ABSTRACT

A procedure for the isolation of caffeine from tea leaves has been

established by extraction using dichloromethane. Anhydrous sodium sulfate is

also used to absorb water dissolved in dichloromethane. After passing through

the beaker filtration and rotary evaporation, crude and crystal of caffeine are

present and the isolation of caffeine from tea leaves is successful.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment is to isolate caffeine from tea leaves

using extraction.

INTRODUCTION

Tea is considered to be one of the most common beverages when it comes

to caffeine extraction because in 1 cup it contains up to 30-75 mg (Mayo Clinic

Staff, 2011). These caffeine (C8H10N4O2) act as a natural stimulant, with a

strong bitter taste. (Petra, 2016) These bitterness is due to the fact that it is

part of the Alkaloid family. Alkaloid is a large group of organic compound,

which mostly contains nitrogen atoms. (Alkaloid, 2002) When it comes to the

effects, it will increase attention and alertness, reduce exhaustion, and also

lower risk of cardiovascular because of the main component inside the tea,

which is caffeine. Furthermore, the caffeine can make us feel anxious and

nervousness because it stimulates our response to stay awake, in addition, it can

cause of the increased heart rates. (Kearney, 2012) In this experiment, we will

extract caffeine from tea leaves through the technique of Thin Layer
Chromatography, or TLC. The purpose of TLC is to separate substances from its

mixture, analysing its polarity, and to identify those of unknown substances by

comparing its Retention Factor (Rf) value to the known ones. For this

experiment specifically, TLC is used to check whether or not we have extract a

pure caffeine with no contamination from other substances. (Thin-layer

chromatography, 2011)

MATERIALS

- Lab coat

- Goggles

- Gloves

- Tea solution

- Beaker

- Watch glass

- Separatory funnel

- Elymer flask

- 5mL of dichloromethan

- Rotary evaporator

- Round bottom flask

- Filter paper

- Buchner Funnel

- 0.5 g of Na2SO4

- 15 mL of CH2Cl2

METHODS

1. After having the tea solution prepared, add in 5 mL of dichloromethane

to the separatory funnel, in order to dissolved caffeine. Make sure that

stopcock is closed shut and shake the funnel carefully in a C shape.

2. Try open the stopcock to release any pressure quit up inside, making sure

that the funnel is pointing into an empty space.

3. When ready, place back into the stand, and drain the CH2Cl2 layer
into the

25 mL flask. Try to get as close as possible to the tea layer, but NOT to

actually include them.

4. Repeat this extraction of caffiene for 3 times.

5. Next, add 0.5 g of Na2SO4 to

the CH2Cl2 extract,
which will act as a

drying agent. This an extraction of Na2SO4 will absorb small amount of

water left in the CH2Cl2 extraction.

6. To separate the solid Na2SO4 from

the CH2Cl2 extract,
use a beaker

filtration technique, which will leave the solid Na2SO4 stick

to the filter

paper.

7. Take the organic layer ( CH2Cl2 ) and transfer that into a round bottom

flask, ready to be passed through the rotary evaporator in order to

ONLY extract the crude caffeine.

8. Let it dry overnight and form a dry crystallize caffeine before weighting.

RESULTS

Our products from this caffeine extraction comes in 2 different form, one of

which is a crude, while the other forms crystallization. To distinguished, the

crude is the one with a pale-yellow color while the other is crystal, from which

weve obtained in the process of rotary evaporation. In the end, after weve

passed these product through the TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography) system,

what we see is that both the crude and the crystal forms different spots on the

plate, instead of just one. So, from this we can assumed that our substance is

contaminated, which means that we did not receive a pure caffeine

DISCUSSION

1. Explain why emulsion can be observed during liquid-liquid extraction? How

to avoid it? If it occurs, what is simple methods to destroy it?

Emulsion is a colloid which includes two or more different liquids by one of the

liquids contains a dispersion, so it is the heterogeneous mixture which can be

observed from naked eyes. When we shake the separatory funnel too hard,

these layers of emulsion will form, which makes it hard for us to extract

uncontaminated caffeine. To limit this, we can shake the funnel in a slower pace

and with greater care. Though it is hard to limit those of emulsion, another

simple method is to add in some sodium chloride (NaCl). This will remove these

emulsion faster, leaving us with a clearer 2 layers formed in the funnel.

2. Why do we need drying agent (Na2SO4) after finishing liquid-liquid

extraction and before evaporation process?

Because there can be water left in CH2Cl2 extraction. We add Na2SO4 to

absorb water away, so we can obtain only the caffeine extraction. After that,

we would remove these drying agent, Sodium Sulfate, by suction filtration.

 3. How do you know you get caffeine from tea leaves? Is it pure? Compare

your caffeine extract product with the others?

To check whether or not the caffeine that weve obtained is pure, we will pass

both the crude and the crystals through the TLC process. If, in the end, what

we see on the chromatography paper is just one dot, passing through at least

half the paper, that means our caffeine is pure and so did not contaminate with

other substances. However, if many dots shown or if theres only one dot but it

didnt went up to high, then we can assume that it is not pure, or we didnt add in

enough crude/crystal for the TLC process.

4. What are errors during the experiment and how to avoid them or improve

your technique?

Errors we have found during the experiment varies since the beginning and all

the way to the end. Firstly, we might shook the separatory funnel to hard that

those dichloromethane went in and extract some other components from the

tea mixture, instead of just the caffeine. Also, we did not wait enough for all

the bubbles to fade before releasing it from the separatory funnel, which can

cause contamination in the dichloromethane mixture. Moreover, the fact that

theres only one dot of the crude/crystals on the TLC plate, may be because we

didnt add in enough crude to the plate so it didnt travels as far, thus did not

separate those of mixture.

5. Determine the strongest intermolecular force present in Caffeine

The strongest intermolecular force present in Caffeine is the dipole-dipole

force. This is due to the fact that caffeine is a polar molecule, and so, form a

those of dipole forces (C8H10NO2).

CONCLUSION

Overall, this experiment results in crude and crystal of caffeine. From

the observation from passing through the TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography)

system, it can be found that the caffeine is not pure due to different sources

of errors from the experiment. If the caffeine is pure, the crude and crystal

will result in the same one spot on the plate.