Testing the purity of Aspirin

As part of the BTEC Applied Science Diploma course, our students have to make a sample of Aspirin using chemical procedures. Once produced, the Aspirin is then tested using a range of methods to assess the purity of the compound.

This term we have been fortunate to visit City College Plymouth to accurately assess the purity of the students Aspirin using their Infra-Red Spectrometer, which can identify over 140,000 compounds from a small grain of material. This machine is commonly used in forensics to identify unknown substances from crime scenes.

Riki’s Aspirin sample had a result of 96% purity, which was as pure as the laboratory stock materials, demonstrating a skilful approach to the method in producing Aspirin.

Mr Waite
Assistant Curriculum Lead for Science