Synthesis of copper sulfate by electrolysis

I explain how I make copper sulfate crystals from copper metal via electrolysis. The procedure demonstrates the electrochemical reaction between copper metal and sulfuric acid forming copper sulfate. I demonstrate the difference in appearance of anhydrous copper sulfate and copper sulfate pentahydrate.
Copper sulfate can be used in a number of applications including electroplating, preparing Benedict’s solution, use as an antifungal agent, and even in medical applications.
In a follow up video I utilize the crystals to build an inexpensive and very useful medical device. I’ll provide a link to that video here when it’s complete.
NurdRage’s video:
• Make Copper Sulfate fr...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:51 Chemical equation
1:16 Electrodes
2:30 Electrochemistry
5:49 Start of electrolysis
6:57 Saturation
8:39 Reducing copper ions
9:58 Filtering
10:32 Boiling
13:10 Filtering precipitant
14:20 Salt bridge method
17:42 Filtering again
18:00 Boiling again
19:07 Anhydrous CuSO4
19:36 Results
19:55 Rehydrating CuSO4
20:58 Recrystallizing
23:24 Macro crystal
23:54 Final yield/Outro

[@christiandiaz3444]

The quality of the video and the way you explain these processes are just top tier

[@Project.Infinity]

Thank you very much!

[@thepirate6521]

As undergraduate student I find this video extremly educational. Thank You for posting

[@therealprofessor976]

It's also notable that you can use Magnesium Sulfate (commonly sold as Epsom salt) as an electrolyte if you don't have access to sulfuric acid. However, you do need an electrolytic membrane (such as a clay pot) to keep the ions separated to prevent the products of CuSO4 and Mg(OH)2 from reacting back into MgSO4. Also, it's good to remember that if you're using a Carbon electrode, you're going to get Carbon particles formed from the corrosion of one of the electrodes. These can just be filtered off. It's also possible to use the same process to create Sulfuric acid if you don't have access to any. In fact, during the process, some of the water gets pulled from the acid via osmosis which helps purify the acid. Personally, I'd use Copper Sulfate over Magnesium Sulfate for Sulfuric acid, since it creates Copper metal, Also, it's good to remember that if you're using a Carbon electrode, you're going to get Carbon particles formed from the corrosion of one of the electrodes. These can just be filtered off. so a Copper electrode can be used to collect it (bonus: it grows cool crystals!). I prefer this to dealing with Mg(OH)2 collecting on the electrode, since it's a poor electrical conductor. Quick side note: Before anyone says anything, I KNOW that Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulfate Heptahydrate. But all that water is simply part of the crystal structure. Dissolving it in water makes Mg+ and SO4- ions all the same. Edit: Also, it's good to remember that if you're using a Carbon electrode, you're going to get Carbon particles formed from the corrosion of one of the electrodes. These can just be filtered off.

[@therealprofessor976]

The quality of this video is top notch. I have no idea how you don't have at least a few thousand subs.

[@Project.Infinity]

Hopefully as I post more content the subs will come as well. Thank you for watching!

[@te-hc6yc]

Wow beautiful video, and very detailed and clear, I watch these types of videos all day but your videos I honestly feel like I truly understand this process, you should be a teacher for sure.

[@Project.Infinity]

Thank you very much, I'm happy you enjoy the channel!

[@cuforming]

Wow. Beautiful explanation of the process and very nice video and animations. Your channel is gonna grow in no time. Thank you!!!

[@idebuseyne4902]

Very good explanation, very useful for students to grasp how electrolysis is done on a molecular level. Gives a lot more insight than just the equations of Nernst law etc from college!

[@Andrew-pd6ey]

Great video, production quality and information very nice. I'm surprised yotube hasn't pushed you onto me and I found you because I'm curious about this.

[@Kargoneth]

Subscriber #319, at your service. Adding the water to the semi-anhydrous copper sulfate mixture was interesting.

[@Project.Infinity]

I loved that too. Fun to see the brilliant color change

[@ceasargaming9041]

wow awesome channel. idk how you havent blown up yet!

[@user-ji5zq8ed5y]

HAHAHAHAHA😅

[@mustafaakdeniz8104]

thank you. its a very good idea and very good explanation. again thank you

[@Project.Infinity]

Thanks for watching!

[@thomastripi9694]

Great video !

[@Project.Infinity]

Thanks for watching!

