Solvent Extraction of Caffeine from Tea

Purpose and method: the purpose of the lab is to extract pure caffeine from tea bag by solvent
extraction. During the experiment, the tea will mix with a nonpolar solvent so caffeine molecule
will get attracted by the nonpolar solvent. The mixture will then go through sublimation and
purification to become pure caffeine. The weight of the pure caffeine will be used to calculate
percent yield, percent by mass in a tea bag, and percent purity.
Material list:
Hot plate
Sand bath
Scale
2 x 250 mL beaker
1 x 100 mL beaker
1 x 50 mL beaker
Tongs
Ice
Separatory funnel
1 x 50 mL graduated cylinder
Glass decanting/stirring rod
Weight paper
0.5M Na2CO3
Hexane/isopropanol solution
Na2SO4 solid
1 Scoopula
Safety:
Direct contact with hot plate may cause burns on the skin.
Caffeine is poisonous in large quantities.
Wash hands thoroughly after the experiment.
Wear goggles all the time.
Procedure:
1. Put on goggles and check that you have all supplies,
2. Take 2 tea bag from the tea bag dispensary,
3. Weight the mass of tea bags up to 3 decimals, record the mass of the tea bag,
4. Pour 40 mL of 0.5 M Na2CO3 solution into a 250mL beaker, add the tea bags into the 250
mL beaker, and boil the solution at 250 C. Use the tongs to move the tea bags around,
but be careful not to break them,
5. Remove the 250 mL beaker from the hot plate and place into an ice bath. Use the tongs to
remove the tea bag from the solution. Squeeze liquid out of the tea bag. Be careful not to
break the tea bag,
6. Cool the tea solution for 60 seconds,

7. Pour the cooled tea solution into a separatory funnel. Make sure that the funnels lower
valve is closed before pouring the tea solution,
8. Pour exactly 10 mL of Ethyl acetate solution into the separatory funnel. Shake very
gently for 10 seconds and open the top glass stopper to release pressure. Shake gently for
60 seconds, making sure to release gas every 10 seconds,
9. Repeat step 6 twice (a total of 3 times) with another 10 mL of ethyl acetate,
10. Place the separatory funnel of the ring stand and release the lower dark layer into the
other 250 mL beaker as waste. Make sure to capture as much of the top clear layer as
possible,
11. Dispense the top clear layer into a clean and dry 250 mL beaker and add 2.5 grams of
Na2SO4 into the solution. Stir until no more Na2SO4 dissolves,
12. Using a stirring rod, decant the fluid only from the 250mL beaker into a 100mL beaker,
13. Place the beaker into the sand bath and swirl continuously,
14. As soon as the liquid evaporates, remove the beaker from the sand bath,
15. The crystal formation in the beaker is crude caffeine,
16. Carefully scrape the crude caffeine crystal off from the beaker to a weight paper (tare the
scale with the weight paper first),
17. Weight the crude caffeine and record the mass,
18. Assemble the purification apparatus, make sure that both beakers are immaculate and dry.
19. Preheat the hot plate to 180C for 5 minutes,
20. Place the purification apparatus on the hot plate and take observations,
21. Quickly after heating, add some ice into the smaller 50 mL beaker, making sure not to
spill any water into the 100 mL beaker,
22. Continue heating until the purification process in complete. Observe the buildup of pure
caffeine on the outside of the 50mL beaker,
23. Turn off the hot plate, remove the apparatus using tongs, and allow to cool. Remove the
50 mL beaker slowly and pour off/remove the ice, make sure that no water comes in
contact with the caffeine on the outside of the 50mL beaker,
24. Make observations of the substance formed outside of the 50mL beaker,
25. Put weight paper on the scale. Tare the scale,
26. Scrape the caffeine onto weight paper, measure the weight up to 3 decimals and record
mass.
Data Table:
Mass of 2 tea bags

5.296g

Mass of Crude Caffeine

Mass of Weight Paper (for
Pure Caffeine)
Mass of Weight Paper + Pure
Caffeine

0.035g
0.274g
0.304g

Calculation Table:
0.304 g0.274 g=0.030 g

Mass of Pure Caffeine

Percent Yield of Caffeine by Mass

0.030 g

1000 mg
=30.0 mg
1g

(Accepted value: 110mg for two tea bags)

