Preparing Soluble Salts

Salts
●​ A salt is a compound that is formed when the hydrogen atom in an acid is
replaced by a metal
●​ For example if we replace the H in HCl with a potassium atom, then the salt
potassium chloride is formed, KCl
●​ Salts are an important branch of chemistry due to the varied and important uses
of this class of compounds
●​ These uses include fertilisers, batteries, cleaning products, healthcare products
and fungicides

Naming salts
●​ The name of a salt has two parts
○​ The first part comes from the metal, metal oxide or metal carbonate used
in the reaction
○​ The second part comes from the acid
●​ The name of the salt can be determined by looking at the reactants
●​ For example hydrochloric acid always produces salts that end in chloride and
contain the chloride ion, Cl-
●​ Sodium hydroxide reacts with hydrochloric acid to produce sodium chloride
○​ Zinc oxide reacts with sulfuric acid to produce zinc sulfateOther examples:

Preparing salts
●​ Some salts can be extracted by mining but others need to be prepared in the
laboratory
●​ The method used depends on the solubility of the salt being prepared

Preparing soluble salts

Method:
 ●​ Add dilute acid into a beaker and heat using a bunsen burner flame
●​ Add the insoluble metal, base or carbonate, a little at a time, to the warm dilute
acid and stir until the base is in excess (i.e. until the base stops disappearing and
a suspension of the base forms in the acid)
●​ Filter the mixture into an evaporating basin to remove the excess base
●​ Heat the solution to evaporate water and to make the solution saturated. Check
the solution is saturated by dipping a cold, glass rod into the solution and seeing
if crystals form on the end
●​ Leave the filtrate in a warm place to dry and crystallize
●​ Decant excess solution and allow crystals to dry or blot to dry with filter paper

Example: Preparation of pure, hydrated copper(II) sulfate crystals using method A

Insoluble base = copper(II) oxide

Method:

●​ Add dilute sulfuric acid into a beaker and heat using a bunsen burner flame
●​ Add copper(II) oxide (insoluble base), a little at a time to the warm dilute sulfuric
acid and stir until the copper (II) oxide is in excess (stops disappearing)
●​ Filter the mixture into an evaporating basin to remove the excess copper(II) oxide
●​ Leave the filtrate in a warm place to dry and crystallize
●​ Decant excess solution
●​ Blot crystals dry with filter paper

Equation of reaction:
copper(II) oxide + sulfuric acid → copper(II) sulphate + water

CuO (s) + H2SO4 (aq) → CuSO4 (aq) + H2O (l)

Method B: Reacting a dilute acid and alkali (soluble base)

Method:
●​ Use a pipette to measure the alkali into a conical flask and add a few drops of
indicator (thymolphthalein or methyl orange)
●​ Add the acid into the burette and note the starting volume
●​ Add the acid very slowly from the burette to the conical flask until the indicator
changes to the appropriate colour
●​ Note and record the final volume of acid in the burette and calculate the volume
of acid added (starting volume of acid - final volume of acid)
●​ Add this same volume of acid into the same volume of alkali without the indicator
●​ Heat the resulting solution in an evaporating basin to partially evaporate, leaving
a saturated solution (crystals just forming on the sides of the basin or on a glass
rod dipped in and then removed)
●​ Leave to crystallise, decant excess solution and allow crystals to dry
Preparing Insoluble Salts
●​ Insoluble salts can be prepared using a precipitation reaction
●​ The solid salt obtained is the precipitate, thus in order to successfully use this
method the solid salt being formed must be insoluble in water, and the reactants
must be soluble

Using two soluble reactants

Method:
 ●​ Dissolve soluble salts in water and mix together using a stirring rod in a beaker
●​ Filter to remove precipitate from mixture
●​ Wash filtrate with distilled water to remove traces of other solutions
●​ Leave in an oven to dry

Example: Preparation of pure, dry lead(II) sulfate crystals using a precipitation reaction
Soluble Salt 1 = lead(II) nitrate

Soluble Salt 2 = potassium sulfate

Method:
●​ Dissolve lead(II) nitrate and potassium sulfate in water and mix together using a
stirring rod in a beaker
●​ Filter to remove precipitate from mixture
●​ Wash precipitate with distilled water to remove traces of potassium nitrate
solution
●​ Leave in an oven to dry

Equation of reaction:

lead(II) nitrate + potassium sulfate → lead(II) sulfate + potassium nitrate

Pb(NO3)2 (aq) + K2SO4 (aq) → PbSO4 (s) + 2KNO3 (aq)