Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Single displacement reactions with CuSO4

Nekura - 27-3-2012 at 15:35

Hello

I'm just starting to do home chemistry, and want to start out simple. I want to try making various simple salts for now.

I have CuSO<sub>4</sub>, and have made CuCO<sub>3</sub>, and will be reacting it with acids when I get them.

I was thinking, since Copper was so far down on the reactive series, I could get a bunch of other sulfates by reacting higher medals with it. I've already done Al, it didn't react until I found the trick of adding a few grains of NaCl here on the forums.

Metals I have found easy sources for so far include:
<ul><li>Nickel from 99.9% pure coins
<li>Tin from tin sheets
<li>Bismuth from gem store
<li>Iron
<li>Zinc possibly, but I haven't got it yet
<li>Magnesium (but Epsom salt is easy to get)</ul>
I was looking through the archive for information about reacting them, but couldn't find much.

If I add a solid piece of metal to a CuSO<sub>4</sub> solution, will the copper plate onto the metal, or precipitate out, for each metal?
If it plates, is there anything simple I can do to stop it without having to powder the metal?
How can I tell when all the copper is reacted for coloured sulfates? For the Al, I added more and let it sit overnight until there was no blue colour left, but don't know how I would tell for something like green FeSO<sub>4</sub>.

I'm sorry if this is already covered in another topic, I looked, but didn't find what I was looking for.

Thank you

LanthanumK - 28-3-2012 at 10:05

Tin reacts with copper(II) sulfate to form tin(II) sulfate, which tends to hydrolyze to form a white precipitate of tin(II) oxysulfate. http://lanthanumkchemistry.over-blog.com/article-tin-and-cop...

Iron reacts with copper(II) sulfate to form iron(II) sulfate, which is easily oxidized in neutral aqueous solution to brown iron(III) sulfates. Keep out of air.

Magnesium reacts violently with concentrated copper(II) sulfate.

Zinc can be obtained from the casings of carbon-zinc batteries, the cheapest batteries sold. Its reaction with copper(II) sulfate is very commonly found online.

Nickel does not seem to react with copper sulfate with any reasonable speed.

Bismuth reacts with copper(II) chloride to generate a yellow white precipitate of bismuth oxychloride. The copper can be extracted from the precipitate by repeated washing with ammonia.

For just a simple metal-in-solution reaction, the copper normally precipitates as a loose flocculent precipitate, easily removed from the metal. If plating was that simple, electrolysis baths would be unnecessary.

Heat copper(II) sulfate to get the anhydrous form. Adding water turns it blue, a nice demonstration.

Heat copper(II) carbonate to form black copper(II) oxide, and make a thermite with it.

React copper(II) sulfate with a reducing agent (ascorbic acid crystals or sodium metabisulfite) and sodium chloride to precipitate white oxidation-prone copper(I) chloride.

Make an electroplating bath and copper plate a kitchen utensil.

For most metals, inserting a new piece of metal into the solution should not make any more copper form on its surface if the reaction is complete.

U2U me for more basic salt syntheses or other basic inorganic prep reactions by using the U2U button right below.

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[Edited on 28-3-2012 by LanthanumK]

[Edited on 29-3-2012 by LanthanumK]

Nekura - 31-3-2012 at 07:24

Thank you for the reply.

I tried the nickel, but nothing happened, maybe I need to heat it, but I can't do that yet.

I will be trying the tin next.

I made some copper acetate, just drying it now to get crystals.

I'll message you later for more ideas ^_^

LanthanumK - 11-4-2012 at 03:35

For nickel, you need to react it with ferric chloride or some other stronger oxidizing agent to get it to dissolve. I have tried oxidation with copper compounds and they do not work.

triplepoint - 7-8-2012 at 09:05

Quote: Originally posted by LanthanumK  


Iron reacts with copper(II) sulfate to form iron(II) sulfate, which is easily oxidized in neutral aqueous solution to brown iron(III) sulfates. Keep out of air.


I would like to crystallize some iron(II) sulfate. I have made a couple of batches with copper (II) sulfate and steel wool. It is easy to filter out nice, clean iron (II) sulfate, but it always oxidizes to iron (III) sulfate before I can dry it.

Is there something a beginner such as myself can do to prevent the iron (II) sulfate from oxidizing to iron (III) sulfate before I can crystallize it?

I have successfully crystallized iron (II) chloride from an acid preparation, and I am aware that I could do the same to obtain iron (II) sulfate from sulfuric acid, but I would prefer to try to make this method work (from copper (II) sulfate). I try to limit my work with acids since I do not (yet;))have access to a fume hood.

To those who may reply "UTFSE", I have tried to do so, but haven't found my answer. Perhaps just a newbie problem of not knowing how to ask the right questions.

Thanks

Fluorite - 17-12-2020 at 03:00

Does metalloids silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony etc.. react with metal salts? Like if I wanted to make lead acetate or nitrate and used copper acetate&nitrate
Is this better than using the acid itself? Nitric or acetic acid? Unless antimony reduce copper from it salts

B(a)P - 17-12-2020 at 03:34

It really depends, what are your starting materials and what is/are you desired products?

MidLifeChemist - 17-12-2020 at 12:18

The easiest reaction is aluminum foil added to the CuSO4. You need add a small amount of salt (NaCl) for the reaction to occur. You end up with aluminum sulfate.

Does anyone know what happens when you add Antimony metal to CuSO4? I have both so I just need to try it at some point. I also have magnesium ribbon so I am curious what the "violent" reaction looks like :)