I've done the second and third method of producing copper sulphate. Second method (nitric acid) was the best way of making copper sulphate. The crystal are amazing
@keimori12 Long explanation: from a quantum mechanical process where the orbiting electrons around the copper nucleus can jump between unoccupied positions in the d-orbital positions. The ligand field splitting from an copper-aqua (water) complex has the same energy as the reddish region of light, the absorption of red then gives a blue color to solutions of copper ions. This is basic 2nd year inorganic chemistry at the university level. simple explanation: it just does, get over it. :)
hehe, thanks! As for the sign, we kinda like having it go through progressive phases of disfigurement as the videos progress. Printing new signs is troublesome but the wear and tear shows just how hard-core our experiments are :)
Suggestion. Put copper wire in dilute sulphuric acid and let it stand a week or so. The air will react to oxidize the copper which the sulfuric acid will dissolve. Don't use old broze coins. Beside destroying collectables the coins will create a mixture of copper salts and salts of other metasl. Best, discarded electrical wire ends and copper pipes.
Not sure if anyone monitors this channel anymore but I wanted to say that the electrolysis trick is brilliant. I make 900mls in a few hours this way, I added to your method by making several of the anode coils a head of time and when one gets eaten away I stick another one down in and let that one run. I continue to do this until chrisals start forming in the bottom of the flask. The yield is crazy high! So easy and fast. As for power supply I now use an ATX power supply, using ALL of the red (5Vdc) tied together. I use a cathode that I made out of a piece of 3/4in copper pipe that I split down the middle and open up like a sheet of copper. Of coarse I leave a stem on the other end. Its real easy with a faber wheel on a dremel. there is SOME small amount of oxides that form on the cathode that will settle out. Its nano particulate so its damn near impossible to filter. But its easy to get rid of by letting it settle out over night and simply decant off. The brownish read particulate sticks to the bottom of the flask or jar and can be cleaned off with scrubbing. I rip a few drops of Sulfuric acid on the bottom, swirl it around and rinse it off clean as crystal. Im very impressed at how fast and easy the electrolysis method is I could literally run enough in 2 hours to do a bunch of PCB;s or copper plating.
NurdRage im having a crazy hard time crystallizing iron III however. it turns to a brown sludge more than anything.. followed your iron three to the letter. it always comes out much darker than expected. some of the finer particulate looks like fine crystals sort of like how aluminium chloride falls out of solution. but i never get large crystals. i need it in solid form for an intercalation process so i will use it as is i guess, im such a noob :) oh and I changed the copper sulfate trick some more. I slit a piece of 1/2 inch copper tube long ways and hammer it into a flat rectangle, then i take a piece of 10 gauge copper wire and fold the short edge of the rectangle over the wire a couple of times and hammer it down then i roll the rectangle up into a spiral. it allows you to put a massive amount of copper in the mix and walk away. it sounds complicated but it really isnt, it takes maybe 5 minutes
Clown Whisper Ferric chloride is difficult to crystalize, you need an excess of hydrochloric acid. Some sources of hydrochloric acid are not concentrated enough. Try adding more before crystallizing. Keep in mind that proper ferric chloride crystals are very dark brown. Almost black in bulk. Crushed powdered crystals are yellow. But they are all ferric chloride and dissolve easily. So don't worry if your stuff comes out looking like crud, as long as it works later for whatever you intend to use it for. The stuff in my video was carefully prepared and shown under bright light. So it tends to look better than the average sample. I made countless crappy sludge samples before i filmed that one.
NurdRage perhaps you can help me with something whenever i do electrolysis with copper electrodes i get a precipitate of a brick red substance on the cathode after a good long while i did a large scale production of copper sulfate today and retrieved a few grams of this and placed it in a beaker. i washed it with sulfuric acid then di water. i then tried to oxidize it using hydrogen peroxide. i then added HCL to see if it was copper, but to my surprise it instantly turned pitch black as it dissolved back into solution. its been 12 hours and it remains in solution as black as ink. a drop on a glass slide shows a yellow cast to it i get this residue every time i use copper electrodes im sure it is brought about as the copper II sulfate level gets closer to the cathode but what it is i cant figure out. i thought that it was a nanoparticulate of copper metal but obviously its not or it would have converted to copper chloride not black. i have heard other people mention this happening to them as well. your thoughts???
For those who want to use 3rd method: I've used 40% sulfuric acid, 12AWG copper wire, and a PC power supply, as it has variety of voltages. Reaction works at 3.3V (between orange and black wire of the power supply, black is negatove). Works great :)
first find the density (measure a known quantity and then measure its mass) and then consult a table that lists the known density for various concentrations of sulfuric acid. Those tables can be found online.
