Sweet Resurrections: The Hilarious Adventures of

Sugar's Recrystallization
PART-I
Objectives:
 To understand the principles of recrystallization and its application to granulated sugar.
 To observe and analyze the factors influencing the formation of sugar crystals.
 To develop skills in laboratory techniques, including filtration and crystallization.
Materials:
 Granulated Sugar (100 g)
 Distilled Water (500 ml)
 Hot Plate
 Beakers (2)
 Stirring Rod
 Thermometer
 Funnel
 Filter Paper
 Transparent glass container
 Rubber bands (2-3 pieces)
 Long Bond papers
Procedures:
1. Boil 150 ml of distilled water.
2. Prepare sugar solution.
 In a beaker, dissolve 100 grams of sugar in 100 ml of hot water.
3. Filtering Impurities
 Filter the hot solution using a funnel and filter paper to a glass container to get rid of
any insoluble impurities.
4. Cooling the Solution
 Let the sugar solution sit at a room temperature for 3 days.
 Make sure to cover the glass container to prevent contamination.
5. Conduct periodic observation for 3 days.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
- The solution
- Cloud- like - Cloud-like
don’t have
solution are solution is
any visible
starting to clearly
changes as
form inside visible now
the initial
the solution. in the
one.
solution but
still no
crystals are
formed.
PART-II
Objectives:
 To understand the principles of recrystallization and its application to granulated sugar.
 To observe and analyze the factors influencing the formation of sugar crystals.
 To develop skills in laboratory techniques, including filtration and crystallization.
Materials:
 Funnel
 Filter paper
 Evaporating Dish
 Beaker
 Oven
 Thermometer
 Distilled water
Procedures:
1. If any remaining liquid exists, filter the solution to separate the crystals
2. Rinse the collected sugar crystals with a small amount of cold water to remove any adhering
impurities.
3. Transfer the crystals into an evaporating dish.
4. At 60°C dry the sugar crystals in the oven for 1 hour.
 LABORATORY OBSERVATION REPORT
ACTIVITY / EXPERIMENT TITLE: Sweet Resurrections: The Hilarious Adventures of Sugar's
Recrystallization

DATE OF OBSERVATION: MARCH 11, 2024

I. Introduction:
 Recrystallization is a laboratory process that involves dissolving solids in a solvent and letting
them crystallize once more in order to purify them. A recrystallization experiment aims to
produce a highly concentrated solution of the target compound by purifying an impure
compound. Purifying compounds, boosting purity, producing purer crystals, and managing
critical factors for a fruitful recrystallization process are among the goals.
II. Procedure:
 Materials needed:
 granulated sugar (100 g)
 distilled water (500 ml)
 hot plate beakers (2)
 stirring rod
 Thermometer
 funnel filter
 paper
 transparent glass container
 rubber bands (2–3 pieces)
 long bond papers
 Weighing Scale

 Procedures:
1. Students must wear their labgowns and goggles if they have them for safety precautions.
2. Prepare the two beakers, distilled water, granulated sugar, and hot plate.
3. In one beaker, pour 100 ml of distilled water.
4. Put the beaker with 100 ml of distilled water on the hot plate.
5. On the weighting scale, weigh 100 g of granulated sugar. Set aside.
6. When the water starts to boil, put in 100 g of sugar and stir it until it dissolves.
7. Put the thermometer on to know when the temperature reaches 100°C.
8. When the temperature reaches 100°C, get it off the hot plate and prepare for filtering.
9. Filter the hot solution using a funnel and filter paper into a glass container to get rid of any
insoluble impurities.
10. Let the sugar solution sit at room temperature for 3 days.
11. Make sure to cover the glass container to prevent contamination.
 12. Conduct periodic observation for 3 days.
DAY 2
 Materials Needed:
 Funnel Beaker
 Filter Paper
 Oven Thermometer
 Distilled Water
 Evaporating Dish

