Hey guys. I was doing an experiment in which I made some copper acetate. I took copper sulfate and had it react with sodium hydroxide to make copper hydroxide and had that react with acetic acid to make copper acetate. Now I have a few questions. When I added the copper hydroxide to the acetic acid, the solution turned black.
Copper is way less reactive than hydrogen and as a result little or no reaction will ensue while copper is uncovered to acetic acid or vinegar (it particularly is an extremely, very dilute variety of acetic acid <5% by using quantity. to acquire a reaction of coppere with vinegar, the reaction of copper carbonate with vinegar will ensue at room temperature. an option is to function copper oxide to the vinegar and warmth it, this could have the comparable influence.
I guess you added the copper hydroxide to hot ethanoic acid...if so the black solid was probably copper(II) oxide. When making a salt by this method you should always add excess solid to ensure there is no remaining acid, then filter off the excess when reaction is complete. This ensures the salt formed will be in a simple aqueous solution. Allow this solution to deposit crystals by standing in a warm environment for a few days - then remove, rinse and dry the crystals. Copper ethanoate is not very soluble so it should crystallise out quite quickly. If you heat too rapidly you could get a mixture of the dihydrate and the anhydrous compound: they would have differing appearances. P.S. Copper(II) ethanoate has an interesting, 'dimeric', structure, a bit like that of chromium(II) ethanoate that used to feature at A-Level in the UK.