@bernie2du It'll make copper sulfate, but i'm not sure if it will be pure enough for electroplating. I've heard electroplating require very high purity stuff and impure chemicals ruin the plate Also i personally wouldn't want to deal with little bits of lead in my stuff. But if you do try it and it works then post a video and share the knowledge, :)
most straightforward way is to react copper with acetic and hydrogen peroxide. i'm not sure if the electric method would work for acetic acid without producing unwanted byproducts.
@sapdog12 just means your acid wasn't perfectly pure, it's not as bad the situation looks, but requires a bit of work to recover: Pour off the acid and get the white powder, add water to it to redissolve it, the white powder is copper sulfate, just in it's anhydrous form. The solution should turn blue now, let it evaporate instead of boiling and you should be able to get blue copper sulfate crystals. The black acid can be used to make more copper sulfate, just won't be as pure.
you it through filter paper. the dilute acid solution will pass through and the crystals remain in the paper. Look at my sodium nitrate videos for an example of the filtering process.
@sapdog mine is research grade, but i don't think makershed's acid would be the problem. might be something else, like a small amount of organic material, i wouldn't worry too much about it. the copper sulfate can be purified by recrystallization, so even drain cleaner acid will still be fine for you.
yeah just wash them, it will dissolve a little but you only need to rinse for a few seconds, then shake off the water and let it dry. You'll lose very little.
i discovered the third method by accident. I was trying to make a H2+O2 generator, and used copper to get the electricity into a sodium sulfate solution i made. Na2So4 and H2O. this began to make copper sulfate, i noticed, and i then made another version of my generator just for the purpose
That should work fine for anything that doesn't call for concentrated sulfuric acid. Battery acid is just a 40% solution of sulfuric acid, which is usually 95% when sold as "concentrated."
@sconesbi let the jar sit until crystals form on their own. This may take some time (days-weeks) once they do, carefully pour the liquid, and not the crystals, into another jar, now drop the seed crystal in. It won't melt and will grow bigger/faster than other crystals. My incredibly large crystals in the video took a lot more work and a few months to grow.
If you really need to ask, specifically, if drinking concentrated sulfuric acid, an acid capable of eating through various metals and even non-metals, is safe.... please drink it.
I've done this with sulfuric acid and #2 copper pipe using the electrochemical process. A new side note I learned is if you were to dip steel into the copper sulfate solution it will be lightly plated with copper. I did this to a hammer over a year ago and it is still shiny copper to this day.
I never said the crystals are copper sulfate anhydrous. The name "copper sulfate" is usually implied to mean copper sulfate pentahydrate, it's most common form. Just like saying "salt" implies sodium chloride. the most common salt.
im in 9th grade, all of my classmates only use vocabulary used in the jersey shore. i am compleatly souronded by half, no, not even quarter wits. it is realy nice to listen to people who are smart. this girl asked me if you could swim up a tornado. and yes, she was a prep whos mind never leaves her cell phone.
@lukeluzicka it was an editing error. The original script for the nitric acid video read: "only nitric acid will dissolve copper *and produce nitrogen dioxide gas*" unfortunately that last piece of dialogue was cut off accidentally during editing.
thanks. I felt it necessary to reupload this one with the clarification since 2000 comments of "HEY WAIT A MINUTE...." is not fun.... I learned my lesson from the leidenfrost video. :)
@aCagedApe Spongy copper, It's still copper, but has so may holes and is so loose and porous that it looks like a sponge rather than a metal. just filter it off.
Alright, thank you! I got it now! For me, in Malaysia. We accept both American and British English , but we are more into British English. In my Chemistry text book , it is written in sulphate. Anyway, keep it up! I love your videos , they are very educational. unlike my teacher who no capable of explaining anything to their student.
I guess you could use fiber glass filters instead since concentrated sulfuric acid can readily oxidize cellulose (and other organic materials). But that's my guess. I could be wrong.
Very useful, this is exactly what I was looking for, I needed the copper sulfate for copperization, and I was obtaining it by producing CuO and then making it react with diluted sulfuric acid, a simple but a little longer process than yours, actually, I do what I do because I have no concentrated sulfuric acid :-( Good job.
I specifically made the experiment with an excess of sulfuric acid and copper to drive the equilibrium to toward copper sulfate and destroy all nitrate ions. Any remaining nitrate would be negligible.
1. Could the NO₂ in method 2 be recycled to make nitric acid again? 2. What if the copper is an alloy with some other metal? 3. When evaporating the sulfuric acid at the end, could it be condensed and recycled to reduce its loss? 4. What types of tubes can I use for isolation to avoid reacting with the acid? 5. And same with the filters: paper filters are out of the table since sulfuric acid burns paper, right? So what filters can I use instead? 6. How do you calculate the correct proportions of these chemicals?
