Somervale School, Midsomer Norton, Bath7th January 2009

The experiment we completed was

1. Safety precautions were taken, glasses and coat!

2. We boiled 5 tea bags in a beaker using a hot plate.

3. This equipment is called Buchner filtration. We attached it to taps to create suction.

4. Filtering

5. We filtered our stewed tea to remove any bits.

6. I cooled down the filtrate using an ice bowl.

7. I added the solution to a separating funnel with an organic solvent.

8. We shook the funnel and released the gas, pointing at the wall.

9. I ran off the bottom layer of solution containing the caffeine and dichloromethane solvent.

10. I used a rotary evaporator to leave the solid in my flask. Expensive machine!

11. This is our caffeine.

12. I scraped out the solid caffeine.

13. We tested the purity on a melting point machine.

14. Caffeine extracted.