Abromination
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Copper Borate Synthesis and Reactions
Not long ago, I was exploring when I stumbled apon a strange compound known as copper (ii) borate. I know that some of you here have tried to make it
and could not figure it out because of problems with the low acidity of boric acid and such. I originally thought that I had made it when I
neutralized a solution of boric acid with sodium carbonate and further reacted the sodium tetraborate I had made with copper sulfate. What resulted
looked exactly like copper carbonate. I heated it over a burner and became excited when it didnt decompose and turn green. I know know that what I
made was copper carbonate and a bit of copper borate and some other junk which kept the copper carbonate from decomposing. The green color eventually
became blue again.
A bit later, however, I tryed again with an excess solution of copper sulfate with store bought borax and succeded this time. I ended up with a dark
blue/green precipitate with a crystaline look. Some of that was because of extra copper sulfate but after washing with distilled water a bit of it
went away.
Anyways, i took a piece of the copper borate and mixed it with a concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide. What resulted was a precipitate of copper
oxide and the most being purple solution ive ever seen. Does anyone know what that could be?
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TheMrbunGee
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Quote: Originally posted by Abromination  | Not long ago, I was exploring when I stumbled apon a strange compound known as copper (ii) borate. I know that some of you here have tried to make it
and could not figure it out because of problems with the low acidity of boric acid and such. I originally thought that I had made it when I
neutralized a solution of boric acid with sodium carbonate and further reacted the sodium tetraborate I had made with copper sulfate. What resulted
looked exactly like copper carbonate. I heated it over a burner and became excited when it didnt decompose and turn green. I know know that what I
made was copper carbonate and a bit of copper borate and some other junk which kept the copper carbonate from decomposing. The green color eventually
became blue again.
A bit later, however, I tryed again with an excess solution of copper sulfate with store bought borax and succeded this time. I ended up with a dark
blue/green precipitate with a crystaline look. Some of that was because of extra copper sulfate but after washing with distilled water a bit of it
went away.
Anyways, i took a piece of the copper borate and mixed it with a concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide. What resulted was a precipitate of copper
oxide and the most being purple solution ive ever seen. Does anyone know what that could be?
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You are going to spill the contents of beaker in the picture. 
Here is some borate stuff. You should read that thread.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=16452
[Edited on 11-7-2018 by TheMrbunGee]
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Abromination
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Yea, for some reason it is shown upside down but when i click on the image it corrects itself. I have found an anomaly in the mattix!! I read the
discussion and it looks like I was successful, although there is no information on B2Cu3O6+NaOH.
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CharlieA
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Mine didn't right itself...I guess it spilled!
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walruslover69
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How concentrated was your NaOH? copper ions will form cuprates in concentrated NaOH so you might have fave formed some sodium borate cuprate mixed
salt. see if it does the same thing in more diluted NaOH. Honestly though you might not ever find out without some heavy spectroscopy. Transition
metal complexes are like a box of chocolates. you never know quite what your going to get. They have a tendency to form very counter intuitive
combinations.
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Abromination
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I used about a 70% concentration of NaOH. The precipitate I rinsed and dryed is definatly copper oxide. Ill have to try with different concentrations
of sodium hydroxide and maybe add more NaOH to my purple solution. Ill also dry out the solution and see what I end up with, just got to wait for my
new hot plate to arrive. Ill attach a picture of my copper borate. The green part of the green/blue doesn't show up well on camera, just picture it
with a bit more green.
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zed
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Ummm. Recently soaked some wood with a Copper Sulfate solution, followed by a baking soda solution. Insoluble Copper Carbonate formed in the wood,
and I painted it. Easy Peasy; Mission accomplished. Rot resistance.
I have been considering Copper Borate(it's supposed to be a good thing) for the next project, but you guys are making me think that this might not be
so easy to accomplish.
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Abromination
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Well the problem is lots of people claim to have made it and everything is different. I think that Ive made it but me and many others have been wrong
before. If I have made it, than its easy. If I haven't, we have tried about everything simple and its going to be a bit more complex than we thought.
Update: copper oxide has fallen out of solution and the purple color is gone. Im starting to think it was disolved unreacted copper hydroxide mixed
with a bit of borate.
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Abromination
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Well I tried to redo the reaction just like before and it is kind of working. The precipitate right now looks a bit lighter than it should and the
textures a bit off but I'm going to try and leave it over night and check again tomorrow. I suspect that not all of the borax has reacted yet, but
time and stirring should solve that.
  
List of materials made by ScienceMadness.org users:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmJ8uq-h4IkXPxD5svnT...
--------------------------------
Elements Collected: H, Li, B, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, I, Au, Pb, Bi, Am
Last Acquired: B
Next: Na
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Abromination
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You apparently need to add a large excess of copper sulfate. The reason it looks like copper carbonate is because of unreacted borax. I guess im just
a bad chemist 
List of materials made by ScienceMadness.org users:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmJ8uq-h4IkXPxD5svnT...
--------------------------------
Elements Collected: H, Li, B, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, I, Au, Pb, Bi, Am
Last Acquired: B
Next: Na
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