1. If you can use a tube or some way to bubble the NO2 into water, yes it will convert back to nitric acid, although it won't be concentrated, it will be dilute acid, and will not be as efficient. For more on this, see NurdRage's guide on making nitric acid. 2. It should still work, but depending on your alloy you may also get some undesired side products. It's better to use as pure copper as possible. 3. He does recycle his sulfuric acid. 4. Not totally sure I understand this question. To isolate the crystals or the acid? Either way, I don't see the acid being a problem since water is present to dilute the acids somewhat. 5. Sulfuric acid only burns paper if it is anhydrous sulfuric acid. In this reaction water is present, so it burning paper is not an issue. 6. Would take a very long time to explain this one, sorry xD
no, fumes being microscopic particles given off from the substance, as much as preventing it from entering the system, either via a gas mask type hood, or a clean film/mesh that filters particulates.
@uaintwright Its always easier to buy stuff. I like making stuff sometimes to demonstrate the science. Also the principles learned can be applied to other experiments where you can't buy the chemicals.
I'm making Copper Sulfate using the electric method you showed. I stripped a piece of copper Romex and coiled it up in the bottom of one of my wives Mason jars. I folded a piece of 1/4" copper tubing over the edge of the jar and hooked up a 9 volt DC power supply. It bubbles only from the one electrode like you said. After a few hours the solution turned blue. A few questions for you though. 1. How long does this need to run to produce enough Copper Sulfate to form crystals? 2. The bubbling electrode is forming a Red Oxide (Cupric Oxide?) on it and stops bubbling after a few minutes, now that the solution is blue. It didn't do this in the beginning. If I agitate the solution OR remove the oxide from the electrode it resumes bubbling. Only to stop again in a few minutes. Is this normal? 3. I also have another batch working using half Vinegar and half Hydrogen Peroxide and Copper wire (NO electricity). This batch is a deeper blue color than the first batch, but isn't bubbling at all. Is this a viable way to make Copper Sulfate too? Thanks for any input you can give me. Love your channel, very informative.
Also, how do you know when the saturation point is reached? Are toxic fumes given off with this method as well? I want to use this to get copper sulfate to do some copper plating because I already have everything needed.
I'm not sure about your questions regarding fumes or saturation. I did mine in the garage with the front and rear doors open and didn't have a problem with fumes. It definitely works for a plating solution, because I used a standard screwdriver to stir the solution when the process was running and it came out of the liquid copper plated.
Papa Monster To know when saturation is reached, you simply have to look for a precipitate. If you see one forming, it means that the solution cannot dissolve anymore hence have reached saturation. As for toxic gases, the second reaction involving nitric acid yields NO2 (red/brown gas) which is very toxic as said in the video.
Michael Garafalo The fumes are hydrogen not toxic but flammable I don't know what you mean by saturation but the longer you keep the power running the better off you will be.
If You heat the dry blue powder, it turns white. The white substance is CuSO4. If You then let it cool down and allow it to stand in the air, each CuSO4 molecule binds five water molecules from the air, and the substance turns back blue. The blue is the pentahydrate form.
the explanation is far more complicated than i can cram into 500 characters. I reccomend getting a textbook on inorganic chemistry to answer this question.
@tommy9688 that would defeat the purpose, in this video we WANT the copper to be oxidized and go into solution to form copper sulfate. Preventing that would prevent us from obtaining the desired product.
Thanks, I'm using your last method cold then it gets really Hot :) but I wonder do I leave the Battery Acid in after evaporation to let the big crystals grow?
Thank you so much!! I used your method to make copper sulphate for electro-plating. Strong and shiny plating was the result! Much better than copper acetate.
@ nurdrage can copper (II) sulfate be obtained by dissolving copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate in water so that the pentahydrates come off and then recrystalizing it? or will it still have the pentahydrate?
@DisillusionedAmerica 6 step synthesis with plenty of wastes Versus 1 or 2 step synthesis with few or no wastes. all those extra chemicals would probably add up costing a lot more than H2SO4. If you want to do it just for the didactic value then go for it, but there are more interesting complicated synthetic processes out there, like making luminol for instance.
Hello nurdrage! I have a question that may seem stupid but hey, my little cousin did this experiment Any way, He put two copper electrodes in water, not sulfuric acid, and a blue substance was forming! Is this copper sulfate or a different copper compound? and to those other people, don't hate on people that don't know much about science
@BertNinja Before complaining, actually check my videos instead of making such a blanket statement. I have videos on hot ice, ice packs, silver chemistry, photography and flaming jelly that are easy to do and safe enough for anyone to do.
