Making Salts II | Science

Welcome to another post on my blog. Today, we did an experiment about making salts, again. 

Aim: To produce copper sulfate salt by reacting copper oxide with an acid.

Equipment:

1. Copper oxide powder
2. (0.5 mol L^-1 sulfuric acid
3. 50 mL measuring cylinder
4. 2 100 mL beakers
5. Element (hot plate)
6. Heatproof mat
7. Funnel
8. Filter paper
9. Thermometer
10. Spatula
11. Evaporating basin
12. Stirring rod

Method:

1. Add 20 mL of sulfuric acid to a 100 mL beaker. Heat the acid using the element (hot plate) until it reaches 70°C. Turn off the element.
2. Once heated, use a spatula to add pea-sized portions of copper oxide to the beaker. Stir the mixture for 30 seconds.
3. Repeat step 2 until no more will disolve. Allow the beaker to cool.
4. Fold the filter paper and place it in the funnel. Place the filter funnel into the second beaker.
5. Make sure the beaker is cool enough to hold at the top. The contents should still be hot. You may need your teacher to complete this step.
6. Gently swirl the contents of the beaker to mix, and then pour into the filter paper in the funnel. Allow to filter through.
7. Rinse the beaker you used to heat to mixture previously, and place it back on top of your tripod filed with 50-60 mL of water.
8. Place the evaporating basin on top of the beaker and carefully pour some of the solution from the beaker into the evapourating basin.
9. Gently heat the beaker until the solution in the evapourating basin has reduced by half.
10. Leave the evaporating basin to cool. Once cool, move the evaporating basin to a warm place where it will not be disturbed (i.e. a window-still) and observe over the next few days. Blue copper sulfate crystals should form.

Observations:

This was a fun After It took around 10 minutes to fill a 20 mL of sulfuric acid from the filter paper.