Paracetamol

Harald · Post by **Harald** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:53 am

Paracetamol ??
Isn´t that a painkiller ?
Great shot in polarized light

How did you preapere it ?

bromodomain · Post by **bromodomain** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 7:39 am

Sorry for not adding a description. I procured some lab grade paracetamol from the institution I work at. I dissolved it in absolute ethanol and then allowed the ethanol to evaporate from a slide surface.

As for paracetamol it is a fairly toxic analgesic that is metabolized into an endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitor among other stuff.

I'm interested in how the molecular conformation of the chemical will be translated into the tiny prisms that you can see as a neat kaleidoscopic pattern. I might have to try to evaporate a mix of L-ascorbic acid and paracetamol, two compounds with distinctive crystals. I would expect to see the round shaped crystals of vit. C modified in a paracetamolesque manner.

To be honest, this is one of the most beautiful compounds I've came across so far. I also tried some ibuprofen but it was on the rubbish side

Here is another paracetamol shot:

I use a piece of LCD screen plastic as the primary polarizer and a proper polarizer as the analyser that I've fitted into the binocular head of my Zeiss Standard.

2.5/0.08 PLAN-achromat

bromodomain · Post by **bromodomain** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:57 am

I prepared a mixture of crystalline L-ascorbic acid and paracetamol and disolved it absolute ethanol. Vitamin C didn't dissolve readily in this solvent so I had to allow it evaporate in order to make space for some water. Once everything dissolved I heated up the solution with a tungsten lamp to make a concentrate of the mixture. Then I spread it on a slide but had to use more abs. ethanol to overcome the surface tension.

Here is a fairly representative motif present on a slide that I left to dry out overnight.

10x/0.22

bromodomain · Post by **bromodomain** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 6:37 am

This repetitive pattern is something that I'd normally see in ascorbic acid crystals. I found out that treating the slide with abs. ethanol results in the solvation of paracetamol which subsequently forms crystals with simple geometry as this one here http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 1676825810

Harald · Post by **Harald** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:25 am

Hi,
What ratio did you use ??

bromodomain · Post by **bromodomain** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:04 am

I eyeballed approximately equal amounts of the two compounds because I have no scales at home. I guess I should try to make mixtures with properly defined ratios and hopefully I will when I find free time between my experiments at work.

The ascorbic acid+paracetamol mix is interesting because paracetmol wouldn't dissolve readily in water and vit.C would not dissolve in ethanol (or at least not to a significant extent). The way I see it ethanol would evaporate first which would leave the vit.C in an aqueous phase that would remain for longer. Once the water evaporates as well the vit.C will begin forming its characteristic rounds crystals with the repetitive pattern that I showed you.

I believe it is a lot more complicated than that

bromodomain · Post by **bromodomain** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 12:35 am