Great video.,I made this Electro-chemically, Could you tell me whether adding sodium bicarbonate to the mixture (Slowly) to neutralize the acid before drying(crystallizing), would ruin it or not ? Or what would happen ? Thanks.
Makes a great stump remover. Drill 5 (five) 1" (2.54cm) holes in offending stump; pack 1/2 full with CuSO4. fill hole slowly with water. The CuSO4 greatly accelerates the decomposition process; this makes the tree stump much easier to get out of the ground without using TNT and/or a large pickup truck with a log chain and/or other implements that might be looked upon with alarm by the neighbors when you show up in your front yard and start using them. Yes, I learned this the hard way!
I'm currently making CuSO4 via copper, sulfuric acid and air. It takes longer than actively oxidizing the copper, (In a large flat contain with plenty of surface area a few days.) but I find that it uses up all the acid and I don't need any additional chemicals or equipment. Best of all it also works when making copper acetate from clear vinegar.
Correct me if I'm wrong but won't it be : Anode : Cu (s) -> 2 e- + Cu+2 And Cathode : Cu+2 + 2 e- -> Cu (s) ? Wouldn't it be better if I used a salt bridge between the two electrodes? And replace the cathode with a carbon electrode? I think you can easily use a filter paper which has been dipped in a NaCl solution beforehand as a salt bridge. The solution with the anode can dissolve as much copper as possible now, without wasting energy in the cathode. Right?
What would happen if I was to try to neutralize the acid with baking soda, before crystallizing ? Would it change the copper sulfate properties ? Thanks, great video as always.
these would make a good gift for someone who collects crystals except i read that copper sulfate is moderately toxic is there any way to protect the crystal to make it safe to give away as a gift like coating it in a layer of clear epoxy?
oh, it formed a blue liquid though. but i dumped it and used the method with the hydrogen peroxide. ill tell you how it worked when its done boiling. i made 125ml of it and it boiling right now. it is around 50ml at the moment
@arnadillo4495 Your procedure makes copper acetate, not copper sulfate, you need sulfuric acid or a source of sulfate ions which vinegar does not have.
No!
Who is telling these lies? They need to learn chemistry
I've done the second and third method of producing copper sulphate.
Second method (nitric acid) was the best way of making copper sulphate.
The crystal are amazing
@keimori12
Long explanation: from a quantum mechanical process where the orbiting electrons around the copper nucleus can jump between unoccupied positions in the d-orbital positions. The ligand field splitting from an copper-aqua (water) complex has the same energy as the reddish region of light, the absorption of red then gives a blue color to solutions of copper ions. This is basic 2nd year inorganic chemistry at the university level.
simple explanation: it just does, get over it.
:)
hehe, thanks!
As for the sign, we kinda like having it go through progressive phases of disfigurement as the videos progress. Printing new signs is troublesome but the wear and tear shows just how hard-core our experiments are :)
Suggestion. Put copper wire in dilute sulphuric acid and let it stand a week or so. The air will react to oxidize the copper which the sulfuric acid will dissolve. Don't use old broze coins. Beside destroying collectables the coins will create a mixture of copper salts and salts of other metasl. Best, discarded electrical wire ends and copper pipes.
I love the color of dissolved copper sulphate. So pretty
me too
Eat them
Not sure if anyone monitors this channel anymore but I wanted to say that the electrolysis trick is brilliant.
I make 900mls in a few hours this way, I added to your method by making several of the anode coils a head of time and when one gets eaten away I stick another one down in and let that one run. I continue to do this until chrisals start forming in the bottom of the flask. The yield is crazy high!
So easy and fast.
As for power supply I now use an ATX power supply, using ALL of the red (5Vdc) tied together.
I use a cathode that I made out of a piece of 3/4in copper pipe that I split down the middle and open up like a sheet of copper. Of coarse I leave a stem on the other end. Its real easy with a faber wheel on a dremel.
there is SOME small amount of oxides that form on the cathode that will settle out. Its nano particulate so its damn near impossible to filter. But its easy to get rid of by letting it settle out over night and simply decant off. The brownish read particulate sticks to the bottom of the flask or jar and can be cleaned off with scrubbing. I rip a few drops of Sulfuric acid on the bottom, swirl it around and rinse it off clean as crystal.
Im very impressed at how fast and easy the electrolysis method is I could literally run enough in 2 hours to do a bunch of PCB;s or copper plating.
Awesome, good to hear it worked out for ya.
NurdRage im having a crazy hard time crystallizing iron III however.
it turns to a brown sludge more than anything.. followed your iron three to the letter.
it always comes out much darker than expected.
some of the finer particulate looks like fine crystals sort of like how aluminium chloride falls out of solution.
but i never get large crystals.
i need it in solid form for an intercalation process so i will use it as is i guess,
im such a noob :)
oh and I changed the copper sulfate trick some more.
