Why did the crystals not form

Question

In chemistry lab today when we were synthesizing aspirin, our mixture of 7.08g salicylic acid, 16.5ml of acetic anhydride and 20 drops of 85% of phosphoric acid did not form crystals after it was heated at a temperature of 85°-95°C water for 10 mins then removed and added the first 5ml de-ionized water and additional 30ml and cooled in an ice bath.

 

Answer 1

Sometimes the crystallization process requires a little "prodding".  This can be done by scratching the side of the beaker with a glass rod, or dropping 1 small crystal into the solution.  This is known as "seeding".  It may also be that your reaction did NOT actually take place for some reason.  That is to say, that aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid) never actually formed.  Hence you would not get any crystals.  In high school and college chemistry courses, this is a pretty common laboratory experiment, so it should have worked.  Also, it seems that 35 ml of water may be excessive.  Did you cool it down to room temperature after the first 5 ml of water?  Or did you just add another 30 ml of water without giving the crystals a chance to form?