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Potash
Potash
Introduction
Fire has been quite useful to us, both for the production of warmth and for the
conversion of materials from one form to another (e.g. clay to pottery). Even the ashes
left over from the fire turn out to have useful properties. Early people discovered that
wood ashes could be used for cleaning. This may seem counterintuitive to us, since we
usually associate ashes with dirt. But wood ashes are not simply dirt. The major
components of wood ashes are potassium carbonate (potash) and sodium carbonate
(soda ash). From a chemical standpoint these two compounds are very similar. So
similar that while ashes have been used for millennia the difference between sodium and
potassium carbonate was only recognized in the 19th century. The elements in the first
column of the Peridic Table, containing sodium and potassium, are called the alkali
metals.
Potash was man's first base. A base is a material which removes hydrogen ions (H+)
from aqueous solution. We also refer to such a material as an alkali. Alkali's have a bitter
taste an a slighltly soapy feel when rubbed in the fingers. The isolation of alkali is the
precursor to making true soap.
Even today potassium and sodium carbonate remain extremely important chemicals.
U.S. Production of sodium carbonate alone was 9 billion kg making it the 11th most-
produced chemical in the U.S.
pH
It is useful to be able to quantify acidity. Scientists use the pH scale to do this. pH (pee
Aych) is defined as the negative of the common logarithm of the hydrogen ion
concentration. In mathematics, the common log is used to count the order of magnitude
of a number, i.e. to count the number of zeros. For example, in pure water, the
H+ concentration is 0.0000001 moles/L. There are seven zeros in this number, and the
pH is 7.
The flip side of this specification is the OH- concentration and the negative of the
common log of this concentration is called pOH (pee Oh Aych). Because water can
ionize into H+ and OH-, it turns out that pH + pOH = 14. In an acidic solution there are
lots of H+ ions floating around but not very many OH- ions, and the pH is low. In a
neutral solution, there are equal numbers of H+ and OH- ions and the pH is 7. And in an
alkaline solution, there are few H+ ions, lots of OH- ions, and the pH is high. Of course,
the concentration of the ions depends on the concentration of the solution. So to make a
fair comparison, we should compare solutions with the same total concentration. Here
are the pH and pOH values for several solutions with a concentration of 1% (i.e. 1 gram
of compound in 100 grams of solution):
One of the most convenient ways to measure pH is with an indicator. An indicator is a
substance which changes color when the pH changes. There are many indicators. You
may have noticed, for example, that tea turns from dark brown to tan when lemon juice
(an acid) is added. We will use test paper which changes from blue (alkaline) to green to
yellow (neutral) to orange to red (acidic).
Wood Ashes
Whatever we extract from wood ashes must be there to begin with. Wood ashes are a
complex heterogeneous mixture of all the non-flammable, non-volatile minerals which
remain after the wood and charcoal have burned away. Because of the presence of
carbon dioxide in the fire gases, many of these minerals will have been converted to
carbonates. Burned soil may also be present. So the ashes probably contain
predominately sodium and potassium carbonate, sodium and potassium chloride, silica,
and calcium carbonate.
If we add the ashes to water, the soluble potassium and sodium salts will dissolve while
the insoluble silica and calcium carbonate will settle to the bottom. We can then drain off
the water (containing the "good stuff") and throw the insoluble material away. To
separate the chlorides from the soluble carbonates, we will exploit the greater solubility
of the carbonates in hot water. We will bring the liquid to a boil and continue boiling
until enough water boils away for an insoluble precipitate to form. This is very likely a
mixture of sodium and potassium chloride. From this point, we will continue boiling
until half of the remaining water is removed. At this point we can be reasonably certain
that only the soluble carbonates remain in solution. We will carefully pour off the hot
liquid into another container, leaving the solid material behind. As the liquid cools to
room temperature, the less soluble sodium carbonate will precipitate leaving the more
soluble potassium carbonate in solution. Finally, the remaining solution can be drained
off and boiled to dryness, producing solid potassium carbonate.
One of the observations you make should be that it takes a lot of wood to make a little
ash and a lot of ash to make a little potash. Thus, while it is not particularly difficult to
extract potash from wood, you will go through an enormous amount of wood to produce
commercial amounts (pounds and tons) of potash. This will have implications for us
later in the semester.
Potash Quiz
The potash quiz consist of three questions on any of the following topics discussed in
this page.
•Know what species are present in a potash solution (Eqns I-V).
•Know which of these species are acidic and which are alkaline.
•Know the chemical names and formulas for potash and soda ash.
•Know how soluble compounds are deposited geologically.
•Know how recrystallization can be used to purify compounds.
•Know how the pH scale is used to quantify acidity and alkalinity.
•Know the difference between baking soda and washing soda.
•Take a practice quiz online.
Instructions
Our goal is to extract as much of the soluble carbonates from wood ashes as possible
while leaving behind the insoluble components. You will need a couple of handsful of
wood ashes, some water, our old friend, the 2 L soft drink bottle, and a pottery bowl,
non-aluminum saucepan, or glass beaker. The first container (2 L bottle) need only hold
water. We use the soft drink bottle for convenience. The second container needs to be
fire and water proof. If we were going for historical accuracy, we would use pottery. But
any pan or beaker that can be used on a stove will work. Do not use an aluminum
pot. Aluminum reacts with strong bases and your project will be ruined.
Place your wood ashes into the 2 L bottle until it is about 1/3 full of ashes. Fill the rest of
the bottle with hot water, place the cap on the bottle and shake it up. The soluble
carbonates (as well as any other soluble materials) will dissolve while the insoluble
silicates, carbonates, aluminosilicates, and any other insoluble materials will settle to the
bottom. Any charcoal present will float to the top. Place the bottle where it will not be
disturbed and let it sit overnight.
The next day you should find that the sediment has settled to the bottom, the charcoal is
floating on the top, and the water in between is clean and clear. Remove the cap and give
the bottle a gentle squeeze to force the charcoal up and out of the bottle.
Then carefully pour about 1 L of the clear water into a pan or beaker. Stop pouring
before any of the stirred-up sediment reaches the mouth of the bottle. What you should
have now is a pan with about 1 L of what looks like clear water. If you taste it and it
tastes a little bitter or soapy, you are on the right track.
Place the pan onto the stove or hotplate and place a spoon or glass rod into it to prevent
superheating (which can lead to splattering). Bring the water to a boil and continue
boiling until all the water has evaporated. A little bit of scale or fine grey powder will
remain in the pan. Let it cool and then scrape it into a container. This is your product. It
contains all of the soluble materials which were present in the the ashes to begin with.
This could include sodium and potassium chlorides, sulfates, hydroxides, and
carbonates. Of these, only the hydroxides and carbonates are basic. I will test your
product with pH test paper to determine whether it is alkaline.
If you were interested in further purifying your product, you could recrystalize it again.
This time you would start with your crude product (instead of ashes), dissolve it in
water, boil it until it was almost dry, and filter it while hot to remove any materials less
soluble than the carbonates. You would then allow it to cool and the carbonates would
precipitate out leaving anything more soluble still in solution. By repeated application of
this procedure, you could even separate sodium carbonate from potassium carbonate.
But for our purposes, you crude potash should be alkaline enough. To test it for yourself,
just taste it. It should taste bitter, like soap.