Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Copper salts dissolving cellulose

RogueRose - 26-9-2018 at 23:10

I've had a number of experiences where I thought that a copper salt had dissolved either my coffee filter or cotton filter, the first time was with copper acetate possibly with a little bit of H2O2 but I didn' think it had very much at all and a second time when NaClO was added to copper acetate and this dissolved the cotton very quickly producing both Cl2 and SO2 I believe.

I was working with some CuSO4 and had many cotton filters I wanted to get the crystals dissolved off of and when I came back they were completely gone. They were on a hot plate, so there was moderate heat. I don't think there was any free H2SO4 in these crystals as they had been recrystalized many times and washed after each process.

What would be the process of the cellulose being dissolved in the CuSO4? I didn't notice any gases forming but it is very possible I wasn't there when it happened.

What can I expect as a contaminate in the solution of the sulfate mix?

The solution has turned a little bit greener and it looks like it has very small whitish particles that seem to constantly rise to and fall from the surface. It looks like how coffee looks when curdled cream/milk is poured into it. I'm filtering it now and the small particles look like they are boiling on the surface, it's very odd. IDK if this stuff is the very small cellulose particles or if it is something else.

[Edited on 9-27-2018 by RogueRose]

Herr Haber - 27-9-2018 at 04:18

Copper dissolving cellulose ? The closer that comes to mind is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer%27s_reagent