Make Copper Metal from Copper Sulfate

[@jhyland87]

I found out about the decomposition of basic copper carbonate by mistake (I guess you could say I learned about it _"the hard way"_ ). I was making some _basic copper carbonate_ following the instructions from _Doug's Lab_ and _NileRed._ I thought I would heat up the drying of the powder, so I put it on a hot plate on a low setting, but I didn't stir it up very often. I would eventually see little black flakes inside the nice light blue powder, and would blame it on the impurity of the copper sulfate or sodium carbonate. So I would recrystallize the copper sulfate before using it again, and get some more pure carbonate..... and it happened again. Eventually, when I took the time to research the reaction (like I should have done), I saw that the basic copper carbonate breaks down to copper oxide with enough heat... *A month in the laboratory can often save an hour in the library* - Very true... lol.

[@SodiumInteresting]

What a great saying 🤣

[@jhyland87]

@Thomas Asche I'm pretty sure I have it the wrong way around, but I'm leaving it. Lol

[@Lunas2525]

the reason you did not get a puddle of copper is you never got it to the melting point you need a much hotter fire with forced air to get it that hot...

[@mrhomescientist]

Poor mixing of reactants too. This was one of my earlier videos and I'd like to revisit it now that I have a furnace capable of reaching that temperature.

[@i-love-comountains3850]

+mrhomescientist could one simply use a propane torch for a small batch?

[@Lunas2525]

I-Love-CO Mountains it might have helped but I doubt he would have reached coppers melting point as that would need to be the goal.

[@markselten4985]

Map gas could do a small batch if he insulated a small crucible dish with some Besser block's. I've melted native copper this way.

[@lanehaden3457]

A much easier way to obtain copper metal from the sulfate is to mix up a solution of CuSO4 and NaCl and then add aluminum. The Cl- ions attack the oxide layer on the aluminum and allow the Cu+ ions in solution to be replaced by much more reactive Al+ ions. A spongy copper precipitate is formed on the surface of the aluminum and you are left with a mixture of NaCl, NaSO4, and Na2[AlOH], all of which are water soluble. You can then filter the precipitate and dry it to obtain pure copper powder. Hope that helped!

Now that, but without a mess of soluble stuff that you can't separate from eachother without another process that's most likely gonna produce some more stuff you can't separate from eachother without ... etc.

[@muhammadadnan4475]

Lane Haden thanks for this. Can we do it by just dissolving copper sulfate in water instead of NaCl to get copper?

[@endeeray4295]

Is that like a sheet of aluminium foil?

[@karlemilobelsanvig487]

@@muhammadadnan4475NaCl is regular table salt, they meant desolve it in salt water

[@mrhomescientist]

It's called a charcoal chimney, used for lighting grills without lighter fluid. They work really well, and I got mine from Home Depot.

[@IlluminatedWhiteGuy]

You would need a small crucible and a map gas torch to heat it high enough to produce molten copper. A larger charcoal fire with a shop vac blowing air on it from the bottom of a thick steel cylinder will also make more then enough heat.

[@mrhomescientist]

What do you mean? Sulfuric acid would not react with copper sulfate. If you're talking about finding concentration, you could take a sample of your solution and add aluminum to it to precipitate the copper, then weigh it and from there calculate the copper sulfate content. Or evaporate your sample to dryness and weigh the copper sulfate crystals to find a g/mL concentration value.

[@mrhomescientist]

@megamarko94 Great question! Since CuCO3 is insoluble in water, it's very hard to rinse out. To remove it, I reacted it with hydrochloric acid: 2HCl + CuCO3 = CuCl2 + CO2 + H2O. Copper(II) chloride is soluble in water, and much easier to clean out. Interestingly, this reaction is very endothermic - it actually froze the water in the flask when I did it! Might be worth making a video about that.

[@IcePhixia2000]

you can easily get the copper out with electrolysis

[@omsingharjit]

You mean, by electrolyzing cupper bi carbonate ?

[@mateuszbilicki8472]

@@omsingharjit Copper sulfate. Insoluble salt cannot be electrolyzed because you will reduce water (2H + + 2e- ---> H2) instead of copper ions :)

[@omsingharjit]

@@mateuszbilicki8472 but copper sulfate is solvable..

[@quigzinator]

you should try this again with your crucible, that might be an improvement from the charcoal. also did your root killer leave any impurities in the finished product?