30.0 mg
100 =27.3
110. mg
5.296 g
=2.648 g/bag
2 bags

Percent by Mass of Caffeine in Each

Tea Bag

0.030 g Caffeine
=0.015 g Caffeine /bag
2 bags
0.015 g Caffeine
100 =0.566
2.648 g

Percent Purity of Pure Caffeine

0.030 g Pure Caffeine

100 =86
0.035 g Crude Caffeine

Conclusion:
1. The result makes sense because it doesnt exceed the theoretical amount of caffeine in the tea
bags, but they are lower than I expected because we only get 27.3% of the caffeine from the tea
bags. The value should have been higher because a cup of tea (with one tea bag) contains 3075mg of caffeine, which is twice amount of what we have after the experiment.
2. There are lots of possible errors in this experiment. First, we dont have a way to find out if all
caffeine is dissolved in the Na2CO3 solutions when we make the tea solution. In terms of reagent,
hexane/isopropanol solution is nonpolar; however, this solution might not be able to attract as
many caffeine molecules as possible from the tea solution, this could contribute to lower
calculated value of percent mass of caffeine in each tea bag. The procedure could also be
improved. Instead of scraping off the crude caffeine and pure caffeine, the beaker which will
contain the caffeine should be weighted before crude caffeine or pure caffeine is formed. And

then when we weight the crude caffeine and pure caffeine, we will weight it with the beaker and
subtract the weight of the beaker later in the calculation table. This could minimize crude
caffeine and pure caffeine lost during the scraping process. The result could also be improved if
we are allowed to perform extraction again from the left over tea solution. It would allow more
caffeine to be extracted from the solution. Another possible source of error comes from the
solvent extraction step. The procedure states shake gently for the organic solvent to mix with
the tea solution to get caffeine from it, but its hard to define gently when we want to extract as
much caffeine as possible without creating emulsion. This is a procedure error that could be
changed to improve accuracy of the experiment.
3. There are many concepts involved in this experiment. In the beginning of the experiment,
Na2CO3 will acts as a base to make water, which is amphoteric, more acidic and ionic. This will
reduce the amount of caffeine dissolved in water to prepare it for the solvent extraction because
caffeine is more attracted to nonpolar solvent. Hexane/isopropanol solution is used in the solvent
extraction step because it is nonpolar. As mentioned before, caffeine is more attracted to
nonpolar solvent, so hexane/isopropanol solution can attract more caffeine molecules out from
the tea solution. The separatory funnel is used in the experiment because we need to get rid of the
inorganic content of the tea solution. The separatory funnel can help separating the inorganic
layer (Na2CO3 tea solution) and the organic layer (hexane/isopropanol solution with caffeine).
Na2SO4 is adding into the organic solution as a drying agent to remove excess water from the
organic solution. Na2SO4 is an inorganic and insoluble salt, the excess water in the organic
solution will quickly hydrate the salt; once the salt is filtered out, the organic solution will
contain no water molecules. The purpose of the purification apparatus is to purify the caffeine
from crude caffeine. When the temperature reaches 180C, which is the sublimation point of
caffeine, pure caffeine evaporates from crude caffeine. Once the vapor comes in contact with the
small beaker with ice (low temperature), the pure caffeine vapor deposits and forms crystal along
the side of the small beaker. Thats the purpose of the purification apparatus.
4. This extraction method could also be applied to the extraction of nicotine. Industry could use
solvent extraction to extract nicotine from tobacco juice, and they could use the product (nicotine
oil) to make e-cigarette oil and nicotine patches. These products are harmful to human body (just
like a large amount of any alkaloids) but the industry is able to put this in mass production and
make huge profit. This extraction method could also be used to investigate drug-related crimes.
For example, if cocaine is suspected to be present in a crime scene, the investigators could take
sample of liquids and run solvent extraction to see if cocaine is present. All of these are simple
applications of solvent extraction.