Abstract Preparation of methyl salicylate is a classic organic chemistry experiment, which can be used as an assessment experiment. Teachers can examine students' operation skills and give students grades according to the quality and purity of products. The experimental scheme provided currently in the textbook is not reasonable, which leads to the low yield of the product. Aiming at the shortcomings of traditional experimental methods, we proposed a new experimental route of using sodium carbonate to neutralize sulfuric acid (removing catalyst) and then distilling and separating the methanol. The improved experimental scheme is more reasonable. It avoids the decomposition of methyl salicylate, improves the yield of the product, and obtains better experimental results.
FAN Wen-Jie, LI Bo-Nan, ZHANG Pi-Ji, DIAO Xiao-Qian, TAN Da-Zhi. Improvement of Preparation of Methyl Salicylate[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Education, 2019, 40(2): 48-50.