Caffeine: Experiment 5 Covalent Molecules

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Jacob Helget
Experiment 5 Covalent Molecules
Section 12 – Thursday 2:00-4:45
Lab Instructor: William Bott
Caffeine
Caffeine is a very interesting chemical. Caffeine is found in many places including coffee plant, tea leaves, kola nuts and cocoa (1). Humans then process these plants into food stuff that contains caffeine such as tea, coffee and chocolate. Caffeine is composed of 14 atoms with a molecular formula of C8H10N4O2. It is one of the few central nervous system stimulants still legal in most countries (2). The chemical name for caffeine is 1-methyltheobromine (2).
The molecular weight of caffeine is 194.19 g/mol (3). This is a relatively large weight when compared to other chemical compounds such as water which has a molecular weight of 18.015 g/mol and methanol which has a molecular weight of 32.042 g/mol (3). The density is 1.23 g/mL which means that if pure caffeine were placed in a container of water it would sink to the bottom of the container. The melting point of caffeine is 238°C. Technically caffeine does not boil; but, it does transition directly into a ga...

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