Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Cuprous Oxychloride

Hawkguy - 16-12-2014 at 21:14

I recently obtained a very very old bottle of 'Cuprous Oxychloride'... I have no idea what the heck it is though.... Maybe it's a synonym for Hypochlorite or something, but my googling yielded no results. Anyone help me out here?

Tdep - 16-12-2014 at 21:34

Did you really try though

Useful for... colouring flames? And um, copper stuff. No real speciality uses though that I know of

Etaoin Shrdlu - 16-12-2014 at 21:39

I'm guessing it's dicopper chloride trihydroxide, which seems to be referenced as copper oxychloride here and there.

Copper catalyzes the decomposition of hypochlorite, so I wouldn't see a bottle of copper hypochlorite lasting long.

woelen - 17-12-2014 at 03:12

It's a compound, used in pyrotechnics for flame coloring. It is a green powder. It is a basic chloride of copper(II), which has no particularly strong oxidizing properties (not more so than any copper(II) compound). It has nothing to do with hypochlorite.

The name on the bottle is wrong though. It is not a cuprous compound, it is a cupric compound (copper has oxidation state +2). So, better to call it cupric oxychloride.

[Edited on 17-12-14 by woelen]

j_sum1 - 17-12-2014 at 05:49

Also used as fungicide for tomatoes and citrus.

Amos - 17-12-2014 at 06:35

While it is usually green, depending on the preparation and storage conditions it might be a very pale blue as well; tell me if I'm wrong, but it seems the substance usually called copper oxychloride can be a number of substances, sometimes even a mixture of two.

CHRIS25 - 17-12-2014 at 10:11

Quote: Originally posted by No Tears Only Dreams Now  
tell me if I'm wrong, but it seems the substance usually called copper oxychloride can be a number of substances, sometimes even a mixture of two.


Copper Oxychloride: CuCl2.3Cu(OH)2 MW 427 g/mol

Dicopper chloride trihydroxide: Cu2(OH)3Cl MW 214 g/mol

Essentially different proportions of copper to chlorine and Hydroxide. So not really the same.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 17-12-2014 at 17:45

Chris, those are the same thing.