Making Copper Sulphate

Question 1

What is the process to make copper sulphate?

Answer 1

1) Place some sulfuric acid in a conical flask and start -heating it up in a water bath.
- speeds up the reaction between the acid and insoluble base
2) Add a spatula of copper oxide powder to the acid and stir with a glass rod.
3) Continue adding copper oxide powder until it is in excess.
- So you don’t have any leftover acid in your product
4) Filter off the excess solid to get a solution containing only the salt and water
5) Heat the solution gently, using a bunsen burner, to slowly evaporate off some of the water -
6) Leave the solution to cool and allow the salt to crystallise
7) Filter off the solid salt and leave it to dry

Question 2

What are the risks and precautions?

Answer 2

Sulfuric acid
- Concentrated acid is corrosive and damages skin and clothes
- Use dilute sulfuric acid
Boiling water bath
- Skin burns
- Ensure the boiling water bath is stable
Hot copper sulfate solution spitting out during crystallisation
- Damage to eyes and skin
- Wear eye protection and avoid standing over the hot apparatus

Question 3

How are soluble salts made?

Answer 3

By reacting acids that contains one of the ions you want in the salt with an insoluble base that contains the other ion you need