Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Separating TCCA and Calcium Hypochlorite

hkparker - 9-3-2011 at 17:44

I bought some pool super shock, its 48% Ca(ClO)<sub>2</sub> and the rest is I believe TCCA. I would like to get as pure Ca(ClO)<sub>2</sub> as I can, but the mix decomposes upon dissolving in water (as I would expect). Its not the end of the world if there is no practical way but I want to see if there is a way I'm overlooking. Thanks!

mnick12 - 9-3-2011 at 17:57

I doubt its 48% Ca(ClO)2 and 52% TCCA, that mixture of chemicals would be highly unstable. Im pretty sure the remaining material is ether calcium carbonate or calcium hydroxide.

hkparker - 9-3-2011 at 18:03

Ok that's probably true, thanks. I'm not toally sure what it is, just figured it was TCCA. Don't see how carbonate or hydroxide would be easier to get out, I doubt I can purify it much. Thanks again.

smuv - 9-3-2011 at 18:19

What you can do is stir the calcium hypochlorite in water for a while and then filter it to get a solution that has less crap in it. This is what I have done for chloroform syntheses from calcium hypochlorite. Another thing you can do, is mix it up in water and then add the stochiometric amount of dilute NaOH (cool both solutions very well) and filter off the calcium hydroxide which forms, to get a after filtration (which will probably be a bitch, with clogged filter papers) a clear, sodium hypochlorite solution. I think garage chemist described this in the hydrazine thread.

hkparker - 9-3-2011 at 20:51

Thanks smuv. I know its not incredible soluble in water but it seems to decompose when I dissolve it (turns soln. yellow/green, strong chlorine smell). I could try to filter some of it off. Or make NaClO out of this. Thats more useful to me most of the time, though it has a shorter shelf life. Maybe I could make a NaClO soln. then ppt out Ca(ClO)2.