When we did a lab in chemistry class, we took 6.95 g Copper (ll) Sulfate and added 85.11 g of water, then heated the solution up for about 2 minutes. We then took it off the heat and added 10 g of iron filings. We then let the mixture sit over night and we came back to it the next day when we had class. We filtered out the liquid, and we were left with the solids, which should have been copper and iron. But when we took the magnet to the solids, there was iron and only iron, no copper whatsoever on the filter paper or even on the iron filings like there should have been. What happened to the copper? did the reaction not take place?Please list any sources if you have any, so I can continue my research :)
Check the color of the solution containing copper (II) sulfate. Is it still bluish? If it is, then there might have been no reaction. If there had been reaction, the solution would turn less bluish or completely colorless. Was the iron filings used still fresh? (Was it taken from a very old stock of iron filings?) If it is not, maybe the iron filings has already been oxidized. The oxide will not react with copper sulfate unless the solution is acidic. Or maybe, the reaction was incomplete so there was still iron filings left, mixed along with the copper metal when the solution was filtered. Check if there is some reddish-brown specks or particles in the filtered solid, it might be copper.
