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Author: Subject: Copper Acetate crystals, help?
vampirexevipex
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[*] posted on 22-2-2012 at 17:04
Copper Acetate crystals, help?


Hello! im not new neither intermediate in chemistry but i need some help making copper acetate crystals i made by adding quarters and pennies in hot vinegar mixed with 3% oxygen peroxide. The result came out light blue (as expected) and now i want to know how to make BIG crystals with it.
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[*] posted on 22-2-2012 at 17:16


Won't you be adding mostly nickle or zinc to the mix. pennies are no longer copper. just a very thin plate. Use copper conductor from solid core wires. It is a (relatively) pure source of copper compared to change.



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vampirexevipex
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[*] posted on 22-2-2012 at 17:19


Why is it then light blue? anyways i got another mix of copper acetate i made from copper plates i found in my friend's ipad batteries :P . So can you tell me how to make the crystals big?
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[*] posted on 22-2-2012 at 17:38


Look up recrystallization techniques. The key is usually to allow the super saturated solution to cool VERY slowly in an insulated thermos. Slowly cooling, hot solutions produce the largest crystals. Also, use seed crystals.



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smaerd
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[*] posted on 23-2-2012 at 05:56


There is copper acetate and copper(II) acetate. Copper(II) acetate is pretty tricky to get nice crystals from, then again I didn't have a hot-plate back then.

But yes what you want to do is look up the compounds solubility at two different temperatures(a high one, and a low one). So you can saturate the solution with the given compound at the high one, then slowly bring the temperature down to the cool one. In general this is nice crystals form(thermodynamic reasons). This combined with slow evaporation should suit your needs. Don't be afraid to check google or search science madness we've had a couple discussions about copper acetate :).




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