Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Making Anilite

Making Anilite

Simoski - 18-6-2019 at 07:27

Hi

I'd love to make Cu7S4. ( Anilite )

How on earth would I go about it?

The only thing that I can tell you right now is that taking copper metal and shaking it in a can full of sulfur ain't gonna do it!

: )

Simoski - 20-6-2019 at 21:10

how about Mn S 2 ?

Manganese disulfide.... anyone?

Tsjerk - 21-6-2019 at 03:25

Try a bit harder yourself, did you do any research? Nobody here is going to help you if you don't show any effort. We call this spoonfeed questions.

[Edited on 21-6-2019 by Tsjerk]

Keras - 21-6-2019 at 04:50

I’m not sure it is feasible anyways. Most crystals require conditions such as heat and pressure which are outside what's easily reproductible.

Boffis - 21-6-2019 at 10:27

Anilite is a low temperature copper sulphide mineral that grows in supergene i.e. low temperature and low pressure conditions. It requires unbelievably specific conditions. When these are met fairly solid masses are occasionally encountered but unfortunately anilite looks exactly like all of the other copper sulphide minerals like digenite, spionkopite, yarrowite, djurleite, the various chalcocite polymorphs etc.. As you can see its a very complex system Cu-S and intergrowth are the norm. Some complex synthetic work has ben done and the stability fields of each phase estimated but its way beyond any amateur and you need access to XRD to confirm the identity. MnS2 is very difficult in a laboratory environment but is a piece of piss compared to anilite!

Check out Mindat.org and follow up some of the refences.

Simoski - 21-6-2019 at 12:14

Keras, you had it correct like Boffis say "beyond any amateur".
Thanks gentlemen.

Tsjerk you're a jerk

[Edited on 21-6-2019 by Simoski]

Simoski - 21-6-2019 at 12:44

If anyone was interested why.... Both showed promising RAMAN spectra as blue and green fireworks colourants .

I thought perhaps if someone knows a way to synthesise them then... Winner winner blue and green dinner.

Keras - 21-6-2019 at 23:32

Can’t you use boron salts as green pyrotechnical colouring stuff?
For blue, I have no idea though.

Keras - 21-6-2019 at 23:34

Can’t you use boron salts as green pyrotechnical colouring stuff?
For blue, I have no idea though.

Tsjerk - 22-6-2019 at 01:03

Quote: Originally posted by Simoski

Tsjerk you're a jerk

I know

[Edited on 22-6-2019 by Tsjerk]

Hegi - 22-6-2019 at 12:49

Back in days our research group worked on mechanosynthesis of different copper sulfides (binary, ternary and even quaternary). My colleague was able to prepared covellite, chalcocite, digenite and villamaninite (the last one was harder to prepare by milling). I remember that preparing compounds with Cu:S ratio of 1-1.5 did not work. As suggested by Boffis, very specific conditions must be set for this minerals to crystallize. Otherwise, thermodynamics will leave you with the ones I mentioned.

Simoski - 1-7-2019 at 01:42

Quote: Originally posted by Keras

Can’t you use boron salts as green pyrotechnical colouring stuff?
For blue, I have no idea though.

you can but I just thought perhaps its easier to just make these... alas no luck

Simoski - 1-7-2019 at 01:45

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk

Quote: Originally posted by Simoski

Tsjerk you're a jerk

I know

[Edited on 22-6-2019 by Tsjerk]

: ) anyway you're helping so what does it matter

Simoski - 1-7-2019 at 01:50

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi

Back in days our research group worked on mechanosynthesis of different copper sulfides (binary, ternary and even quaternary). My colleague was able to prepared covellite, chalcocite, digenite and villamaninite (the last one was harder to prepare by milling). I remember that preparing compounds with Cu:S ratio of 1-1.5 did not work. As suggested by Boffis, very specific conditions must be set for this minerals to crystallize. Otherwise, thermodynamics will leave you with the ones I mentioned.

Thanks Hegi, can you recall if the synthesis of any of them was simple/arbitrary or at the very least within reach of an amateur chemist?

I am going to look up the raman spectra of covellite, chalcocite, digenite and villamaninite now....

covellite - CuS has its largest emission at 470 nanometers so it will produce an aqua colour.

chalcocite - Cu2s has emission spikes at multiple frequencies in the visible spectrum so it will produce white light.

digenite - Cu1.8s has emission spikes at multiple frequencies in the visible spectrum so it will produce white light too.

villamaninite - record not found in the library

There is a good free Raman Spectra Library here: http://rruff.info

The closest I can get to a synthesis of CuS so far is : A one-step, corrosion-assisted reaction was developed to synthesize copper sulfide (CuS) from elemental copper and sulfur in water at 60 °C. The as-prepared polycrystalline CuS consists of polyhedral-shaped 2–3 μm crystallites. CuS forms by the oxidation of copper metal in the presence of sulfur, whereas in the presence of water, a continuous solid-state reaction occurs without passivation by the product.

if anyone knows how to perform said reaction or can imagine how, please let me know...

And here a synthesis of CuS taken from

Microstructural and optical properties of CuS nanoparticles prepared by sol—gelroute Sana Riyaz, Azra Parveen∗, Ameer Azam
Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University,Aligarh 202002, India

Copper nitrate Cu(NO3)2 and sodium sulphide (Na2S) have been taken as the precursor material for the preparation of CuS nanoparticles 9.38 g of the Cu(NO3)2 is taken and 0.5 M solution is made by dissolving it into 100 ml of distilled water. The solution is then subjected to stirring at 100—150 rpm atroom temperature. The next step in the synthesis is the gela-tion. This is achieved by mixing the sodium sulphide in the copper nitrate sol. 0.5 M solution of sodium sulphide (Na2S) is made in 50 ml distilled water by dissolving the 1.95 g of Na2S.The mixture was stirred at 450—500 rpm at room tempera-ture. After the constant stirring for 10—15 min, the mixturewas converted into a gel and this gel was then kept undis-turbed for 2—3 h for precipitation. The precipitate was thencentrifuged two or three times at 4500 rpm for 5 min and washed. This precipitate was further dried in the vacuum oven at 100◦C for 2—3 h. The dried precipitate was then ground and the powder was kept for further characterizations.

Here another synthesis:

Copper sulphide nanoparticles were synthesized using liquid phase synthesis method in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation. Copper acetate monohydrate (99%), thiourea (99%) and NaOH (99%) were used as the precursor materials for the synthesis. All the chemicals used were of analytical grade. Deionized water was used for all the experiments. A 200 mM copper acetate solution was used as copper precursor. Thiourea solution of 1.8 M was used as sulphur precursor. The pH of the thiourea precursor solution was 13.4.
To the copper precursor solution in the ultrasonic bath, the sulphur precursor solution was added dropwise. The solution pH tends to drop with progress of reaction; however, it was maintained at pH 5.5 by adding NaOH. The temperature of the ultrasonic bath was maintained constant by circulating the cold water. Black precipitate formed was centrifuged and washed with acetone

[Edited on 1-7-2019 by Simoski]

[Edited on 2-7-2019 by Simoski]