Making salt

Aim:

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

Equipment:

Copper oxide powder
Dilute (o.5 mol L-1) sulfuric acid
50 ml measuring cylinder
two 100 mL beaker
Bunsen burner
Tripod
Gauze mat
Funnel
Filter paper
Thermometer
Spatula
Evaporating basin
Stirring rod

Method:

1. Add 20ml of sulfuric acid to a 100 ml beaker. Heat the acid until it reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Turn off your Bunsen burner.  
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 dissolve. 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 the mixture previously, and place it back on top of your tripod filled with 50-60 mL of water
8. Place the evaporating basin on top of the beaker and carefully pour some of the solutions from the beaker into the evaporating basin. 
9. Gently heat the beaker until the solution in the evaporating basin had 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-sill)  and observe over the next few days. Blue copper sulfate crystals should form. 

We made a copper sulfate salt. We made this by using acid to react with copper oxide. We evaporated the solution and was left with blue crystals. 

Here are my crystals

This experiment was very fun. Producing copper sulfate by reacting copper oxide with acid was interesting, it worked really well. I think my crystals turned out great.