[@suwedo8677]

Well, that was an awesome video! I don't know why you're so underrated, everything is literally good lmfao

[@Project.Infinity]

Haha, thank you! I just premiered the channel a couple days ago, so hopefully it will pick up over time. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@suwedo8677]

@@Project.Infinity I definitely enjoyed it, clearly love electrolysis; used it for making chlorates and sodium hydroxide but there's so much other applications! Definitely will follow you in the future

[@suwedo8677]

@@Project.Infinity And good luck for your channel!

[@UpspoonOneTwo]

Would love to see you do the same for nickel sulfate for electroplating as well!

[@Project.Infinity]

It'll probably be a while before I can make the video, but nickel electroplating is actually on the list for one of my next projects!

[@grantking4032]

I work in a college lab and have to neutralize out a solution of Copper and Sulfuric acid ALL THE TIME. It's our "Colorful Chemistry" Lab. It has a smidgen of Aluminum in it. Not enough to affect color. CuSO4 really is beautiful. I used an oven to dry out salts before and that's when I learned about the coloration of different hydrates. I was like "ohhh nice beautiful teal, monohydrate!" Then almost screamed anhydrous when that dark color showed. When I used the oven it turned to that color and that's when I learned about the coloration. That said I'm pretty sure, if in small powder form, it will re absorb water from the air and change colors over time. Atleast I think so. Most salts absorb water iirc.

[@Project.Infinity]

The beauty of copper sulfate was definitely a large factor in deciding to make this video. I love that dramatic color change as well! And yes I believe you're correct. If the anhydrous salt is left open to air it's hygroscopic enough to rehydrate and turn blue again, given enough time. Thanks for your interest in the video!

[@JenkoRun]

24:44 “In a crystal we have clear evidence of the existence of a formative life principle, and though we cannot understand the life of a crystal, it is nonetheless a living being.” -N. Tesla

[@derekturner3272]

Never apologize for doing the large amount of work to produce a video, even if it's a well covered topic. Anyone that would say anything is probably has knuckles a little too close to the ground to bother with convincing.

[@user-sk9br8fe8s]

Create a video on the electrolysis

[@equallyeasilyfuqyou]

Excellent video man! Keep it up!

[@Enjoymentboy]

I'm actually in need of copper sulfate so I'm going to give this a shot but it makes me wonder if it might also work to help refine a 2kg copper/silver alloy I have from a mass of silver contacts I smelted last year. It's pretty much a 50/50 mix I assume the silver will also dissolve along with the copper and if i allow the copper sulfate to crystallize out first and then add in HCl I should be able to recover the silver.

[@Project.Infinity]

That sounds like an interesting experiment and I'd imagine this could work to separate your alloy. Copper is more reactive than the silver, so the reaction should favor copper sulfate production. Sulfuric acid only dissolves silver if it's concentrated, so it would likely leave the silver component of the anode alone. The oxygen production at the anode may produce silver oxide though, which would react with the acid to form silver sulfate. Silver sulfate is poorly soluble in water though. So if it were me, once the electrolysis is finished, and after I've removed water from the solution by boiling, I'd filter the mixture of precipitants from the acid, then add water to dissolve the copper sulfate, leaving the insoluble silver sulfate to be filtered out. Just remember this experiment is very dangerous as boiling sulfuric acid is extremely corrosive. If anything were to go wrong and you weren't following proper safety protocols you could be seriously injured. I don't know your skillset, so just be aware of the dangers before trying anything.

[@therealprofessor976]

It would be MUCH better to dissolve it all up in Nitric acid and then add a NaCl solution to precipitate AgCl, then filter it off and add Sulfuric acid to produce Nitric acid and Copper metal. There are calculations to be done of course. There are plenty of methods out there to recover the silver from AgCl, and I suggest you research them and select the one that is best for you. However you should make sure to store your AgCl in an opaque container or a dark place, as light converts it into silver (but not thoroughly, only what the light hits).

[@Enjoymentboy]

@@therealprofessor976 Completely agree except I'm out of nitric acid. lol I do have around 20L of 98% sulfuric and 10kg of KNO3 though. Granted I could just make the nitric acid but logistically it's not realistic at this time as my condenser cracked and for the amount of copper sulfate I need I can't justify replacing it yet. I put the Ag/Cu alloy on the shelf and grabbed some of the Ag plated stuff and I've been letting things brew (as it were) and I have a nice little batch of copper sulfate crystalizing as I write this. As far as using NaCl to recover the silver, I'm not a fan. I much prefer KCl as the KNO3 has a much lower solubility and therefore much easier for me to recover to reprocess into nitric acid later on.

