Steve_hi
Hazard to Others
Posts: 196
Registered: 4-12-2010
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Iron Chloride
Yesterday I made some Iron chloride by reactinhg HCl with some steel wool I had the steel wool in excess because I hate the smell of HCl and I thought
the steel wool in excess would consume all the HCl but the smell is still there is this normal or should I be heating the solution to drive the
reaction further to use up the HCl the color of the product was a nice green but I wonder if it should be darker
[img]C:\Users\Steve\Pictures\2011-10-02\2.jpg[/img]
|
|
|
Chemistry Alchemist
Hazard to Others
Posts: 403
Registered: 2-8-2011
Location: Australia
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
When i made my video of iron chloride i showed how to get teh 2 forms... Iron (II) and (III) chloride, the green colour is normal for iron (II)
chloride  now about the smell, im pretty sure there is meant to be a small smell
bu you would just ass more steel wool and leave it for a few hours, if the smell doesn't go away then im pretty sure its meant to be like that... just
a guess
|
|
|
Arthur Dent
National Hazard
Posts: 553
Registered: 22-10-2010
Member Is Offline
Mood: entropic
|
|
Your green solution is Ferrous Chloride, or Iron (II) Chloride. If you wish to produce Ferric Chloride (Iron (III) Chloride), you need to oxidize it.
Simply leaving exposed to air will slowly oxidize it, but if you want to do it faster, just bubble some air with an aquarium pump in the solution, it
will turn dark yellow. Even faster would be to add some conc. Hydrogen Peroxide, but that will dilute it.
Ferric Chloride is acidic in sloution, and will always emit a certain amount of HCl, that's why Ferric Chloride should never be stored near tools or
metallic objects, because they will suffer the same fate as if they were stored near a Hydrochloric Acid bottle. If you have some hi-end Schott Duran
bottles with a teflon cap, then you can store it more safely (for your tools that is)...
Unfortunately, turning your solution into an anhydrous form is beyond the scope of our home laboratories (it has to be heated under a stream of HCl
gas, or refluxing under inert atmosphere with (gasp) Thionyl Chloride. However, it can be concentrated and even crystallize if you put it in a vacuum
dessicator in the presence of a dessicant. I succeded in obtaining a dark concentrated solution by leaving it for a few weeks un a VD with some Anh.
Calcium Chloride.
I'll refer you to this thread: http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=14731#...
which was my first post on SM!
Robert
--- Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. - Frank Zappa ---
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
