From Copper metal to Pharmaceutical (Copper aspirinate )

[pyroman2498]

So A few days ago i was asked to write up an experiment which started out with the metal and ended up as a useful compound that could be used as a pharmaceutical or in a way that could help life. So i thought and thought, and experimented with different things , searching YouTube and Google. And i came across a few that i liked but the one that caught my eye was copper aspirinate

, A Copper compound that is used as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis interested me, than i realized , How am i going to go from copper to the Compound. I kept searching, and found a synthesis that i liked, that used compound's i know how to make from copper , and i went the easiest wrought to do the following Experiment and this experiment is in the processes of being put into my website , but there are a few minor things i will change.

 

"From Copper metal to Pharmaceutical"
In this experiment I will start with Plain copper metal(And a Few house hold materials) , and end up with Copper aspirinate.
First we need to make a soluble copper compound that will react with Sodium Bicarbonate, usaly we could use copper sulfate, but lets say you dont have that available,Are you out of luck?
Well , luckily for you your not out of luck, We can make another soluble copper compound that will react with Sodium bicarbonate to form Copper carbonate, We will make Copper acetate.Than we will react the copper acetate with sodium carbonate to form copper carbonate , Than we will isolate ASA (Acetylsalicylic acid) From aspirin, and then react the Acetylsalicylic acid with the copper carbonate to form Copper aspirinate

Making the copper acetate: Making this compound could not be easier, you will want to make up a solution with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, you will want to use double the amount of vinegar that use use from hydrogen peroxide ( Say you use 30mls of hydrogen peroxide , Thank you will want to use 60mls of Vinegar ). After you make this solution you will want to drop in some copper ( About 10grams should be plenty, but if you run out of copper add more ) Now heat the solution To a slight boil and add the copper , you will notice it bubble.( NOTE: you can also just add the copper without heating , this will take longer, but is safer ) As its bubbling you will notice the color change from clear to blue(This is NORMAL) ,the reaction is complete when the solution is a deep blue or when you copper metal stops reacting . The Equation is here - CH3COOH+H2O2+Cu =
Cu(CH3COO)2+H2O+O2.
Now that you have the solution we will move onto making the Copper Carbonate

Making the Copper Carbonate: Making the copper carbonate is easier than make the Copper Acetate. What you want to do now is make up a Saturated solution of Sodium bicarbonate, After you have a solution of Sodium Bicarbonate , take that solution and add it to the copper acetate solution, (You will notice a green/blue precipitate This is our copper carbonate ) Keep adding the solution till no more precipitates out of solution. After you have all of it precipitated out of solution , filter and wash with copious amounts of cold water to remove trace amounts of Bicarbonate that may be in your product. Set the copper carbonate out to dry. While we wait for this to dry we now can make our Acetylsalicylic acid.

Making the Acetylsalicylic acid from aspirin : Making Acetylsalicylic acid, isn't to difficult , its actually pretty fun , So lets get started .
You will first want to start out by placing some water into a freezer to cool it down to a low temp , just above freezing.
As we are waiting for the water to cool, We can prepare our solution we will pour into the cool water.
Start by measuring about 1ml of Isopropyl alcohol per aspirin tablet used, in this experiment i used about 25 Tablets , so i will measure out 25ml's of Isopropyl Alcohol.
Then add the Tablet, and the Isopropyl alcohol to a beaker and lightly heat do dissolve all the aspirin (DO NOT BOIL THE ALCOHOL!, Boiling it may cause the ASA to Turn in to Salicylic acid ) After all the aspirin has dissolved,There may still be a cloudiness do to binders N' such that are not soluble in the IPA.
Take this solution a filter it to make sure no binders are left, Then take you water out of the freezer, now take your solution with the ASA in it and add it to the cold water.
You should see a nice fluffy white precipitate come out of solution, This is you ASA and you can take this and filter this off, while filtering wash with copious amounts of cold water and ice cold Isopropyl alcohol.After This is done you can now dry it or recrystallize it(this isn't necessary, but will improve your product to just make sure no binders are left) . To recrystallize just add just enough Hot Isopropyl alcohol to dissolve all the product , Then set that out to recrystallize, putting a continues air stream helps yield. Dry this and we will move on to the next and final step to our tour of making a pharmaceutical.

Making The Copper Aspirinate: YAY !!FINALLY!! You have survived this long and now its time to make the final product!!, this, like all the other steps isn't to difficult.
First weigh out 9 grams of Acetylsalicylic acid and 3 grams of Copper(II)carbonate.
add the 9 grams of Acetylsalicylic acid to 75ml's of distilled water, Bring this water close to boiling. Now With Lots of stirring (Preferable with a hotplate stirrer ) slowly add the copper carbonate, adding to much at once will result in the reaction overflowing onto the hotplate. You will note a color change from the greenish blue copper carbonate to the Blue Copper Aspirinate. After all the carbonate has been added keep stirring and gentle heating for about 5-10 minutes then shut off the stirring and heat and let the Copper Aspirinate settle. after its settled , if you observe bubbling, turn back on stirring and gentle heating,this means the carbonate and Acetylsalicylic acid haven't fully reacted.
When your ready to proceed, filter the product ( Using a vacuum is highly rec emended ) At this stage your product is impure with left over Un-Reacted Acetylsalicylic acid, add the product to a beaker , and add approximately 100ml's and stir to dissolve impurity's. Now re filter you product, it should look MUCH cleaner , if there are anymore impurity's try and get them out with a spatula, as it may be just a insoluble piece of scrap filter paper. Now Dry your product and your finished!! After this Long experiment you deserve a coke or Pepsi (Or a beer for you fellow beer drinkers) to drink , and a pat on the back, you have made a pharmaceutical from copper metal,aspirin , and a few other house hold products!