I slit a piece of 1/2 inch copper tube long ways and hammer it into a flat rectangle, then i take a piece of 10 gauge copper wire and fold the short edge of the rectangle over the wire a couple of times and hammer it down
then i roll the rectangle up into a spiral. it allows you to put a massive amount of copper in the mix and walk away.
it sounds complicated but it really isnt, it takes maybe 5 minutes
Clown Whisper Ferric chloride is difficult to crystalize, you need an excess of hydrochloric acid. Some sources of hydrochloric acid are not concentrated enough. Try adding more before crystallizing. Keep in mind that proper ferric chloride crystals are very dark brown. Almost black in bulk. Crushed powdered crystals are yellow. But they are all ferric chloride and dissolve easily. So don't worry if your stuff comes out looking like crud, as long as it works later for whatever you intend to use it for. The stuff in my video was carefully prepared and shown under bright light. So it tends to look better than the average sample. I made countless crappy sludge samples before i filmed that one.
NurdRage Thanks man, thats a big help mentally for me, as i am so new at these processes and don't always know what to expect.
NurdRage perhaps you can help me with something
whenever i do electrolysis with copper electrodes i get a precipitate of a brick red substance on the cathode after a good long while
i did a large scale production of copper sulfate today and retrieved a few grams of this and placed it in a beaker. i washed it with sulfuric acid then di water. i then tried to oxidize it using hydrogen peroxide. i then added HCL to see if it was copper, but to my surprise it instantly turned pitch black as it dissolved back into solution.
its been 12 hours and it remains in solution as black as ink.
a drop on a glass slide shows a yellow cast to it
i get this residue every time i use copper electrodes
im sure it is brought about as the copper II sulfate level gets closer to the cathode but what it is i cant figure out. i thought that it was a nanoparticulate of copper metal but obviously its not or it would have converted to copper chloride not black.
i have heard other people mention this happening to them as well.
your thoughts???
For those who want to use 3rd method: I've used 40% sulfuric acid, 12AWG copper wire, and a PC power supply, as it has variety of voltages. Reaction works at 3.3V (between orange and black wire of the power supply, black is negatove). Works great :)
I DID THIS IN MY SCIENCE CLASS :D BRINGS BACK MEMORIES :'D I THINK I STILL HAVE THOSE CRYSTLES
Keep in mind, it is *impossible* to chemically make sulfate ions from acetic acid. It's not going to happen.
You must use sulfuric acid.
So how would you explain electrolisys pure copper anode and cathode in hot 10% acetic acid solution? It turn light blue instantly.
@@Fosgen copper acetate probably
Yes, you can use it for that.
first find the density (measure a known quantity and then measure its mass) and then consult a table that lists the known density for various concentrations of sulfuric acid. Those tables can be found online.
this video has subtitles, you can turn those on and turn off the sound.
1. Copper metal is easier to find than copper oxide.
2. Did you neglect the presence of an excess of sulfuric acid?
It would be nice if you read the video description and checked the link....
@bernie2du
It'll make copper sulfate, but i'm not sure if it will be pure enough for electroplating. I've heard electroplating require very high purity stuff and impure chemicals ruin the plate
Also i personally wouldn't want to deal with little bits of lead in my stuff.
But if you do try it and it works then post a video and share the knowledge, :)
absolutely, but changing the arrangement of the electrodes is easier and cleaner.
Some barrier materials may dissolve in acid.
how do you hope to make copper sulfate, if you don't have a source of sulfate ions? hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid do not produce sulfate ions.
most straightforward way is to react copper with acetic and hydrogen peroxide. i'm not sure if the electric method would work for acetic acid without producing unwanted byproducts.
@ThePhDChemist please research "overpotential" and "reduction potential" in the context of electrochemistry.
And you can get copper metal from pipe and wire, even more readily available than copper oxide.
@sapdog12
just means your acid wasn't perfectly pure, it's not as bad the situation looks, but requires a bit of work to recover:
Pour off the acid and get the white powder, add water to it to redissolve it, the white powder is copper sulfate, just in it's anhydrous form. The solution should turn blue now, let it evaporate instead of boiling and you should be able to get blue copper sulfate crystals.
The black acid can be used to make more copper sulfate, just won't be as pure.
I think you missed the part where i said "for those interested in the chemistry"
you it through filter paper. the dilute acid solution will pass through and the crystals remain in the paper.
Look at my sodium nitrate videos for an example of the filtering process.
