Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Sodium Sulfate Solution turned cloudy when heated

Alpine2048 - 10-5-2020 at 10:31

I recently made some sodium sulfate and magnesium carbonate from a metathesis reaction between magnesium sulfate and sodium carbonate. I filtered off the magnesium carbonate precipitate and re-filtered the sodium sulfate filtrate. When I heated it under modest temperatures (~50C) the solution turned cloudy white with precipitate.

I'm not sure if it is magnesium carbonate (MgCO3 has a really low solubility in water) and I'm wondering if a reverse reaction is happening here.

Thanks,

Alpine

IMG_2209.jpg - 1.6MB

Fery - 10-5-2020 at 11:10

max solubility at 30 C and then decreases on heating (inverted solubility curve) - maybe this is your case, if not then some impurities

Alpine2048 - 10-5-2020 at 19:55

Nevermind,

I made a rookie mistake. It turns out that the reaction doesn't go to completion without heating, and I filtered it without heating, so when I went to boil the solution, the rest of the products precipitated. I went ahead and filtered it after boiling the solution down.

Thanks though!