 

any questions of this are welcome !! Hope you enjoyed it.

Edited October 19, 2013 by pyroman2498

[taiwanluthiers]

I take it that it makes the prettiest blue that rivials paris green?

[pyroman2498]

this is what it looks like taiwan

 

[schroedinger]

Sry, but are you serious about that stuff you wrote above?

 

You really wrote here about making a drug yourself.

Reading your procedure, first you never god the copper aspirinate in a pharmaceutical quality!!!!!! You wrote about cleaning your product by using a spatula, that`s not close to pharmaceutical purity!

 

Never, but really never make any drug for consumption by yourself. You can`t be sure that you won`t poison yourself.

 

On the other hand, why did you post this thread here at all, this is a pyrotechnical forum, not an underground drug forum!

[taiwanluthiers]

not to mention most copper salts are poisonous and how can you be sure that your product isn't full of poisonous impurities? What is copper aspirinate used for? If it's not for making blue stars then it's off topic. Also I seriously wouldn't be eating any homemade copper salt!

[pyroman2498]

There's a reason i put it in the Chemistry section of the forums, second it wasn't meant to be made in a home lab and expected to use it for Aid and medical purposes .This was just to explore the science of copper salts, And Copper salts among all other heavy metal salts are not horribly poisonous. IMO There is a reason for allot of starting chemists to Start with copper salts, they are forgiving, and easy to obtain. IF you read the top i specifically said "A Copper compound that is used as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis".

I'm not one for making "DRUGS" and i never said "I WAS Going to use it, The reason i made it was because of how beautiful the compound is" And i dont run a damn pharmacy and sure the hell dont use the stuff i made , i never said this was "FDA approved quality controlled" If someone was going to make this for use in medicine in a TRUE Lab YES they would go through a SHIT TONE of procedures to purify the product for use not just use a spatula to get out the scraps, but i have a Home Lab, With only so much money.

And dont you think there is a reason there is a CHEMISTRY part of the forums. I understand that this is a pyrotechnic forum , ive been on this forum for a while,and understand that. but i thought that people might find this experiment interesting, of how this was done and some of the science behind making something from a Metal. Didn't think people would get so pissed off because i posted this.

Edited October 20, 2013 by pyroman2498

[pyroman2498]

Btw , i do suspect this compound will give a cobalt blue flame, but dont know how much it could actually be used in stars do to how small of a quantity you get when its made

[WSM]

Btw , i do suspect this compound will give a cobalt blue flame, but dont know how much it could actually be used in stars do to how small of a quantity you get when its made

 

I have a friend who made cupric acetylsalicylate upwards of twenty years ago. He made blues using it with ammonium perchlorate, but reported it wasn't remarkable plus for all the effort, there are easier ways to get good blues.

 

Still, it is a pretty compound.

 

WSM

Edited October 21, 2013 by WSM

[a_bab]

You'll never get rid of sodium ions, so it can't be used for blues in this form.

Besides it's a well known "kitchen chemistry" compound, with dozens of tutorials on the net. Nothing new under the su... my son. It is well described in the MS forum for instance. Copper aspirinate is also more of a colloquial name and not the chemical one.

Your post does not belong here, really. It's pyrotechnical chemistry period.

 

There are many copper compounds that would probably worth to be explored for blue/green stars: copper stearate, copper borate, copper lactate etc. Some have already been described here years ago.

[WSM]

You'll never get rid of sodium ions, so it can't be used for blues in this form.

Besides it's a well known "kitchen chemistry" compound, with dozens of tutorials on the net. Nothing new under the su... my son. It is well described in the MS forum for instance. Copper aspirinate is also more of a colloquial name and not the chemical one.

Your post does not belong here, really. It's pyrotechnical chemistry period.

There are many copper compounds that would probably worth to be explored for blue/green stars: copper stearate, copper borate, copper lactate etc. Some have already been described here years ago.

It can be made without sodium salts, but should we bother? I wonder if a good effect can be made with it?

 

WSM

[boblangdon]

You'll never get rid of sodium ions, so it can't be used for blues in this form.

Besides it's a well known "kitchen chemistry" compound, with dozens of tutorials on the net. Nothing new under the su... my son. It is well described in the MS forum for instance. Copper aspirinate is also more of a colloquial name and not the chemical one.

Your post does not belong here, really. It's pyrotechnical chemistry period.

 

There are many copper compounds that would probably worth to be explored for blue/green stars: copper stearate, copper borate, copper lactate etc. Some have already been described here years ago.

 

Amen.

You can wash it 'til you're blue in the face, but that's all that will be blue.

Your stars will be a lovely "sodium orange."

:-(

[WSM]

Re-reading the original post, there's a valuable nugget. If it's correct, pyroman2498 says if you boil a solution of acetylsalicylic acid it'll turn into salicylic acid.

 

That's huge! We can make salicylate whistle fuels with it.

 

Everyone has something to offer!!!

 

Well done.

 

WSM