NAME: Suparna Mondal

Sr. No.: 14510

Experiment - 5
Cementation

Aim: To perform cementation of Copper (Cu) from CuSO4 on an Iron (Fe) plate.

Principle: Cementation is a process used to reduce a metal from its solution on a mother
metal which is more electropositive in nature. It is generally used to refine leach solutions.
In this experiment Copper has been cemented from Copper Sulphate solution on Iron plate.
The standard reducing potentials of copper and iron are as follows:

Cu2+ + 2e− → Cu E◦ = +0.34V

Fe2+ + 2e− → Fe E◦ = - 0.44V

As it can be seen that Fe is more electropositive in nature, it has the tendency to lose
electrons whereas Cu being more electronegative has the tendency to accept electrons to
reach zero valence. Hence the following reaction takes place during the process of cementa-
tion:

Fe(metal) + CuSO4 → Cu(metal) + FeSO4

A thin layer of Copper hence gets precipitated on Fe metal plate. At high pH, there is
a possibility of copper ion to form oxides and other undesired compounds. Hence, to avoid
this from happening during the process of cementation, few drops of H2 SO4 is added to
thesolution to lower down the pH.

Therefore it can be predicted that Fe concentration should increase in the solution with
time whereas Cu concentration should decrease. To verify this, sample of the solution were
collected after equal interval of time and atomic absorption spectroscopy was done to deter-
mine concentration of Copper at different instants.

Atomic absorption spectroscopy uses the principle that free atoms generated by an at-
omizer can absorb radiation at a specific frequency. the ground state electrons of the gas
generated of the sample make a transition to higher level energy shells. The concentration
is determined by the amount of absorption. Absorption and concentration are related by
Beer-Lambert law which can be written as follows:

1
 A = εCl
where,
A : Absorbance
ε : Molar absorptivity of the solution
C : Concentration of the solution
l : Optical path length

Procedure:

Step 1: A beaker of capacity 1 litre was filled with 500 mL of DI water.

Step 2: 0.5 grams i.e. 500 mg of CuSO4 was then added to the beaker and mixed well.

Step 3: A magnetic bead was added to the solution and stirring was started.

Step 4: 2-3 drops of 10N H2 SO4 was added to the solution to prevent precipitation during
ion exchange.

Step 5: 1 mL of solution was collected in an eppendorf and was marked with time; t = 0.
To maintain constant volume of 500 mL, 1 mL of DI water was added to the solution.

Step 6: An Iron plate was then hanged inside the beaker such that the whole plate gets
immersed in the solution.

Step 7: 1 mL of solution was collected after an interval of every 15 mins. And to maintain
a constant volume of 500 mL, everytime 1 mL of DI water was added. The reaction was
continued for 90 mins.

Step 8: Atomic absorption spectroscopy was then done on the seven samples to determine
the concentration of Cu in them. The values were plotted against time. The data and the
plot has been presented below.
Data and Plot:

Time (mins) Concentration (mg/L) Absorbance

0 1.2673 0.041
15 1.1134 0.037
30 0.9595 0032
45 0.8463 0.029
60 0.7306 0.025
75 0.6632 0.023
Note: The data point for t=90 mins was not recorded due to error in operating system.

2
3
 Calculations:

From the curve of absorbance v/s concentration , it can be seen that the slope(m) is 0.03.

We know,

A = εCl
⇒ AC = m = 0.03
⇒ εl = 0.03

Results and Conclusions:

1. εl for the samples have a value of 0.03.

2. Decrease in the concentration of Copper verifies our claim that Copper is getting
reduced on Iron plate.

3. As it can be seen that the absorbance reduced to 0.023, it shows that the reaction isn’t
complete yet. In other words the solution still has some amount of CuSO4 in it.