PARENTS

Y12 Chemistry students gained an exciting insight into degree level Chemistry when they visited the University of Bristol recently. The girls set to work in world class university laboratories to extract caffeine from tea, using equipment and techniques not normally available to pupils in school. First they boiled the tea to extract the caffeine into water. Then they used an organic solvent to remove the caffeine from the water solution, leaving the other impurities behind. The solvent was removed by warming the solution at reduced pressure and the solid product was then removed from the flask and weighed to find the yield. Finally, melting point tests were carried out to determine the purity of the caffeine, which was then tested with an Infra-Red Spectrometer to identify the chemical bonds present.

After lunch a current post graduate student gave a lecture about his area of research and this was followed by an excellent demonstration which had everyone transfixed. The day ended with a tour of the Chemistry Department and all the wonderful facilities that they possess.