[@therealprofessor976]

@@Enjoymentboy Alright, well good luck!

[@lmaozedingdong6099]

what's the filter matter your using ? for it to not react with quite high H2SO4 ?

[@Project.Infinity]

In this case I actually don't use filter paper at all due to the concentrated H2SO4. The Buchner funnel I used consists of a fritted glass disk with 15-40 micron sized pores. The glass frit is nonreactive so it's compatible with a wide range of chemicals. The one downside though is it's much more time consuming to clean. Because I can't just throw away filter paper I need to flush the funnel with solvents a few times which can be frustrating with stubborn precipitants caught in the pores.

[@lmaozedingdong6099]

Well that was fast...@@Project.Infinity Actually i was just trying to figure can i (as a random amateur) get fillter resisting to sulfuric acid from common thing i guess that's not possible but anyways the video was quitte interesting and detailled so keep up the good work and i can only hope for you that your subsriber number goes up (because 370 for such work isn't really fair i think) im glad to be the 371th ty again !

[@Project.Infinity]

Thank you for watching and for your support! eBay can offer some surprisingly great deals on glassware to get you started. It's where I purchased my Buchner funnel. Have fun and be safe!

[@jheadley635]

Let's say you crank the voltage up to 30 volts. Sure, there will be a lot more oxygen production at the anode, but what is the downside, if it causes the whole process to go much faster?

[@Project.Infinity]

I had the same thought, but attempting that caused a problem. Not only will cranking up the voltage increase the current, it will also increase the electrolyte temperature. While warmer electrolyte increases reaction speed even further, it unfortunately also causes bubbles to form within the salt bridge. The bubbles displace the electrolyte from the bridge and dramatically reduce its current carrying capacity, nearly halting the reaction.

[@Project.Infinity]

I believe the bubbles are oxygen gas dissolving into the water while the O2 is being produced. Heating the electrolyte makes the O2 less soluble in the water, so the gas comes out of solution. Unless I were to place the beakers in a cold water bath (lowering CuSO4 yield) or somehow place the system under vacuum to degas the electrolyte as the O2 is produced, running it slow seemed like the simplest solution.

[@LydellAaron]

Cool video. I know copper metal is not magnetic, do you know what generally happens if this crystal process is performed under a heavy magnetic field, with a ferrous metal?

[@Project.Infinity]

Really fascinating question. I didn't know offhand but doing a quick review of literature it seems like this concept has been explored in the past with regard to protein synthesis as well as pharmaceutical development. During protein crystallization the process is enhanced by magnetic fields: "The quality enhancement is attributed to the magnetic orientation of protein crystals and the magnetic suppression of buoyancy convection in protein solutions". So its possible the magnetic fields assist aligning proteins together, preventing them from floating apart. I also read that during the crystallization of carbamazepine (an antiepileptic medication), when exposed to a weak magnetic field it produced Form III, but when exposed to a magnetic field >0.5T during crystallization the majority produced was Form I. Sounds like the implications of this are vast and definitely worth exploring more!

[@LydellAaron]

@@Project.Infinity thanks for responding and for adding so much depth in your response. My initial interest is in finding high-Q and stable oscillators for quantum computing and/or potential in improving conductors. Quartz crystals output stable frequencies, so I was exploring other crystal types. A perfectly formed crystal in theory would have really high-Q resonant properties for almost-perfect selectivity and I wondered whether in general some crystals grown under magnetic fields would be coerced to form differently and have superior or alterable crystalline states. It's impossible to buy equipment and research the diverse fields, so videos like yours really accelerate the ideas-exchange boundaries by creating places to meet like at intersections. Thank you so much for your time and response!

[@Project.Infinity]

@@LydellAaron It's inherently a lot of fun making these videos, but it's for reasons like this that make it truly worthwhile. It's the knowledge gained along the way. I'm very happy the video was helpful to you. I had never considered magnetic fields influencing crystallization--What an incredibly interesting field you're studying. Thanks so much for the question!

[@space-xspaceflightsimulator]

This way to interesting.can’t believe you have less subs than me!

