Making Copper Chloride

• Process
  • Preparing the chemicals.
  • Combining the chemicals.
  • Extracting the copper chloride.

• Chemicals
  • 100 grams of sodium chloride (table salt)
  • 213,62 grams of copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate (or 136,55 grams anhydrous copper(II) sulfate)
  • Water (preferably demineralized water, so pure H₂O)
• Equipment
  • 1 liter glass beaker
  • Glass stirring equipment
  • Container (with an airtight seal)
  • 1 Pan to place the glass beaker in
  • A piece of string or wire (not metal)
  • Something to hang the string from

• Step 1
  • Prepare the sodium chloride as described here: making sodium chloride.
• Step 2
  • Put the 100 grams of sodium chloride and the 213.62 grams of copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate (or 136,55 grams anhydrous copper(II) sulfate) together in the 500 ml beaker.
  • Add 500 milliliters of water.
  • Stir well, until nothing dissolves anymore. Crush any big lumps if possible.
  • Place the beaker into the pan and fill the pan with water (normal tap water is fine).
  • Heat the water in the pan, its ok if it boils, but its not necessary.
  • Dissolve any of the remaining chemicals in the hot solution. Keep stirring for a minute.
• Step 3
  • Put out the heat and remove the beaker from the pan. Be careful, its hot!.
  • Let it cool down until you see crystals forming on the bottom of the beaker. Because its a dark green color, shining into it with a flashlight might help.
  • If crystals start to form, hang the thread into the solution, so that 1 or more centimeters is hanging into the solution.
  • If any cubic crystals form on the thread, you should remove the thread and hang a new one. Save the crystals though, for they are pure sodium sulfate. You should wash of any left over solution and dry them with some kitchen paper.
  • If long needle like crystals grow on the string this is copper chloride. Leave it hanging until the solution has fully cooled down.
  • Remove the string from the solution and make sure any excess liquid has dripped of the crystals. You can then dry the crystals with kitchen paper and remove them from the string. Collect them in the air tight jar for future use.
• Step 4
  • Filtering the solution will remove any crystals from the bottom of the beaker, sodium sulfate crystals as well as copper chloride crystals. The solution you get will be a saturated solution of copper chloride and sodium sulfate.
  • Placing the string back into the solution and letting it slowly evaporate will cause more crystals to grow.
  • Its possible to speed the evaporation up by placing the beaker near a heat source or even in the oven.
  • The crystals from the filtration process can be collected from various processes. Combining these crystals, dissolvingen them again and repeating the whole crystalization process will give you more copper chloride crystals.
  • Repeat the whole process again for more copper chloride crystals.

Making Copper Chloride