@sapdog
mine is research grade, but i don't think makershed's acid would be the problem.
might be something else, like a small amount of organic material, i wouldn't worry too much about it. the copper sulfate can be purified by recrystallization, so even drain cleaner acid will still be fine for you.
i don't know what you particular hardware store stocks.
the proportion listed will react away all the nitrates to oxidize the copper. so you're left with copper sulfate mixed with excess sulfuric acid.
yeah just wash them, it will dissolve a little but you only need to rinse for a few seconds, then shake off the water and let it dry. You'll lose very little.
why would that stop it? it'll still plate out.
i discovered the third method by accident. I was trying to make a H2+O2 generator, and used copper to get the electricity into a sodium sulfate solution i made. Na2So4 and H2O. this began to make copper sulfate, i noticed, and i then made another version of my generator just for the purpose
where is your source of sulfate ions?
That should work fine for anything that doesn't call for concentrated sulfuric acid. Battery acid is just a 40% solution of sulfuric acid, which is usually 95% when sold as "concentrated."
@sconesbi let the jar sit until crystals form on their own. This may take some time (days-weeks) once they do, carefully pour the liquid, and not the crystals, into another jar, now drop the seed crystal in. It won't melt and will grow bigger/faster than other crystals. My incredibly large crystals in the video took a lot more work and a few months to grow.
If you really need to ask, specifically, if drinking concentrated sulfuric acid, an acid capable of eating through various metals and even non-metals, is safe....
please drink it.
what is the difference between Copper Sulfate and the Copper Sulfate pentahydrate
it would be better, but still not as good as nitric acid. Decomposition of the peroxide still occurs due to catalyzation by the copper.
for anyone who needs to know for any stoichiometric calculations, the crystal formed is
Cu(SO4) o 4H2O or Copper (II) Sulfate Pentahydrate
I've done this with sulfuric acid and #2 copper pipe using the electrochemical process. A new side note I learned is if you were to dip steel into the copper sulfate solution it will be lightly plated with copper. I did this to a hammer over a year ago and it is still shiny copper to this day.
I never said the crystals are copper sulfate anhydrous.
The name "copper sulfate" is usually implied to mean copper sulfate pentahydrate, it's most common form.
Just like saying "salt" implies sodium chloride. the most common salt.
nothing better than a video from 12 years ago, man, how time passes
im in 9th grade, all of my classmates only use vocabulary used in the jersey shore. i am compleatly souronded by half, no, not even quarter wits. it is realy nice to listen to people who are smart. this girl asked me if you could swim up a tornado. and yes, she was a prep whos mind never leaves her cell phone.
Where do you buy your chemicals
@lukeluzicka it was an editing error. The original script for the nitric acid video read: "only nitric acid will dissolve copper *and produce nitrogen dioxide gas*" unfortunately that last piece of dialogue was cut off accidentally during editing.
Copper chloride complexes are green. Aqueous copper ions are blue.
thanks.
I felt it necessary to reupload this one with the clarification since 2000 comments of "HEY WAIT A MINUTE...." is not fun.... I learned my lesson from the leidenfrost video. :)
@aCagedApe
Spongy copper, It's still copper, but has so may holes and is so loose and porous that it looks like a sponge rather than a metal. just filter it off.
Man I love old nurdrage
Alright, thank you! I got it now!
For me, in Malaysia. We accept both American and British English , but we are more into British English.
In my Chemistry text book , it is written in sulphate.
Anyway, keep it up! I love your videos , they are very educational. unlike my teacher who no capable of explaining anything to their student.
@aCagedApe
hmm.. never tried that myself, i'm not sure if it's good enough for that purpose. But give it a go and report your results!
Can you do some videos dedicated to making crystals?
Heh yeah,
i'm sad that i dissolve/destroy the crystals in upcoming videos. But it's all for science!
I am unable to filter off the copper sulfate due to the ability of sulfuric acid being able to eat through my filter paper. :)
I guess you could use fiber glass filters instead since concentrated sulfuric acid can readily oxidize cellulose (and other organic materials). But that's my guess. I could be wrong.
your solution is way to strong! it should be very dilute
Clown Whisper once the water boils off the solution is mainly sulfuric acid
Clown Whisper can I use higher voltage
If youre not concerned with recoving the acid, you could neutralise it.
Your videos are always so interesting! Watching them makes me want to take more chemistry courses so I could understand these processes better.
Very useful, this is exactly what I was looking for, I needed the copper sulfate for copperization, and I was obtaining it by producing CuO and then making it react with diluted sulfuric acid, a simple but a little longer process than yours, actually, I do what I do because I have no concentrated sulfuric acid :-( Good job.
I specifically made the experiment with an excess of sulfuric acid and copper to drive the equilibrium to toward copper sulfate and destroy all nitrate ions. Any remaining nitrate would be negligible.