 Procedures:
1. Students must wear their lab gown for safety precautions.
2. Prepare the funnel, filter paper, and beaker for filtering.
3. Filter the solution to separate the crystal. 4. It could be seen if your solution does have a crystal or
not. If you have, you need to filter it for the crystal to be separated from the solution. If none, you still
need to filter it because maybe your crystal is tiny.
5. If you have crystals, rinse the collected sugar crystals with a small amount of cold water to remove
any adhering impurities.
6. Transfer the crystals into an evaporating dish.
7. At 60 °C, dry the sugar crystals in the oven for 1 hour.
III. Observations:
A. Initial Solution (before cooling):
Before cooling the appearances of the initial sugar solution in terms of the following are:
 Color
- After stirring it until the sugar particles dissolved and filtered it, We observed that when
we gradually pour it to the beaker the color is light brown but when the sugar solution is
fully inside the beaker it appears to be more like darker brown color.
 Clarity
- The clarity of the sugar solution before cooling is likely clear we don’t see any sugar
particles on the bottom after filtering it.
 Odor
- The sugar solution doesn’t have a very strong smell that is awful in our noses. More like, It
smells like a newly cut ripen sugarcane.
We observed that the solubility of sugar in a water it takes 1-2 minutes of continuous stirring for the
sugar to fully dissolve in water. We also observed that the smaller the sugar crystals, the faster they
will dissolve.
B. Cooling Process:
 The cooling process lasted for 3 days. In the first day of the cooling process the solution showed a
bit of change in the color and it turned darker than the original solution. On the second day, a
cloudy white substance has formed at the bottom part and a white grain-like substance can be
observed floating in the solution. On the third day, the color had become a dark shade of brown
and the cloudy-like substance has increased in size and remained at the bottom part of the
 solution. The white substance that floated above the solution has also increased in number as per
observation.
 Illustration:

C. Final Results (after cooling):

 In doing the recrystallization laboratory, we have 3 days duration of storing it, we observe if
there’s any crystals on it, but sadly we didn’t find any crystals maybe its because of the paper that
we use, that instead of filter paper we use tissue or maybe the paper is too thick, or may because
of disturbance hence crystals need an undisturbed environment to grow. If the solution is moved
or shaken, it can prevent crystal formation. Or there’s a possibility also that because of
Insufficient Cooling, crystals form when the solution is cooled, allowing the solute to precipitate
out. If the solution isn’t cooled enough, or if it’s cooled too quickly, crystals might not form. To sum
everything up, the substance has changes on its color, it turned darker compared to the initial
solution. Aside from its color, the smell also became stronger and it feels stickier compared to
when it still haven’t undergo cooling process. Unfortunately, it didn’t produced any crystal and
only shows faint signs of cloud-like substances inside.
IV. Results and Analysis:
A. Comparison with Expectations:
 Theoretical concept of recrystallization indicates that the impure solid will be dissolved through
heating process, then will undergo purification where the impurities will be removed. After that,
cooling process then will be done where the pure crystals will form without impurities. The
observations that our group have done follows this concept of recrystallization, unfortunately our
solution didn’t form any crystal after the process. Our group then state some hypothesis why it did
not produce any crystal. One of it is the ratio of water and sugar whereas in our experiment we
used the 1:1 ratio of H2O and sugar. The other factor also that has a potential of not achieving the
desired result could be the location and temperature. Since this process needs to have a stable
place and temperature, then we can’t say that we have that kind of environment since we uses a
room/office with a lot of people (it should be better when room used have no disturbance). In
other words, this experiment may follow the process and concepts of recrystallization but it did
not result to what we expected.
B. Questions and Answers:
Q1: Why is it important to start with a concentrated solution?
- It's important to start with a highly concentrated solution because it gives the solvent a
greater concentration of solute molecules, which favors nucleation and speeds up the
 development of crystals. Compared to beginning with a diluted solution, this concentrated
environment promotes the creation of larger and more distinct crystals. A concentrated
solution also improves the chances of obtaining the required purity and crystal structure.
Smaller and less uniform crystals could result from a slower crystal development process if
there is no concentrated solution to start with.
Q2: How did the crystal size change over time?
- Since nucleation started when the solute was added to the solvent, the crystal size may
have been tiny at first. As the number of solute molecules in the solution increased over
time, new solute molecules were deposited on top of the ones that already existed, causing
crystal formation.
Q3: Why is it necessary to rinse the crystals with cold water?
- Rinsing the crystals with cold water is necessary to remove any impurities or residual
solute that may be adhered to the surface of the crystals. Cold water is preferred because it
helps to minimize the solubility of the crystals, reducing the risk of dissolution during the
rinsing process. By rinsing with cold water, the crystals can be purified effectively without
losing mass or altering their crystal structure. This step ensures that the crystals obtained
are clean, pure, and free from any contaminants, enhancing their quality and usability for
subsequent applications.
V. Conclusion:
 The recrystallization experiment did not provide the anticipated outcomes, however it was noted
that the theoretical idea of recrystallization was followed. Even though there was no crystal
formation, important information was learned about the significance of beginning with a
concentrated solution, how crystal size changes over time, and how important it is to rinse the
crystals with cold water to purify them. The experiment's success was restricted by variables
including the sugar-to-water ratio and the surrounding circumstances. It is advised to modify the
water-to-sugar ratio, carry out the experiment in a more stable and less disturbed setting, and
make sure that the recrystallization principles are carefully followed in order to obtain the
intended result in order to enhance future experiments.
Documentation