Aim: My aim in this experiment is to extract a copper from an ore.
Introduction:
In the earth that we are living right now, copper is the earth's 25th most abundant element, but also one of the less common first row transition metals. It occurs as a soft reddish metal that can be found native as large boulders weighing several hundred tons or as sulphide ores.
An ore is a rock containing minerals in adequate concentration, amounts, and value to be mined at a profit. The definition of this ore changes as knowledge improves, today's ore being yesterday's valueless pile of rock.
I will now carry out an assessment to try change copper sulphate from malachite, which then can be converted in to copper.
Metal + oxygen > metal oxide
Apparatus and equipments:
* Safety glasses
* 10g of copper carbonate
* scales
* Measuring cylinder
* 250cm3 beaker
* Glass rod
* 1m sulphuric acid (H2SO4)
* Funnel
* Bunsen burner
* Tripod
* Gauze
* Evaporating basin
* Filter paper
* Watch glass
Method:
Making copper sulphate from a malachite.
Malachite is an ore of copper. In this task you will convert malachite to copper sulphate.
. Measure out about 50 cm3 of dilute sulphuric acid using a measuring cylinder. Pour the dilute sulphuric acid into a 250 cm3 beaker
2. Weigh out about 10 g of malachite. Write down the exact mass on Form 2.
3. Add a small amount of the malachite to the dilute sulphuric acid. Add the malachite very slowly.
4. The mixture will fizz as the malachite reacts with the dilute sulphuric acid. Stir the mixture with a glass rod until all signs of reaction have stopped.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the mixture no longer fizzes when you add malachite to the dilute sulphuric acid.
6. Filter the solution into a clean evaporating basin. While this is filtering, weigh what remains of the malachite. Write down this mass on Form 2.
7. Place the evaporating basin on wire gauze on a tripod.
8. Heat the solution very gently using a low Bunsen burner flame until crystals begin to form on the surface of the liquid. If the liquid goes green add drops of dilute sulphuric acid until it goes blue.
9. Stop heating. Allow the solution to cool. When the solution is cool, move the basin to a warm place. This will complete the crystallization of the copper sulphate. This may take a few days!
0. After a few days, pour any liquid from the copper sulphate crystals and transfer them to a dry evaporating basin of watch-glass.
1. Allow the copper sulphate crystals to dry for at least 24 hours.
2. Weigh the copper sulphate crystals. Write down the mass on Form 2.
3. Store the copper sulphate crystals in a stoppered container. ...
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9. Stop heating. Allow the solution to cool. When the solution is cool, move the basin to a warm place. This will complete the crystallization of the copper sulphate. This may take a few days!
0. After a few days, pour any liquid from the copper sulphate crystals and transfer them to a dry evaporating basin of watch-glass.
1. Allow the copper sulphate crystals to dry for at least 24 hours.
2. Weigh the copper sulphate crystals. Write down the mass on Form 2.
3. Store the copper sulphate crystals in a stoppered container. Label the container with your name and the name of the contents.
Extracting copper from copper sulphate crystals
. Measure out about 50 cm3 of distilled water using a measuring cylinder. Pour the distilled water into a 250 cm3 beaker.
2. Weigh out about 5 g of the copper sulphate crystals you made in Task write down the exact mass on Form 3.
3. Add the copper sulphate crystals to the distilled water. Stir the mixture with a glass rod until all the copper sulphate dissolved. The solution should now be coloured blue.
4. Weigh out about 2 g of zinc filings of zinc powder.
5. Add the zinc to the copper sulphate solution. Stir the mixture. You will see solid copper forming.
6. After 5 minutes, allow the solid to settle. Then pour off as much of the colourless liquid as you can without losing the solid.
7. Carefully add about 50 cm3 of dilute hydrochloric acid. This will dissolve any unused zinc.
8. When the mixture no longer fizzes, filter off the copper and wash it with distilled water.
9. Now allow the copper you have produced. Write down the mass on Form 3. Store the copper in a stoppered container. Label the container with your name and the name of the contents.
Risk assessment
Material
Hazard
What could go wrong?
Safety precautions
What to do in case of accident
Risk:/medium/high
Dilute sulphuric acid (1 mol dm-3)
Very corrosive
May burn you
Wear eye protection and gloves.
Drink 2 glasses of water and wash your mouth
Low
Dilute hydrochloric acid (2 mol dm-3)
Corrosive
May cause you burns
Wear eye protection and gloves.
Wash out the mouth and drink 2 glass of water. Seek medical attention
Very low
Malachite (powdered)
Harmful
You could swallow it. Irritate lungs and eye
Wear eye protection and wear a lad coat.