1. Could the NO₂ in method 2 be recycled to make nitric acid again?
2. What if the copper is an alloy with some other metal?
3. When evaporating the sulfuric acid at the end, could it be condensed and recycled to reduce its loss?
4. What types of tubes can I use for isolation to avoid reacting with the acid?
5. And same with the filters: paper filters are out of the table since sulfuric acid burns paper, right? So what filters can I use instead?
6. How do you calculate the correct proportions of these chemicals?
1. If you can use a tube or some way to bubble the NO2 into water, yes it will convert back to nitric acid, although it won't be concentrated, it will be dilute acid, and will not be as efficient. For more on this, see NurdRage's guide on making nitric acid.
2. It should still work, but depending on your alloy you may also get some undesired side products. It's better to use as pure copper as possible.
3. He does recycle his sulfuric acid.
4. Not totally sure I understand this question. To isolate the crystals or the acid? Either way, I don't see the acid being a problem since water is present to dilute the acids somewhat.
5. Sulfuric acid only burns paper if it is anhydrous sulfuric acid. In this reaction water is present, so it burning paper is not an issue.
6. Would take a very long time to explain this one, sorry xD
I'll be making subtitles soon for this video. be patient.
bubble sulfur dioxide into a solution of copper hydroxide or stirred copper oxide, it'll disproportionate into copper metal and copper sulfate.
no, fumes being microscopic particles given off from the substance, as much as preventing it from entering the system, either via a gas mask type hood, or a clean film/mesh that filters particulates.
@uaintwright Its always easier to buy stuff. I like making stuff sometimes to demonstrate the science. Also the principles learned can be applied to other experiments where you can't buy the chemicals.
I'm making Copper Sulfate using the electric method you showed. I stripped a piece of copper Romex and coiled it up in the bottom of one of my wives Mason jars. I folded a piece of 1/4" copper tubing over the edge of the jar and hooked up a 9 volt DC power supply. It bubbles only from the one electrode like you said. After a few hours the solution turned blue. A few questions for you though.
1. How long does this need to run to produce enough Copper Sulfate to form crystals?
2. The bubbling electrode is forming a Red Oxide (Cupric Oxide?) on it and stops bubbling after a few minutes, now that the solution is blue. It didn't do this in the beginning. If I agitate the solution OR remove the oxide from the electrode it resumes bubbling. Only to stop again in a few minutes. Is this normal?
3. I also have another batch working using half Vinegar and half Hydrogen Peroxide and Copper wire (NO electricity). This batch is a deeper blue color than the first batch, but isn't bubbling at all. Is this a viable way to make Copper Sulfate too?
Thanks for any input you can give me. Love your channel, very informative.
Also, how do you know when the saturation point is reached?
Are toxic fumes given off with this method as well?
I want to use this to get copper sulfate to do some copper plating because I already have everything needed.
I'm not sure about your questions regarding fumes or saturation. I did mine in the garage with the front and rear doors open and didn't have a problem with fumes.
It definitely works for a plating solution, because I used a standard screwdriver to stir the solution when the process was running and it came out of the liquid copper plated.
I have an old Mosin Negant rifle that I would love to have had the brass accessories.
I guess Copper plating would be interesting and unique enough.
Papa Monster
To know when saturation is reached, you simply have to look for a precipitate. If you see one forming, it means that the solution cannot dissolve anymore hence have reached saturation.
As for toxic gases, the second reaction involving nitric acid yields NO2 (red/brown gas) which is very toxic as said in the video.
Michael Garafalo
The fumes are hydrogen not toxic but flammable
I don't know what you mean by saturation but the longer you keep the power running the better off you will be.
actually WATCH the later videos
If You heat the dry blue powder, it turns white. The white substance is CuSO4. If You then let it cool down and allow it to stand in the air, each CuSO4 molecule binds five water molecules from the air, and the substance turns back blue. The blue is the pentahydrate form.
i tried this using the electrolosis method. i did not use the acids, i used water and it worked successfully
my friend, maybe you should try it with dilute sulfuric acid.
@freakin1random
that's a tremendous waste of an oxidant if you just let it bubble.
the explanation is far more complicated than i can cram into 500 characters. I reccomend getting a textbook on inorganic chemistry to answer this question.
@tommy9688 that would defeat the purpose, in this video we WANT the copper to be oxidized and go into solution to form copper sulfate. Preventing that would prevent us from obtaining the desired product.
If the copper sulfate were pure (as in, all the excess sulfuric acid was removed), would it then be safe to handle?
Thanks, I'm using your last method cold then it gets really Hot :) but I wonder do I leave the Battery Acid in after evaporation to let the big crystals grow?
i did it using a 4.5v plug
For the final step, is it safe to let the Copper Sulfate / Sulfuric Acid solution evaporate indoors?
