Starting in Fall 2007 I extended the traditional "caffeine from tea" experiment another week in order to extract caffeine from caffeinated beverages.
Student Handout 2010: Caffeine from Beverages
Student Handout 2008: Caffeine from Beverages
Summary of Procedure:
In Fall 2007, I asked the students to extract caffeine from a source of their choice the week after they performed the classic "tea-riffic" experiment.
That generated a nice buzz. I discovered that orange soda has caffeine in it!
Positive aspects of this experiment:
+ Many students are interested and concerned about caffeine so this experiment makes a nice connection with them.
+ The experiment has a strong discovery component and at the same time uses a procedure that they are familiar with.
Neutral (may be positive or negative) aspects of this experiment:
± Energy drinks are rather easy to extract and produce a somewhat large quantity of caffeine.
± Some beverages such as coffee and cocoa may produce problematic emulsions.
Negative aspects of this experiment:
- The yield of caffeine is quite small.
- The experiment consumes a large quantity of dichloromethane.
Inquiry & Extension Ideas:
● Many different types of teas and caffeinated beverages can be explored.
● What are the impurities?
● Compare the HPLC chromatogram of the original beverages to the extracted compounds
● Is it possible to track the caffeine in this extraction? How much caffeine stays in the aqueous layer?
Data Links:
2010 UV data
2010 HPLC data
HPLC_caffeine from beverages_2008
Student Comments:
Student_Comments 2008:_Caffeine from Beverages
Student_Comments_2007:_Caffeine from Beverages
Photo Gallery:
Caffeine_from Beverages 2007.pdf
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