Wash out mouth and drink 2 a glass of water. Seek medical attention.
Very low
Copper sulphate
Harmful
You may get it on you skin, you may get
Wear eye protection; wear a lab coat and gloves.
Vomit it out, wash out your mouth, drink two glasses of water and seek medical attention.
Low
Zinc filings
Flammable
You could swallow it. It could spill on your skin and get in your eye.
Wear eye protection.
Flood the eye with gently running tap water for 10 minutes.
Low
Procedure
Transferring liquids
No hazard
It could slip and get on your skin
Wear gloves
Wash your hand with cold water and seek medical attention
Low
Heating solutions
It could be very hot
It could slip and get on your skin
Wear gloves
Wash your hand with cold water and seek
Low
Filtration
Spilt
It could get on your skin
Wear gloves and lab coat
Take of your lab coat. Wash your hand
Low
Disposing of used solutions
No hazard
It could drop on you.
Wear lab coat
Take of your lab coat
Low
Results
Calculating the yield of copper sulphate crystals
Each mole of malachite, CuCo3.Cu (OH)2 produces two moles of copper sulphate 2 CuSO4.5H2O.
From this, I can now calculate the relative mass of malachite:
Atom
Relative mass
Number of atoms present
Total mass
Cu
64
2
28
C
2
2
O
6
5
80
H
2
2
Relative mass = 222gmol-1
The formula for copper sulphate is CuSO4.5H2O
Atom
Relative mass
Number of atoms present
Total mass
Cu
64
64
C
2
32
O
6
9
44
H
0
0
Relative mass = 250gmol-1
Calculating the yield of copper sulphate by carrying out this calculation:
Theoretical yield of
2 x 250 x 6.4
Copper sulphate = 220
2 x 250 x 6.4
= 22
= 14.54g
Calculate your percentage yield:
Mass of copper sulphate produced
Percentage yield = x 100
Theoretical yield
10.3
= x 100
14.41
= 71.48%
Today's Uses of Copper
Copper is a critical component of modern industry. In the United States, the most important use of copper is in electrical wiring. A breakdown below gives the percentage of copper used in the United States by industry:
Building Wire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16%
Plumbing & Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11%
Electric Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9%
Air Conditioning & Commercial Refrigeration. . . . . . .8%
Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7%
Factory Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6%
Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6%
Appliances & Extension Cords . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3%
Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
TOTAL-----------------------------------------------> 100%
Copper sheets are used in cooking utensils and in roofs. Copper tubes are used to make pipes for plumbing and carrying natural gas. Copper wire is used to carry electric current. Extruded copper, that is, copper that has been squeezed through a hole, forms rods, hinges, tubes, and door handles.
The use of copper is increasing. In the 1970s, a 1,500 square-foot house used about 280 pounds of copper. Today, a 2,200 square-foot house uses about 450 pounds of copper.
A car in the 1970s used about 35 pounds of copper. Now, 50 to 80 pounds of copper will go into one automobile.
A Boeing 727 airplane uses 9,000 pounds of copper.
Where Copper Is Mined?
The following countries are the world's major producers of copper
(amount produced is 1995 output, given in tons, from the 1995 Mineral Commodity Summary)
Chile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,350,000
United States of America. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,890,000
Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740,000
Russia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600,000
Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380,000
Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420,000
Peru. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350,000
Zambia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350,000
Poland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340,000
Kazakstan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220,000
Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115,000
Zaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40,000
Other Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600,000
WORLD TOTAL-------------------------------------> 9,800,000
Conclusions: In the experiment that we done, we used chemicals to extract copper from malachite. We found out that what is contained within the malachite is the element copper and that also zinc displaces copper from the sulphate ion.
Cu SO4 (clear blue) + Zn > Zn (clear colourless) SO4 + Cu
Evaluation: The parts of the experiment that went well were the weighing and scaling the dilute sulphuric acid and malachite. The difficult part in the experiment was when i had to pour the malachite into the sulphuric acid so I don't have any left at the bottom and when heat the solution very gently using a Bunsen burner flame until the crystals begin to form on the surface and if the liquid goes green I had to try and make it blue. I could have repeat out results which might change the colour of our copper. The thing that affected our results was putting too much of the malachite into the sulphuric acid and I will stop this from happening next time by stopping when it turns blue. I don't know of any other equipment that would have repeated my result. What I have done here is very little compare to the industrial place. They use machines to make it which would come out better. The similarities in the experiment would be that we both we will be making copper and using the same equipment e.g. malachite, sulphuric acid etc but the differences will be that they use a machine to make the copper in the industrial process but I would be using my hand in school.
Abbas maqsood Copper Science coursework
