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experiment question


budullewraagh

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today i got really bored while studying for the math regents. i decided that it's about time i made a bit of sodium citrate (Na3C3H5O7) and extracted it from solution. hey, who doesn't want an anti-clotting agent around the house? could save your life, ya know. well, i did the simple reaction and boiled off all the H2O. unfortuantely, i was left with a black solid stuck to my pan. that wasn't cool. i figured that i had burned my Na3C3H5O7. i found this solid to be useless so i added a small amount of H2O and found it to be extremely soluble. now i have a small bottle filled with a black solution. anybody know what that solute is?

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now i have a small bottle filled with a black solution

Are you sure it isn't a black mixture and not a solution?

Most things that give you color in solution are transition metals...Cu, Ni, Fe, Cr and the like.

 

Let the bottle sit for a couple hours or days and see if the black stuff settles.

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sounds like you burned (carbonized) it, but not fully to just black C.

I think it sounds like a good idea to let it settle over a few days.

 

I think what you did is similar to slightly burning sauce in a pan. There is no one solute, but most likely a mixture of different sized carbon particles. They could be so small as to stay in solution though (colloid).

 

All just guessing.

Run a TLC :)

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bah.

a tlc? i'm not familiar.

 

also, do you think that the same process would work if i heated H2O to 90 degrees celcius, added as much of both reactants as possible, check the pH, make sure it's approx 7 and then heat to boil off the H2O?

the catch is that i won't wait for all the H2O to boil off; rather i will take out some of the H2O and cool it. this way i won't get nearly as much product but hey, at least it won't be burnt. sound good?

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the pH is 7, which is good. i cooled it but nothing came out of solution. now i'm filtering it to get rid of any pulp. yeah, i'm cool; i get my C3H8O7 from lemons:\

i can see some crystals in the mixture but they're few and far between and they aren't settling nicely. i'll check tomorrow morning; hopefully the filtration will be done and the crystals will settle.

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congrats, you`ve just made PH ballanced Gravy browning, aka (Caramel) :)

 

the problem is that there`s no water in that formula you gave, just as there`s no water in sucrose (sugar for your coffee) C12H22O11 well there H22 and O11 in there and at the same ratio as water, but it`s not water unless you destroy the molecule (heating in this instance) leaving you with carbon and steam.

next time use a thermometer and don`t let it go above 100c.

sorry dude, you totaly ruined your anti-coagulant :(

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oh boy, caramel!

 

no H2O? i mentioned an acid which implies it is aqueous. it was a wet experiment, that is certain. where is the sucrose in the first place? also, i didn't let it go above 100 celcius according to my thermometer; rather i got it to a steady 98 but it boiled anyway. i know there is sodium citrate in there; when i filtered it, i found a white powder suspension...call that sucrose if you wish, i still dont know where you got that. either way, it must've been produced because NaHCO3 definately reacts with C3H8O7 to form Na3C3H5O7.

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