Question

I reacted copper acetate with sodium carbonate. It formed a mixture of sodium hydroxide, copper carbonate, copper acetate, and copper oxide. I wanted to know if there is a process to remove the sodium hydroxide and copper oxide to leave me with just copper carbonate. I was thinking that I could wash the solution through a filter with water since sodium hydroxide is soluble and copper carbonate is not but I’m not sure if this would work. That still leaves copper oxide. Any ideas on how to get copper oxide out?

Answer 1

To remove sodium hydroxide and copper oxide from the mixture, wash the solution through a filter with water to remove sodium hydroxide and retain copper carbonate. Use a strong reducing agent to convert copper oxide back into soluble copper ions and separate them from the solution.

Step-by-step explanation:

To remove sodium hydroxide and copper oxide from a mixture of sodium hydroxide, copper carbonate, copper acetate, and copper oxide, you can perform a simple filtration process.

Since sodium hydroxide is soluble in water and copper carbonate is not, you can wash the mixture through a filter with water. This will retain copper carbonate as a precipitate while allowing sodium hydroxide to pass through. However, copper oxide cannot be removed through filtration.

To remove copper oxide, you can use a strong reducing agent like sulfuric acid or nitric acid to convert it back into soluble copper ions and then separate them from the solution.