RogueRose
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CuSO4 replacement reactions
I have the oppertunity to obtain a large amount of CuSO4 pentahydrate (about 1200lbs) for next to nothing in a surplus liquidation auction. It is
suposedly 98.5-99% pure so that seems fairly high, IDK what the other contamination would be.
Obviously I have no use for that much Copper Sulfate but it could be used to precipitate some fine copper particles and make a lot of different copper
salts which would be fun to play with.
I was considering the different replacement reactions with readily available metals and have enough Fe and Al to precipitate all 300lbs of copper in
the 1200lbs of pentahydrate (CuSO4 * 5H2O is about 25% copper by weight). I've never done replacement reactions where a metal precipitates so I am
wondering exactly how this would work if I hung some sheets of steel in a solution of CuSO4. Would the steel eventually completely dissolve, or does
the Cu plate onto the steel eventually forming a passivation layer.
I am thinking that another good use would be to make some Oleum starting with 94% H2SO4 and heating the CuSO4 in a steel distillation unit, leaving
CuO behind, which is a useful compound and also somewhat difficult to make without decomp of some salt. Decomp of the CuSO4 produces SO3 as opposed
to the FeSO4 which produces a mix of SO2 and SO3, IDK if SO2 can be used to make oleum or if there is another sulfate that would be better to make
oleum.
I'm trying to see where the sulfate could be used and see that feed stores sell it as a feed supplement for animals (which seems odd..) as well as in
aquaculture for ponds and lakes. IDK if this would be a viable route to get rid of some of the sulfate but it may be better than having to process
all of it.
Is there much use for fine copper particles from the precipitate?
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TheMrbunGee
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Wow, quite a lot.
You can also make about 200l of water and send it to Africa. 
for such a large amount I can only say that it will be time consuming, hard work to get the copper out.
And copper sponge doesn't have good use. Melt it and sell it. Depends on how much did you pay for it..
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RawWork
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According to Herbert M Shelton, anything inorganic, including water, should not be eaten or drank.
He says that water instead should be eaten in form of fruits.
And anything organic except natural like raw food.
Refer to book Orthotrophy for more info.
As for Copper use I would use it in electrochemistry as anode and it's solution as anode electrolyte.
Instead of losing it permanently. Just recycle it by charge discgage.
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aga
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In a much earlier post you showed photos of copper sulphate crystals.
0Clearly Fun could already have been had, ages ago.
Copper chemistry is beautifully colourful.
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JJay
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You could probably sell a lot of it.
Copper II chloride is much easier to reduce with metals than copper II sulfate; you might have an easier time precipitating the copper if you add some
sodium chloride.
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aga
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I thought lobbing table salt into copper sulphate solution made a sodium tetrachlorocuprate complex.
It went green IIRC.
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Foeskes
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I made a concentrated solution of copper sulfate and put it in a Aluminium cup.
I then sprinkle a tiny amount of salt(about a pitch), that was enough to displace all the copper out of solution in a short amount of time.
[Edited on 7-4-2018 by Foeskes]
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RogueRose
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Quote: Originally posted by Foeskes  | I made a concentrated solution of copper sulfate and put it in a Aluminium cup.
I then sprinkle a tiny amount of salt(about a pitch), that was enough to displace all the copper out of solution in a short amount of time.
[Edited on 7-4-2018 by Foeskes] |
Hmmm. So it made NaSO4? did it offgass Cl2? or did it dissolve some of the Al first, then the NaCl displaced the Al(SO4)3 into NaSO4 & AlCl3?
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ninhydric1
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CuSO4 (aq) + CaCl2 (aq) -> CaSO4 (s) + CuCl2 (aq)
Much easier way of making copper(ii) chloride in solution.
You could also make Schweiser's reagent (it can dissolve cellulose) by precipitating Cu(OH)2 and adding NH3 to form the tetraaminecopper complex.
Dissolve some cellulose and add the cellulose solution to some mineral acid and you produce some rayon.
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
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Amos
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You don't need to convert all of the copper(II) sulfate to the chloride to get it to readily participate, you need simply add a bit of salt or a drop
of hydrochloric acid to a relatively large solution to help it etch the surface of your aluminium. Once the solution has a way in it's very
straightforward. There's not really any metal source you can throw in there that will give you 100% copper, mind you, as the copper plating out of
solution will entrap small amounts of iron, aluminium, zinc, etc. In any case, if it's (hundreds of pounds of???) copper salts you're after, most of
them either require basic copper carbonate or oxide to react with an acid, or involve precipitation of an insoluble copper salt by a double
replacement. So 200 pounds of copper metal doesn't really help your case.
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Sulaiman
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| Quote: Originally posted by RogueRose |
Hmmm. So it made NaSO4? did it offgass Cl2? or did it dissolve some of the Al first, then the NaCl displaced the Al(SO4)3 into NaSO4 & AlCl3?
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NaSO4 ?
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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MrHomeScientist
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This guy found something neat to do with that much copper sulfate: http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/sculpture-longside/s...
He covered an entire apartment with crystals!
In my experience "cementing" (as it's called) copper from solution, it forms fragile dendrites that fall off the base metal easily. Aluminum dissolves
rapidly with addition of a little chloride (as others mentioned), but I've only ever tried that with foil. I wonder how bar stock would fare. Also as
mentioned, your copper won't be super pure; that's usually fixed by melting your recovered metal into an anode plate and performing electrolysis with
another piece of copper of known high purity.
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