[@mrhomescientist]

I imagine the first person to figure it out was a scientist during the time when mixing things randomly actually yielded useful knowledge :) Very dangerous though, especially now that we have resources like the internet. The equation for this reaction is in the description - it's driven mainly by copper carbonate being very insoluble, which drops out of solution and drives the reaction to the right. The escaping CO2 also helps drive the reaction forward.

[@mrhomescientist]

Carbon is very different as an element than when it is bound in a compound. Same goes for sulfur in sulfate. Check the description for the reaction equations. Adding carbon is necessary for the reaction to happen - the carbon atom in CO3(2-) needs help to break out and leave as CO2 gas, and the elemental C (and heat) provides that by forming CO as an intermediate.

[@mrhomescientist]

It actually took me a while to track down, I found it for $15 at a do-it-yourself pest control store. Now I've seen it for cheaper at hardware stores, sold as root killer for plumbing pipes.

[@mrhomescientist]

@TheRyanatkinson Yes that also works. There's many ways to reduce CuSO4 to the metal, this is just a more involved one that I thought would be neat to try.

[@mrhomescientist]

Definitely. This was done when I was relatively new to chemistry, and that's one of the things I would change if I tried this experiment again.

[@mrhomescientist]

@00doowi Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video. Copper chemistry is a lot of fun, there's so many different colors you can get with it!

[@zaxout1]

I was fairly impressed. Thats quite a bit of mass lost in just carbon. However I find the reaction between the copper sulfate and aluminum to be much more interesting and quite more fruitful with its yield in copper metal as well.

[@mrtumnis3]

Hey had a little read! Thanks for the reply, I'm going to start with a few crystal making experiments see how it goes, thanks again mate

[@mrhomescientist]

It stays in solution, while the CuCO3 precipitates and the CO2 bubbles off.

[@mrhomescientist]

Yeah powdering everything is one of the improvements I definitely could have done. Carbon rods may not be the best source, though, because they typically use clay binders to get the rod to hold together, so you'd have some impurities. Fish tank filter carbon is pretty pure.

[@mrhomescientist]

That would be exceptionally difficult - look up the "reactivity series" of metals, and you'll see that Mg is pretty high up. Only metals higher than it on the series can displace it from its compounds, so you would need something like calcium or sodium metal which can be tough to get a hold of. You can find magnesium fire starters in sporting goods stores, if you're just looking for the metal.

[@xenomancer1]

I believe you forgot to include the crystal hydration mass in your calculations. Copper sulfate is typically the pentahydrate and copper carbonate is a dihydrate if I recall correctly. Dehydrated copper compounds are white. Also, most root killer mixtures are ~98% copper sulfate with copper chloride making up most of the remaining 2%.

[@dom214]

The melting point of copper is over 1,000 degrees Celsius, which may have contributed to the lack of a solid lump of copper as product.

[@mrhomescientist]

I'd probably be left with copper carbonate again. I imagine the heat of burning off the C would allow the copper to react quickly with the CO2 released, especially because it is a dust with high surface area.

[@KowboyUSA]

Pet stores and stores that sell fish and aquarium supplies sell activated carbon for filter use. It's fairly inexpensive and quite pure.

[@mrhomescientist]

Copper isn't all that reactive. Once it's made into the metal, it slowly oxidizes to the basic carbonate (which is why the statue of liberty is green). If it was going to go to an oxide for any reason, I think it's more likely to be CuO.

[@luisff7030]

another away to do it is: Put an aluminium foil in the copper sulfate solution. The reaction take some days. The blue color dissaper, the solution turns transparent(like water). After all blue disappear, separate the copper metal crystals and clean with distilled water.

[@meganubis]

to imporove your "furnace" add a tube with a blow dryer on the end. so yea it will increase the temp to make it molten

[@mrhomescientist]

Carbon monoxide is the key - that's probably the main reason why this reaction didn't work too well. My pan had no lid, so much of the CO escaped and could not react with the copper carbonate.

[@peonatre]

the first double displacement reaction looks like this: 2NaHCO3 + CuSO4 => Na2SO4 + CuCO3 + CO2 + H2O the sodium pairs with the sulfate ion into sodium sulfate. sodium sulfate stays in solution and the copper carbonate is precipitated out. The second reaction looks like this: 2CuCO3 + C => 2Cu + 3CO2 with out added carbon not all the carbonate would decompose.

