Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Dehydrating SnCl4 * 5H2O

Rhodanide - 3-2-2018 at 17:27

Hi all,
Just looking for an easy way to dehydrate Stannic Chloride pentahydrate to the anhydrous form. I made the pentahydrate by combining solutions of Stannous chloride and Sodium Nitrite, which gave the precipitate. Suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
-R/T

ninhydric1 - 3-2-2018 at 17:38

Use a desiccator or if you have one, a Dean-Stark trap. I don't think there is an easy way to dehydrate it quickly, as boiling down and evaporation would cause a significant loss in product.

Σldritch - 4-2-2018 at 01:41

Convert it to Potassium Hexachlorostannate and distill.

"Sodium Stannichloride, Na2SnCl6.5H2O, crystallises in prisms when the concentrated solutions of the constituent salts are mixed together, the potassium salt K2SnCl6 crystallises in anhydrous regular octahedra, with which the ammonium salt (NH4)2SnCl6 is isomorphous. This latter salt was formerly used by dyers, and was named pink salt, because of its use as a mordant for madder-red colours; it dissolves in 3 parts of water at 14.5° C., and from its dilute solution stannic hydroxide separates on boiling. A large number of stannichlorides have been prepared containing various amounts of water of crystallisation; the chlorides of barium, cadmium, copper, silver, lead, and thallium, however, appear not to combine with stannic chloride." From atomistry.

Sulaiman - 4-2-2018 at 01:57

I do not think that anhydrous SnCl4 can easily be obtained from the pentahydrate,
you may be able to get to the dihydrate but I guess less hydrated would be quite difficult as SnCl4 is decomposed by hot water.
I'll let those more knowledgable comment.

AvBaeyer - 4-2-2018 at 19:50

Sulaiman is quite correct. There is no practical way to convert the pentahydrate to the anhydrous tin (iv) chloride. Tin (iv) chloride is a liquid compound prepared from direct combination of the elements. It is extremely hygroscopic and, from personal experience, not a very friendly compound. On a longshot, if you had some magic reagent that reacted irreversibly with the water without any reaction with the tin, you might be able to do something. Not likely I think.

AvB

DraconicAcid - 4-2-2018 at 20:03

Quote: Originally posted by AvBaeyer  
Sulaiman is quite correct. There is no practical way to convert the pentahydrate to the anhydrous tin (iv) chloride. Tin (iv) chloride is a liquid compound prepared from direct combination of the elements. It is extremely hygroscopic and, from personal experience, not a very friendly compound. On a longshot, if you had some magic reagent that reacted irreversibly with the water without any reaction with the tin, you might be able to do something. Not likely I think.

AvB


Thionyl chloride *might* work.

Texium - 4-2-2018 at 20:20

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid  
Quote: Originally posted by AvBaeyer  
Sulaiman is quite correct. There is no practical way to convert the pentahydrate to the anhydrous tin (iv) chloride. Tin (iv) chloride is a liquid compound prepared from direct combination of the elements. It is extremely hygroscopic and, from personal experience, not a very friendly compound. On a longshot, if you had some magic reagent that reacted irreversibly with the water without any reaction with the tin, you might be able to do something. Not likely I think.

AvB


Thionyl chloride *might* work.
But even if it did, that would be a waste of thionyl chloride. Setting up a chlorine generator and passing the gas over tin metal shot is much easier. I've done it before, and contrary to the Wikipedia page, it doesn't even require an external heating source. Just make sure your glassware is dried before you start and you use a drying tube between the chlorine generator and the reaction vessel, or you'll get a mixture of anhydrous and hydrate.

AvB is right though- it isn't a very friendly compound. In air it produces heavy, white tin(IV) oxide / HCl smoke, which is quite irritating. You'll want to transfer it to a nice dry vial or ampoule and seal it up as fast as possible.

yobbo II - 5-2-2018 at 15:29

https://geocitieschloratesite.000webhostapp.com/chlorate/sta...

Some stuff on stannic chloride. It does not answer your question though.

Rhodanide - 6-2-2018 at 05:45

Quote: Originally posted by yobbo II  
https://geocitieschloratesite.000webhostapp.com/chlorate/sta...

Some stuff on stannic chloride. It does not answer your question though.




??????????
KClO8?!?!
What the hell is that??


wat..PNG.jpg - 1kB

DraconicAcid - 6-2-2018 at 08:15

I would assume it's a bad scan of KClO3.

AJKOER - 7-2-2018 at 17:58

Act like you are dehydrating MgCl2.6H2O (see http://web.mit.edu/dsadoway/www/106.pdf ).

Try heating under a blanket of hydrogen chloride at the proper partial pressure of HCl (to stop the normally preferred hydrolysis reaction).

Not likely easy, however.