Homemade Copper Carbonate
Bless the internet, because it turns out that by entering something like "making copper carbonate" into Google, you get a bunch of hits including YouTube videos with 12-year old kids explaining how you can make CuCO3 at home in a few easy steps. Thus continues my ongoing investigations into colouring clay and ceramic bodies with stuff around the house.
Step 1 in making Copper Carbonate involves making copper acetate (affectionately known as [Cu(OAc)2] to some, not me) because you need this stuff to make the carbonate later. It's as easy as mixing vinegar with hydrogen peroxide in a 1:1 ratio, dropping a piece of copper into it, and waiting. Within minutes, the liquid begins to turn blue, bubbles form, and hydrogen gas drifts out (you could actually see it like a smoke, although it was too faint to photograph). No smoking or lighting matches when you do this because hydrogen is flammable - I don't know how much hydrogen was produced, but I wasn't about to explode it and find out.
After an hour, the wire had lost all its copper colour, and the liquid turned to a deep blue. I left it for a few nights, in part to make sure the reaction was good and finished, but really because I wasn't ready to do the next part (turning the acetate to carbonate) anyway.
A few days later, once the colour had turned really deep blue, I did Step 2 of the process by adding sodium bicarbonate to the copper acetate. It bubbles up as lots of CO2 is released, and you stop once you can't add any more baking soda to the solution. I let it sit for 1-2 weeks, sometimes pouring off the water from the top, and letting the liquid evaporate away, until I was left with dry powder at the bottom.
From 300 ml each of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, and 83 g of copper wire, I got 34 g of beautiful blue copper carbonate. Ready to be experimented with in our next raku session.
Step 1 in making Copper Carbonate involves making copper acetate (affectionately known as [Cu(OAc)2] to some, not me) because you need this stuff to make the carbonate later. It's as easy as mixing vinegar with hydrogen peroxide in a 1:1 ratio, dropping a piece of copper into it, and waiting. Within minutes, the liquid begins to turn blue, bubbles form, and hydrogen gas drifts out (you could actually see it like a smoke, although it was too faint to photograph). No smoking or lighting matches when you do this because hydrogen is flammable - I don't know how much hydrogen was produced, but I wasn't about to explode it and find out.
After an hour, the wire had lost all its copper colour, and the liquid turned to a deep blue. I left it for a few nights, in part to make sure the reaction was good and finished, but really because I wasn't ready to do the next part (turning the acetate to carbonate) anyway.
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A few days later, once the colour had turned really deep blue, I did Step 2 of the process by adding sodium bicarbonate to the copper acetate. It bubbles up as lots of CO2 is released, and you stop once you can't add any more baking soda to the solution. I let it sit for 1-2 weeks, sometimes pouring off the water from the top, and letting the liquid evaporate away, until I was left with dry powder at the bottom.
From 300 ml each of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, and 83 g of copper wire, I got 34 g of beautiful blue copper carbonate. Ready to be experimented with in our next raku session.
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