bag in which 0.0538g or 2.6% of tea bag.
Reference
1. Lab Report: Extraction of Caffeine from Tea Bags. (2018, Jul 28). Retrieved from
https://paperap.com/paper-on-lab-report-extraction-of-caffeine-from-tea-bags/
2. Pavia, D.; Lampman, G et al. Organic Lab.Tech. 3rd ed.; Cengage: Belmont, 2011
3. Amrita University. Extraction of Caffeine from Tea. 2013.
http://amrita.vlab.co.in/?sub=3&brch=64&sim=169&cnt=1 (accessed Oct 7, 2013