[@TheJtbmetaldesigns]

Higher temps are needed for sure. And for the record, when you reduce a metal carbonate with carbon, you get a mix of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

[@lightvsdark21]

After you get the CuCO3 add HCl (muriatic acid from home depot) to make CuCl2 then drop in some Al wire or strips and the Cu will be displaced by the Al and you can just scrape it off the strips at the end. Higher yield and less work and time...

[@mrhomescientist]

@100alexdel See the description. It stays in solution as sodium sulfate.

[@mrhomescientist]

Definitely - the best one for CO2 is to pass the gas through lime water. If it turns cloudy, the test is positive. I've been meaning to make a video on gas tests, eventually.

[@buddyclatone9632]

You could just electrolyze your copper sulfate solution. 12 volts at about ten amps will cause the copper to form in large spongey blobs instead of plating. After you filter it off and rinse and dry it, it becomes a very very fine dust. As a bonus, the water is now sulfuric acid. I reuse the "water" till the copper sulfate is no longer soluble in it. Then I boil it down to concentrate it.

[@thaibu]

in this reaction copper carbonate is decomposed to CO2 and copper oxide CuO the carbon (graphite) is used to reduce that copper oxide to copper and making even more CO2... It is better if you heat this covered so no air can enter. The alternative method is to burn (CuSO4~5H2O) and sugar together in an airtight.

[@ClownWhisper]

you can dry the copper (ii) carbonate and heat it until it reaches its oxide state and turns black. I store a lot of this as you can then take it to copper chloride with no fuss with oxidizers. its a great way to prepare copper chloride

[@mrhomescientist]

+Clown Whisper Just hydrochloric acid is all you'd need to make CuCl2 from CuO - no oxidizers needed!

[@mrhomescientist]

+Clown Whisper Also you could make it directly from the carbonate also using only HCl, with release of CO2.

[@ClownWhisper]

+mrhomescientist I know that's exactly what I meant rather than messing with the concentrated hydrogen peroxide and HCl HCl bring it straight into copper chloride. that was my whole point lol

[@mrhomescientist]

+Clown Whisper You said "with oxidizers". No oxidizers necessary, just straight HCl.

[@ClownWhisper]

+mrhomescientist yeah that was unfortunate wording the whole point was that rather than going to the whole class of making copper chloride oxidizing the copper so the HCL can work just go straight to the copper to carbonate and instantly convert it it actually takes less time

[@mrhomescientist]

It is. Technically, copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate.

[@jimkessler7588]

I am guessing your furnace not hot enough........ other than that ... looks spot on....

[@mrhomescientist]

@thefournerds Ah thank you very much! I searched for that for a while but never found it. I'll update the description with the correct formula. Much appreciated!

[@peonatre]

copper chloride and copper nitrate will both go through a double displacement reaction with sodium bicarbonate yielding copper bicarbonate. reason is because Na is more reactive than copper in all compounds. chlorides and nitrates are more reactive than (bi)carbonate series compounds. With this you can skip the extra steps. knowledge of double displacement reactions helps in saving steps and money on extra reagents.

[@AhmadAli-jy1xd]

I don't have filter paper so can I use tissue instead ??

[@nunyabisnass1141]

So, doug, do you ever revisit your old channel?

[@mrhomescientist]

@mcwario13 I actually stand corrected on this! Myst32YT just posted a video on making calcium carbide at home, using direct combination of the elements and a propane torch. It's only a small amount, but shows it can be done much easier than I had thought.

[@mrhomescientist]

I actually did look into doing that, using a much simpler method (Al foil to reduce the copper sulfate solution). Turns out, with my sources for CuSO4 and Al, it doesn't make a profit unfortunately. If you can find a good source for bulk copper sulfate and aluminum for very cheap, it might end up being worthwhile.

[@mrhomescientist]

Yes there are lots of easy ways to get copper from copper sulfate, most other metals will displace it. I just thought this was a neat method and wanted to try it. Pretty unsuccessful, so I'd like to remake this video sometime with an improved method.

[@nikola96uf]

You can make copper metal by reaction of aques CuSO4 and aluminium foil. Reaction takes serval days, but you get very pure copper metal and you can wash it with hydrochloric acid to remove any remaining aluminium and wash it with distiled water.

[@yellowmetalcyborg]

Nice! I've tried this reaction myself. I ended up with a big blue mess because I added the sodium bicarbonate too fast : ). You could have heated the copper carbonate to remove carbon dioxide and then heated the CuO in a hydrogen atmosphere to get water and copper metal. But your method works just as well.

