SYNTHESIS OF ACETAMINОPHENE BY MICROWAVE HEATING

Abstract

Acetaminоphen (paracetamol) is one of the most widespread and most popular medicines in the world. It is the base molecule for many medicines for the treatment of colds and flu. It can also be used to relieve a smart pain-like post-operation pain, or pain at high stages of cancer.

The synthesis of acetaminophen is based on a modern approach to selecting the correct way and using the methods necessary to characterize the resulting pharmaceutically active compound, which provides reliable parameters of the chemical quality of the synthesized molecules. In this work, we present the results of the synthesis of acetaminophen by the interaction of p-aminophenol with acetic anhydride in the presence of catalytic amounts of sulfuric acid by microwave heating. Microwave (MW) radiation exposure can significantly speed up reactions and increase the exit of the targeted materials, reducing the resorption in organic synthesis. MW radiation is a crucial tool for the development of green chemistry. The MW radiation was carried out in a domestic MW oven “Electronica SP-23 ZIL” (Russia) the, frequency is 2450 Mhz. The oven is equipped with a rectangular waveguide. 

It has been found that heating for 2 minutes in a conventional, specially designed kitchen oven is optimal. This course of the process makes the proposed method effective.

Three types of eluents have been proposed for thin-layer chromatography in order to establish the individuality of the resulting acetaminophen. The infrared spectra of the starting aminophenol and the obtained product and the method of studying proton magnetic analysis to determine the structure of acetaminophen were studied.