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Topic: Separate Salt Solutions  (Read 3208 times)

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Offline xx0numb0xx

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Separate Salt Solutions
« on: November 16, 2013, 11:45:23 PM »
I have a solution of HCl, CuCl2, and NiCl2. I want to separate the salts, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to do it because they have fairly similar densities and solubilities. I was thinking I could electroplate the nickel out more easily than the copper due to it being lower in the activity series of metals, but I'm not sure how well that would work. Due to the fact that I'm only a high school student, I don't have too great a supply of chemicals. On hand, I only have zinc, copper, aluminum, CuCl2, ZnCl2, 10M HCl, and obvious others like salt, sodium bicarbonate, and water. The predicted composition of the solution I want to separate is as follows:
.2268mol H+(aq)
1.003mol Cu2+(aq)
.3621mol Ni2+(aq)
2.957mol Cl-(aq)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Offline Hunter2

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Re: Separate Salt Solutions
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2013, 12:47:34 AM »
If you have sodium iodide you can precipitate the copper as copper-I-iodide. Nickel will not be touched by iodide.

Offline xx0numb0xx

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Re: Separate Salt Solutions
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2013, 12:57:02 AM »
If you have sodium iodide you can precipitate the copper as copper-I-iodide. Nickel will not be touched by iodide.
I'm not sure where I could find sodium iodide or how I would isolate it from iodized salt or otherwise make it. Even so, what would happen to the sodium? Wouldn't it be left in the solution?

Offline Hunter2

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Re: Separate Salt Solutions
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2013, 01:13:49 AM »
sodiumiodide can be bought bei chembeyer or aldrich. Yes the sodium would be left in the solution. But who cares about that. You want to get the copper. The nickel can be electroplated howyou suggested or also precipitatet with the Carbonat for instans.

Offline Arkcon

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Re: Separate Salt Solutions
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2013, 10:24:53 AM »
Try to look up, in a textbook or an online search, or even this forum, Qualitative Analysis.  That is a much broader term, but in High School and Undergraduate Chemistry, this is a term for a rite of passage of sorts:  you're given a bunch of ions in solution, and you're asked to separate them by adding reagents.  You can use this sort of plan to figure out what sorts of reactions can separate copper and nickel.  Reagents may not be easy to find, but at least its a start.
Hey, I'm not judging.  I just like to shoot straight.  I'm a man of science.

Offline xx0numb0xx

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Re: Separate Salt Solutions
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2013, 12:31:49 PM »
Try to look up, in a textbook or an online search, or even this forum, Qualitative Analysis.  That is a much broader term, but in High School and Undergraduate Chemistry, this is a term for a rite of passage of sorts:  you're given a bunch of ions in solution, and you're asked to separate them by adding reagents.  You can use this sort of plan to figure out what sorts of reactions can separate copper and nickel.  Reagents may not be easy to find, but at least its a start.

Thank you. I'll try that, and hopefully, I'll learn a lot in the process.

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