[@AlexRaato]

5:47 if you have welding tools available, put a piece of metal to the opposite side from the handel and you can suspend it on top of the fire, or better yet two metal pieces to have a triangle shape for stability

[@whysofarty33]

I was wondering how it is known that baking soda will react with the copper sulfate? or in other words how do you or the person that first tried this thought or knew that this pairing of the 2 compounds would react in this way? could you show me how to figure this out on paper?

[@mrhomescientist]

Sure, after a few steps. You could take your copper compound and react it with NaOH to precipitate copper hydroxide, then filter that off and react it with H2SO4 to get the sulfate. Or, you could just substitute the nitrate or chloride directly with the sulfate that I use in the video, and the process in the video should still work fine.

[@mrhomescientist]

@prozacgod Thanks for the comment! That's an excellent idea, I'm pretty interested in that too. That's why I wanted to try this particular experiment actually - copper carbonate occurs as the mineral malachite, and its reaction with carbon from campfires was one way people in ye olde times got metallic copper. I really want to redo this one and get it to work properly. Thanks for the support!

[@robertjeffery3237]

The final reaction needs sufficient heat to melt the copper. Otherwise you will get fine partials of copper dust and copper oxide with an excess of carbon.

[@ottawahker]

The problem I think is in the step that not shown in this video; when you finished reducing the copper oxide with carbon, I guess you just leave the disc aside. That's where the problem is, the still red hot copper metal would oxidise again with air and became copper oxide. Solution is reduce the oxide in the test tube, after the process is finished, seal up the test tube and not allow the residue contact with any oxygen or water until it is cooled down to room temperature.

[@i-love-comountains3850]

thank you!

[@ElBleezy9]

Did you make your charcoal furnace, or did you buy it? If you bought it, where from?

[@ashdevos5705]

easier way is to add aluminium foil to a solution of copper sulfate, wait a bit, filter, and then disolve away any excess aluminium with naoh

[@kalvinmeek]

quick question.... is it possible to isolate/extract the copper metal without using a single displacement reaction?

[@alfredmolison7134]

I'm new to this but I see this as a success. I'm wondering how ancient people started to purify copper from copper with sulphur. This helps.

[@yellowmetalcyborg]

You can make activated carbon by taking sawdust and putting it into a tin can with a small hole on top and putting the whole thing into a fire.

[@mrhomescientist]

@TheHomeScientist Thanks for the comment. In retrospect, there's a number of things I would have liked to do differently. What I really need to do is get an actual gas furnace so I can get some reliable and controllable heating. Also, I thought this reaction produces only carbon dioxide and copper - where does the CO come in, and what would encouraging it do for me?

[@BNSFfan1996]

Maby you should try melting the copper mix at a much higher temp? im not super good at chemistry, but im very good at metle working.

[@jasonsweet228]

You probably needed to do the final step with a blow torch

[@nevermind6235]

What I do to recover copper metal from copper sulfate is to react copper sulfate with sodium chloride to form a crude copper (II) chloride solution. Really and arbitrary amount of salt. Then use aluminum foil to react the chloride to produce fine copper particles. I don't know if it is effective in collect it producing larger amounts of copper metal, however, it does help to produce a fairly large amount based on the copper sulfate and sodium chloride technique.

[@mrhomescientist]

+joesph decarlo Really only a pinch of salt is needed. The copper sulfate reacts with the aluminum easily enough, but for some reason chloride ions are necessary to break through the aluminum oxide layer first! They act as a sort of catalyst.

[@nevermind6235]

Thanks. That really helps actually. I'm a fourteen year old that just really loves chemistry. And some if that chemistry gets my hands on chemicals from which can't be poured down the drain, aka copper compounds. I work a lot with said compounds. So I know that converting the copper salt to metal is the safest way of controlling the amount of copper salts that are poured down the drain. But, I didn't know that only a little sodium chloride be used. So, synthesizing copper metal can now be a bit easier now. So I appreciate that.

[@mrhomescientist]

+joesph decarlo No problem! Proper disposal is a very important part of chemistry that I think a lot of people overlook, so I'm glad to see you're taking it seriously. For disposal of most things my goal is to make them into insoluble forms, which are (generally) much less harmful. For example I turn iron solutions into iron hydroxide before disposal, then when it gets incinerated with regular trash it gets converted to oxides, or common rust! I've heard of others mixing these insolubles into concrete and throwing that hardened chunk away. Almost no chance of anything escaping that!

