Element Collection

Element Collection

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Oil of Wintergreen

This post is the video companion to this video.

Today's experiment will be making a minty-scented oil for the winter time: methyl salicylate, or oil of wintergreen. This can be made simply from two very common and easy to obtain chemicals, and with a very simple procedure. This is also one of my first forays into organic chemistry!

Materials
  • 13.0 g aspirin, C9H8O4 (the actual tablets will weigh more!)
  • 60 mL methanol, CH3OH
  • 8 mL concentrated sulfuric acid, H2SO4
  • Distilled water 
Reaction
1 mol aspirin + 2 mol methanol --> 1 mol methyl acetate + 1 mol methyl salicylate