PRECIPITATION EXPERIMENT
EXPERIMENT – WILL IT PRECIPITATE?
AIM: To observe precipitations and write equations to represent them.
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED PER GROUP: 5 test–tubes and test–tube rack, safety glasses, distilled
water, dropping bottles of the following solutions – copper sulfate (CuSO 4), sodium chloride (NaCl),
silver nitrate (AgNO3), cobalt chloride (CoCl2), sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium iodide
(KI).
METHOD:
Place 10 drops of copper sulfate solution in each test tube. Place 10 drops of sodium chloride in
the first test tube. 10 drops of silver nitrate to the second, 10 drops of cobalt chloride to the third,
10 drops of sodium hydroxide to the fourth and 10 drops of potassium iodide to the fifth test – tube.
If there is a reaction, then record your observations in a table.
Tip the residues into a waste bottle. Wash out the test tubes thoroughly with distilled water and this
time place ten drops of sodium chloride in each of the test – tubes. Again add one of the other
solutions to each of the test tubes (but not copper sulfate as this combination has already been
tested. Record your observations in a table. Write ‘precipitate’ of ‘no precipitate’. Give the colour of
any precipitate that forms. Repeat until all possible pairs of solutions have been tested.
RESULTS:
Table One – testing of copper sulfate solution
NaCl AgNO3 CoCl2 NaOH KI
CuSO4 No precipitate precipitate No precipitate precipitate Precipitate
(does not
follow
solubility
rules)
Table Two – testing of sodium chloride solution (CuSO 4 with NaCl already done)
AgNO3 CoCl2 NaOH KI
NaCl precipitate No precipitate No precipitate No precipitate
Table Three – testing of silver nitrate solution (AgNO3 with CuSO4 and NaCl already done)
CoCl2 NaOH KI
AgNO3 precipitate precipitate precipitate
PRECIPITATION EXPERIMENT
Table Four – testing of cobalt chloride solution (CoCl 2 with CuSO4, NaCl and AgNO3 already
done)
NaOH KI
CoCl2 precipitate No precipitate
Table Five – testing of sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH with CuSO 4, NaCl, AgNO3 and
CoCl2 already done)
KI
NaOH No precipitate
QUESTIONS
1. Use the solubility table and write word equations for each of the pairs that reacted to form a
precipitate.
Copper(II) sulfate (aq) + silver nitrate (aq) Copper(II) nitrate (aq) + silver sulfate (s)
Copper(II) sulfate (aq) + sodium hydroxide (aq) Copper(II) hydroxide (s) + sodium sulfate (aq)
Sodium chloride (aq) + silver nitrate (aq) Sodium nitrate (aq) + silver chloride (s)
Silver nitrate (aq) + copper(II) chloride (aq) silver chloride (s) + copper(II) nitrate (aq)
Silver nitrate (aq) + sodium hydroxide (aq) silver hydroxide (s) + sodium nitrate (aq)
Silver nitrate (aq) + potassium iodide (aq) silver iodide (s) + potassium nitrate (aq)
Copper(II) chloride (aq) + sodium hydroxide (aq) copper(II) hydroxide (s) + sodium chloride (aq)
2. Use formulae to write balanced ionic equations for each of the pairs that reacted to form a
precipitate.
Cu2+ (aq) + 2 OH- (aq) Cu(OH)2 (s)
Ag+ (aq) + Cl- (aq) AgCl (s)
Ag+ (aq) + Cl- (aq) AgCl (s)
Ag+ (aq) + OH- (aq) AgOH (s)
Ag+ (aq) + I- (aq) AgI (s)
Cu2+ (aq) + 2 OH- (aq) Cu(OH)2 (s)
In an ionic equation we do not account for diatomic molecules
PRECIPITATION EXPERIMENT
3. The table below gives the solubilities of various ionic compounds. The lower the solubility, the
more likely it is that the substance will form a precipitate. Silver chloride, which has a solubility of
0.0002 g/100 mL, is virtually insoluble and forms a precipitate, whereas magnesium nitrate, which
has a solubility of 70g/100 mL, is very soluble and would not form a precipitate.
(a) What is the solubility of lead nitrate and magnesium carbonate?
55 and 0.01
(b) Which of the compounds in the table is the most soluble in water? Which is the least soluble?
Silver nitrate is the most soluble in water, silver iodide in the least soluble in water
(c) Which group of compounds is the most soluble – the carbonates, chlorides, iodides, nitrates or
sulfates?
The nitrates
(d) Which metal – lead, magnesium or silver – forms the most soluble compounds?
magnesium
(e) Use the table to predict what will happen when you mix the following:
Lead nitrate and magnesium sulfate:
A precipitate of lead sulfate would form
Silver nitrate and magnesium iodide:
A precipitate of silver iodide would form
Magnesium chloride and sodium carbonate:
A precipitate of magnesium carbonate would form
(f) Which compounds would you need to mix to form a precipitate of silver chloride?
Sodium chloride and silver nitrate
PRECIPITATION EXPERIMENT
4. Lead nitrate and potassium iodide will not react unless they are dissolved in water. Try to explain
this.
Lead nitrate and potassium iodide by itself exists as a solid state. The lead and nitrate are bonded
together as well as the potassium and iodide. However when these separate compounds are
dissolved in water, the ions that allowed the molecules to bond together are disassociated and so
they break apart and are free to move within the water. These now separate ions can bond with
other ions of opposite charge to form new compounds; in this case it is lead iodide and potassium
nitrate.
5. You want to make some copper carbonate which is an insoluble solid. What two solutions could
you mix to do this?
Sodium carbonate and copper chloride