[@noname_atall]

actually no. copper carbonate decomposes fairly quickly to the oxide. depending on the temperature attained you woud get or just copper(because copper don't burn so easily) or copper II oxide.

[@pleabargain]

thanks for posting! Your results + or - are science in the making!

[@mrhomescientist]

+Dennis G Daniels Thank you! This is definitely a video I want to revisit, now that I understand the chemistry better and have improved my lab skills!

[@WTB1327]

ETA until next video please? :) Keep up the great work!

[@Uhor]

It would be interesting to see if the resulting copper-carbon powder could perform classic copper/copper oxide catalysts or copper/carbon reductions.

[@mikeandrewp]

I love the chemistry, but I can't help thinking there are easier/cheaper ways to get much more copper, for instance picking up used electronics and stripping copper out of the power supply transformers. :p

[@garymoulton6153]

If you use a muffle furnace on the final mixture, then the carbon will be removed.

[@mrhomescientist]

That's interesting, I'd always heard that you need to add some NaCl to get Al to react with CuSO4 solution. That was always for bulk metal though, maybe powder behaves differently or the long reaction time was good enough. Nice observation!

[@98JMA]

@MrLorum You must either have used an extremely dilute solution of copper sulfate, not actually used the sulfate salt at all, used baking powder (which has a lot of other stuff aside from the NaHCO3) or not even used baking soda.

[@savvy.dispatch]

What if we did a electrolysis procedure with the copper sulphate Solution? wouldnt that be more efficient, grant a higher yield, and the copper would be pure. Please do give your 2 cents on this.

[@michalchik]

You needed a higher temperature. Some of the black may also be C(II)O. I would take a blow torch to your product and see what you can get. Maybe a MAPP gas torch.

[@ivoshkin]

1. You couldve just done an electrolysis of the Copper Sulfate and get pure fine copper particles. 2. Try dropping some zinc into the Copper Sulfate and filter the fine brown particles. Thats copper. 3. I like the way you did it because of the interesting science.. 4. If youve got a high-temp torch you could melt the copper you got into one big piece. 5. Cheers.

[@endeeray4295]

You were almost there! If you had sealed it in a small crucible or clay container with the charcoal and fired in a small kiln for 30-40 minutes at about 1960 degrees F you'd had a copper nugget!

[@ColinRies]

I think you got your chemistry wrong. Adding sodium bicarbonate to the copper sulphate solution will create Cu2(OH)2CO3, otherwise known as basic copper carbonate. My guess is that it didn't react with the carbon in the way you intended it to and you ended up with something different.

[@ThomasAndersonbsf]

have you considered using ascorbic acid instead of baking soda to reduce the copper to nano particles then let them oxidize and flash them in layers to make solid copper sheet?

[@mrhomescientist]

@xenomancer40k All very excellent points! This was back when I was just starting out with the hobby, so there's some gaps in my process for sure. I'd like to redo this video one day and actually produce a nugget of Cu.

[@microchoc]

your using CuSO4 and sodium bicarbonate to make copper. could you replace the CUSO4 with ZnSO4 to make Zinc instead?

[@ROFLmeeWaffle]

if i remember correctly i think the reaction is endothermic.

[@HiveRules]

How would you test how much copper is in the copper sulfate using sulphuric acid. what would be the simplest way??

[@100alexdel]

What happened to the sodium in the sodium bicarbonate

[@kennydiaz2473]

Why did you need the cork on the larger flask?

[@seanconfer7903]

I like your videos and you do seem to have a fairly adequate understanding of the science involved in the experiments you're doing. I just have 1 question: Why do you almost always insist on using Erlenmeyer flasks for your reactions? This would have been much easier in a beaker. Your alkali metal and water reactions were done in a flask as well which is extremely dangerous. Do you have more of them than beakers? Or perhaps you just enjoy the "sciencey" look of the flask? Just curious.

[@carolk9155]

Good stuff! I coach Science Olympiad and will use this with my kids! There's another great one where you take a copper sulfate solution and put an iron nail in it - copper is reduced by the iron and deposits on the surface of the nail to give a very distinct coppery color - Thanks!

[@mrhomescientist]

Great! Some tips for the last steps: grind both copper carbonate and carbon down to a fine powder, and mix thoroughly. Also, cover the crucible when firing the mixture. It's actually the carbon monoxide that does the reducing, so keeping it covered keeps this gas in. One of these days I want to make an updated video that addresses these things that I should have done. Good luck!

