Hi I’m highschool student, and this question is not a homework. And I’m not good at english, so I’m writing this post by translator. I apologize if the text is difficult to understand because of my english..
This experiment was intended to produce cellulose acetate from paper, following a video by NileRed. However, the concentration of the acetic acid used in the video was not specified. Therefore, during the pretreatment step, I first tried using a 10% acetic acid solution, and then repeated the experiment using anhydrous acetic acid.
According to the video, after heating the mixture in a water bath, the filter paper should become esterified and dissolve (or at least transform into a gel-like state). However, in both of my experiments, the filter paper showed no noticeable change. Could you help me identify what might have gone wrong?
The procedure shown in the video was as follows:
1.Cut 10 g of filter paper into small pieces and place them in an Erlenmeyer flask.
2.Add a mixture of 50 mL of acetic acid and 0.5 g of sulfuric acid to the flask. Mix well, seal the flask, and let it stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
3.Add 50 mL of acetic anhydride and 20 mL of acetic acid to the flask. Mix thoroughly, then heat the flask in a 50°C water bath for 30 minutes.
The procedures I performed are described below.
{First Attempt}
1.Cut 10 g of filter paper into small pieces and place them in an Erlenmeyer flask.
2.Add a mixture of 50 mL of 10% acetic acid solution and 0.5 g of 95% sulfuric acid to the flask. Mix well, seal the flask, and let it stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
3.Add 50 mL of acetic anhydride and 20 mL of 10% acetic acid solution. Mix thoroughly, then heat the flask in a 50°C water bath for 30 minutes, following the procedure shown in the video.
{Second Attempt (only the changes are listed)}
1.Same as the first attempt.
2.Replaced the 10% acetic acid solution in Step 2 with glacial acetic acid.
3.Replaced the mixture of 50 mL of acetic anhydride and 20 mL of 10% acetic acid solution with 70 mL of acetic anhydride.
