Sciencemadness Discussion Board

solubility of magnesium hydroxide

soma - 29-12-2017 at 06:35

I recently ran a reaction between MgSO4 and NaOH in water. The Mg(OH)2 is hard to filter out. I'm wondering if there's a better solvent to use that would be easier to filter?

Fulmen - 29-12-2017 at 07:49

Magnesium hydroxide is pretty much insoluble in water (appr. 5ppm IIRC). Your problem is that the precipitate is extremely fine, this will make it quite hard to filter. Industrially a flocculant is used to concentrate the ppt before filtering, but the result is a clay-like mass that is still high in water.

I don't have any easy solutions other than letting gravity and time work for you.

walruslover69 - 29-12-2017 at 08:13

How much Mg(OH)2 are you dealing with?

clearly_not_atara - 29-12-2017 at 10:04

Magnesium forms hydroxy-sulfate crystals (also hydroxychloride) which have been used as a cement. To prevent this maybe start with magnesium acetate or nitrate which I don't think will form these intermediate phases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorel_cement

sclarenonz - 29-12-2017 at 11:12

Good morning, I'm trying to isolate the magnesium, I noticed that when I added the hydrochloric acid in the magnesium carbonate solution, I got a brown powder that I believe is the magnesium hydroxide, yours is a brown powder ?, I tried the electrolysis more unable to isolate, what is your goal with dry magnesium hydroxide foot?

Iodobenzene - 29-12-2017 at 15:18

Despite it's very difficult to filter Mg(OH)2 ,i actually did it.
You must use 3 filters and before filtering the solution decant it. (Remove the more water you can)
Don't use vacuum.

Anyway Sclarenoz by mixing magnesium carbonate and HCl you get magnesium chloride,which is white.
So in your MgCO3 there were impurities.

[Edited on 29-12-2017 by Iodobenzene]

soma - 29-12-2017 at 19:51

Quote: Originally posted by walruslover69  
How much Mg(OH)2 are you dealing with?

226.35 gms MgSO4 x 7(H2O) + 73.45 2(NaOH) -> 53.56 Mg(OH)2

[Edited on 30-12-2017 by soma]

ninhydric1 - 29-12-2017 at 19:55

In this case, I would let the fine particulate settle, than perform multiple decantations. Once you've removed enough filtrate you can filter as much of the precipitate as possible. If it slips through the filter, just use decantation and wash with distilled water. Boil off the distilled water when you believe you have removed most of the soluble byproducts. It seems like magnesium hydroxide is similar to calcium hydroxide in that it can form fine particulate.

EDIT 1: fixed spelling errors.

[Edited on 12-30-2017 by ninhydric1]

soma - 29-12-2017 at 19:56

Quote: Originally posted by sclarenonz  
Good morning, I'm trying to isolate the magnesium, I noticed that when I added the hydrochloric acid in the magnesium carbonate solution, I got a brown powder that I believe is the magnesium hydroxide, yours is a brown powder ?, I tried the electrolysis more unable to isolate, what is your goal with dry magnesium hydroxide foot?

I got hard white lumps after filtering and drying.

walruslover69 - 29-12-2017 at 19:59

unless you are going for analytical results. I would recommend using coffee filters to separate the majority of the Mg(OH)2 I tried that once and I was able to filter about 25-35g of Mg(OH)2 per coffee filter before it got clogged up. After you have filtered it, bake it in the oven until dry.

soma - 29-12-2017 at 20:05

I used a sintered funnel and vacuum. I filtered about 1/4 of the whole thing in a couple hours. It came out drop by drop.

Fulmen - 30-12-2017 at 03:06

sclarenonz: Magnesium hydroxide is white. And the reaction between magnesium carbonate and hydrochloric acid will produce water soluble magnesium chloride, not an insoluble ppt. So whatever it is, it's not a magnesium compound.