Thank you so much!! I used your method to make copper sulphate for electro-plating. Strong and shiny plating was the result! Much better than copper acetate.
@ nurdrage
can copper (II) sulfate be obtained by dissolving copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate in water so that the pentahydrates come off and then recrystalizing it? or will it still have the pentahydrate?
@DisillusionedAmerica 6 step synthesis with plenty of wastes Versus 1 or 2 step synthesis with few or no wastes.
all those extra chemicals would probably add up costing a lot more than H2SO4.
If you want to do it just for the didactic value then go for it, but there are more interesting complicated synthetic processes out there, like making luminol for instance.
CUSO4 looks sooo cool aqueous. The color is awesome!
I think you missed the part where I say copper sulfate will be used in upcoming videos.
Hello nurdrage!
I have a question that may seem stupid but hey, my little cousin did this experiment
Any way, He put two copper electrodes in water, not sulfuric acid, and a blue substance was forming!
Is this copper sulfate or a different copper compound?
and to those other people, don't hate on people that don't know much about science
words cannot descirbe the amazingness of your genius.. that crystal was a beast!
@BertNinja
Before complaining, actually check my videos instead of making such a blanket statement. I have videos on hot ice, ice packs, silver chemistry, photography and flaming jelly that are easy to do and safe enough for anyone to do.
cool. yeah that makes sense.
also do you know of any (cleaning) products or cheep/easy places to get sulfuric acid?
Great video.,I made this Electro-chemically, Could you tell me whether adding sodium bicarbonate to the mixture (Slowly) to neutralize the acid before drying(crystallizing), would ruin it or not ? Or what would happen ? Thanks.
Makes a great stump remover. Drill 5 (five) 1" (2.54cm) holes in offending stump; pack 1/2 full with CuSO4. fill hole slowly with water.
The CuSO4 greatly accelerates the decomposition process; this makes the tree stump much easier to get out of the ground without using TNT and/or a large pickup truck with a log chain and/or other implements that might be looked upon with alarm by the neighbors when you show up in your front yard and start using them.
Yes, I learned this the hard way!
if you use sodium hydroxide with copper will you be making copper hydroxide?
I'm currently making CuSO4 via copper, sulfuric acid and air. It takes longer than actively oxidizing the copper, (In a large flat contain with plenty of surface area a few days.) but I find that it uses up all the acid and I don't need any additional chemicals or equipment. Best of all it also works when making copper acetate from clear vinegar.
Sorry, I'm not English native speaker.
And I'm 17.
So greetings from Serbia, looking forward for your next videos!
I don't see why not.
But you must be careful of accidentally generating chlorine gas, which is rather toxic.
Correct me if I'm wrong but won't it be :
Anode :
Cu (s) -> 2 e- + Cu+2
And Cathode :
Cu+2 + 2 e- -> Cu (s) ?
Wouldn't it be better if I used a salt bridge between the two electrodes? And replace the cathode with a carbon electrode? I think you can easily use a filter paper which has been dipped in a NaCl solution beforehand as a salt bridge. The solution with the anode can dissolve as much copper as possible now, without wasting energy in the cathode. Right?
Great video but I must write that blue crystals aren't CuSO4, CuSO4 crystals are white.
Blue crystals are CuSO4*5H2O.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
actually you never produced copper sulfate since there was no source of sulfate ions. you made copper chloride and copper acetate
use the battery method
@flagman57
The video presents 3 methods. Pick the one most suited to your lab.
Hi lyroson, and also you could get copper sulfate crystals?..You used commercial vinegar or acetic acid with some special dilution?
What would happen if I was to try to neutralize the acid with baking soda, before crystallizing ? Would it change the copper sulfate properties ? Thanks, great video as always.
@thebombbros you're not making copper sulfate then. without sulfuric acid you're making a different copper compound.
these would make a good gift for someone who collects crystals except i read that copper sulfate is moderately toxic is there any way to protect the crystal to make it safe to give away as a gift like coating it in a layer of clear epoxy?
can that be used as an accessory : ) cause its really pretty...
PLEASE ANSWER :D
oh, it formed a blue liquid though. but i dumped it and used the method with the hydrogen peroxide. ill tell you how it worked when its done boiling. i made 125ml of it and it boiling right now. it is around 50ml at the moment
Hi everyone!! what if i put powder copper?, the process is faster??
Abraham Cazares It should be I think
could you show us how to etch metal using chemicals? or other ways to etch metals?
@arnadillo4495
Your procedure makes copper acetate, not copper sulfate, you need sulfuric acid or a source of sulfate ions which vinegar does not have.