Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: FusedMan on June 28, 2005, 11:28:11 PM
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Could I sandwich a piece of copper in between two pieces of silver or viceversa and then sumerge the device into water to achieve a production of COPPER IONS?? This example is similar to plates in the car batteries which is how I came up with this idea.
The Copper ions which is toxic to algae growth , which is gradually killed off leading to an effective method of cleaning a tank of green algae water.
Is this scheme feasible??
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How about you just throw some copper (II) nitrate into water. Of course then you'd have both copper (II) ions and nitrate ions. And you can't precipitate out the nitrate ions easily... But still you would have copper ions for sure in that.
Ok how about this, copper (II) sulfate in solution would give you copper (II) and sulfate ions. To precipitate out the sulfate ions you could add calcium, which would form calcium sulfate which will precipitate. Filter out the precipitate and you should be left with copper (II) ions in solution.
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That only works if you have the chemicals readily available! How am I going to obtain these chemicals?? I am trying tio make a device which can be made with simple evreryday household materials. If this device does produce COPPER IONS,then think of the possibiliites!!!
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You'll make the tank more green if you do miraculously make Cu ions.
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arent they more like blueish?
anyway, if u want to generate some copper ions through the method u first mentioned, u'll need 2 electrodes, an inert one at the cathode (something that can conduct electricity but not dissolve in water, example is graphite) and copper at the anode.
connect a battery with the cathode connected to the negative side of the battery (-) and the anode to the positive side of the battery (+)
copper ions would be formed at the anode (u shld see the anode "dissolving" in water. for the cathode, hydrogen may be produced, so be sure to keep the cathode out of harm's way.
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The simplest way will be to just put a piece of copper into water. Copper is not as noble as silver or gold and it will slowly dissolve being oxidized just by atmospheric oxygen. You can use Nernst equation to calculate equlibrium concentration of Cu2+ ions.
No idea what the concentration of copper ions will be needed for algae killing - but I am more then sure I will not try such an experiment on my aquarium as I doubt any fish will survive.
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Yeah for sure get the fish outta there before trying anything too risque.
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You can buy copper(II) sulfate at a farm supply store. I dunno if you're in the US or not, but you can generally get large quantities of it as 'sulfate of copper', 'copper sulfate', or 'bluestone'.
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arent they more like blueish?
It really depends on what compound you're looking at.
Copper oxides are generally the reddish/brown/black colours.
I know hydrated copper (II) sulfate is blue, anhydrous is a whitish powder.
Copper chlorides are green for sure.
Umm...haven't really worked with copper that much, also the green roofs on top of old buildings are copper too. I can't remember how it happens...I THINK it's a copper carbonate?
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yeah copper (II) carbonate is the green stuff found on old buildings
come to think of it, just empty your tank and scrub those algae off. much more simpler.
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Lol but then it would be a physical change instead of a chemical one. :P
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no one said it had to be hard :-X
bottom line is, such a scheme is not feasible.
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You'd probably end up hurting the fish in some way when all's done.