[@riddlerrulez]

what would happen if you tried to boil vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in a microwave

[@99Chemicals]

its much simpler to: CuSO4 + Al/Zn/Fe/Mg = Cu + Al/Zn/Fe/Mg(S04) Just react the Cu parcipitate wiht HCl to take care of that oxide layer.

[@biodhave9753]

Please, what kind of reaction did copper (II)sulfate undergo to form copper. Thanks.

[@somefool6409]

Many.

[@dandecamp3901]

Be careful what you assume regarding products of combustion. Carbon dioxide is indeed one if the gases produced, but it is very likely that some incomplete combustion will also produce carbon monoxide! Good that you performed your combustion outdoors.....

[@mrhomescientist]

Always! I've since learned that carbon monoxide is also produced, and indeed that is what causes the reduction to copper. So it's better to cover the crucible to keep the gases in.

[@ChemSketch777]

The most easiest and the most cost effective method is to just carry on a displacement reaction between the solution of copper sulphate and iron nails, which will precipitate out copper metal powder. The most easy way!!!

[@hkparker]

@mrhomescientist I use my cell phone to shoot, and to convert files I use free studio manager, then to string the clips together I use picasa 3. As far as the reaction goes im sure crushing would help, looking forward to the revisit!

[@mrhomescientist]

@475129181 That's a good point actually. It's difficult to make pure CuCO3 - what I actually made here is more likely to be basic copper carbonate, Cu2(OH)2CO3. I'm not very satisfied with this video, so I'll be redoing this in the future to get a better result and try to explain things better. Thanks!

[@Darknimbus3]

So would you get calcium metal if you put calcium carbonate (calcite) with carbon and heated it?

[@mrhomescientist]

@mcwario13 Unlikely, at least not under home lab conditions. Calcium carbide requires the extremely high temperatures of an electric arc furnace to synthesize. If you had such a furnace, CaCO3 could probably be used because it would decompose to CaO on heating, which is then reacted with C as in the standard procedure.

[@asjenmensink2740]

I've made copper from copper sulfate and steal balls. though that's a messy method. what i ended up with was a slurry of i think iron sulfate and copper sponge, and a small coating of copper foil on the steal balls which i could scrape of with a knife..

[@juanserrat6806]

Very good video. Any video how to convert metal hydroxide to metal? Thx

[@spek1174]

I was thinking of putting copper sulphate on a metal project to get its look of copper on the surface. Can I protect my finished product by powder coating it clear? Or would it ruin the look I'm aiming for?

[@mrhomescientist]

Depends on what the process involves I guess. Copper sulfate is water soluble of course, so anything water-based is out. It's also sensitive to heat and can lose its color and integrity if heated too strongly. Clear nail polish is the usual way to preserve crystals like this. But by "look of copper" do you mean the blue copper sulfate crystals or actual copper metal?

[@spek1174]

mrhomescientist I'm thinking more of a patina process to make the metal look aged. I've worked with copper sulphate before but only to inspect metal for chrome plating. To confirm that the chrome was removed. I was unaware of colour distortion through temp change.

[@mrhomescientist]

Oh I don't know then; patina is pretty different than copper sulfate and is outside my area of expertise.

[@mrhomescientist]

That should work, yes.

[@kiransetty5656]

How about dropping a rusted iron nail into it and leaving aside for a while? Copper Will be displaced by iron and will leave copper residue.

[@mrhomescientist]

You wouldn't want it to be rusty, actually, but yeah that works! I've done it before, and made a neat copper-plated nail.

[@mrhomescientist]

@hkparker Thanks for the compliment! I need to find better editing software though, as it's an incredible hassle to convert my camcorder files into something readable by mine. Know of anything good? Nothing too fancy. I hadn't considered the decomposition reaction, but it makes perfect sense. I bet that's why the mixture darkened as I heated it, as black CuO was formed. I should have crushed the reactants together more thoroughly to favor the reaction I wanted. This one deserves a revisit!

[@lykenth08]

Hi, i have copper nitrate and copper chloride, can i turn these into copper sulphate or extract the copper from the nitrate/ chloride?

[@Heathenheart1979]

How do you refine final product? I mean, how can i get rid of carbon parts? And then which purity is final copper because i can't wash it with HCl or HNO3.