explain why you boiled the 4 tea bags for 15 minutes in sodium carbonate and water solution. If you performed the experiment at room temperature (without heating), what effect would have on your experimental results? (extraction of caffeine lab)
The sodium carbonate is a base - we can use sodium hydroxide or any other base also. When we tea leaves are boiled the tannins present in it dissolve in the water and also the caffeine. If we do not use a sodium carbonate the tannins will goes to the solvent layer (i.e. methylene chloride) used in the following extraction . The sodium carbonate converts the tannins into their sodium salts and these being ionic salts are not soluble in solvents like methylene chloride and it will remain in the aqueous layer during extraction. Therefore pure caffeine can be extracted. If we carry out this process at room temperature , extraction will not happen as caffiene is insoluble in cold water
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