[@Project.Infinity]

Thank you! Hopefully the channel will grow in time

[@space-xspaceflightsimulator]

@@Project.Infinity sure it will ! Keep up the good work.

[@schurik4n]

First of all, great video and what i wanted to ask you is: how much sulfuric acid did you use?

[@Project.Infinity]

Thank you! Both beakers contained about 2000mL of sulfuric acid, so in total I used roughly 4000mL of 35% sulfuric acid, which is a huge excess. H2SO4 is very conductive so by using an excess the current was relatively high. Had I used the stoichiometric quantity, the electric current would have been quite low, and the electrolysis would have progressed very slowly. I just saved the remaining acid for use in future runs.

[@schurik4n]

@@Project.Infinity couldn't you also concentrate it to some extend by boiling out the water?

[@schurik4n]

@@Project.Infinity btw thank you for the quick answer, as a matter of fact i will be doing this experiment in school after class, as my teacher allowed me to experiment on my own with teachers supervision.

[@schurik4n]

As this video was a huuuuuge help in terms of reference and research

[@Project.Infinity]

I'm glad you found it helpful! Yes you could definitely concentrate the sulfuric acid by boiling out the water, however CuSO4 is not soluble in H2SO4. Without the water the solution will become saturated with CuSO4 and as we saw in my video, crystallization on the anode severely reduces current. So the trick is to have concentrated enough acid solution to keep the current high, but keep enough water in solution to prevent early crystallization. You could heat the solution to increase reaction speed and make the solute more soluble in the water, but that can cause convection (CuSO4 will reach the cathode and reduce to Cu(s)), and bubbles forming in the salt bridge (decreasing current). It's all about finding the right balance. Have fun and be safe!

[@jacobyoung7018]

I think you will get a more pure product from copper wire than copper piping. I've noticed that copper piping gives me a lot more impurities than copper wire when making copper (II) salts.

[@Project.Infinity]

@@jacobyoung7018 Good call. Starting with cleaner metal would definitely improve the purity of the crude product. Most scrap yards would likely have a ton of stripped copper wire sitting around as well. The recrystallization step is highly efficient and makes the crude nearly 100% pure, but at the expense of losing some product. Depending on what purity you need, recrystallization could be skipped if the crude is already pure enough. Thanks for watching, and for the suggestion!

[@alllove1754]

You could benefit from a diaphragm set up in your experiment here. I saw a guy use a condom wrapped around one of his electrodes, I think the cathode, but it was a lambskin condom so it was semi permeable. Another one, and frankly more likely for anyone is to put a ceramic pot in solution, where the top electrode you have here is in the ceramic pot, filled with the h2so4, and the fluid can travel through the ceramic, but not gonna get copper ions through it.. just food for thought

[@Dumbscience4thewin]

If you use small amount and high concentrations of H2SO4 and H2O2 you can get nearly instant large crystal formation and yeah I've done it this is why I'm saying this lol its one of may favorite ways to make it even though its not efficient! I think if you make sure you copper is more pure dint or like a mesh or something i mean anything i mean ANYTHING (of copper) will work right but its just going to effect the size and quality of the product, no? So Im not chemistry major but like years ago i saw this reaction and like that kinda started this whole journey into chemistry haha so yeah never had / well i never went its not that it wasn't available okay i need to film my process because even the first one in NurdRages video the one i used but just messed around with its the same process no matter how you look at it right? Its just I can make beautiful crystal and quiet a bit of them very fast and like your stuff would be perfectly useable i just was expecting to see that stunning blue color you know ! lol I've got to film my way cuz yeah like there just instantly almost their and the color is so gorgeous !

[@Darthvanger]

This is not quite what I expected when you said "simple procedure" 😅

[@-datolith2775]

😀

[@aaronduranceau7683]

Y not scrape cuso off car battery terminals goto car battery pole at junk yard, local dump, return station

[@Project.Infinity]

This is more fun!

[@ANCIENTASTRONAUT411]

Just tap the cathode bro

[@donaldspeck9212]

Great video... Too technical for the average viewer

[@ANCIENTASTRONAUT411]

No the copper wire is loaded and cant react no more the node is insulated yeah oops you figured it out lol sorry just tap the cathode and drop the copper off and it will keep reacting

[@blacklistnr1]

21:00 nooo! keep telling me things, I hate it when videos go speechless music mode. If you're that keen on not talking, at least make it an ASMR with the real sounds of pouring, boiling etc.

[@leonbigio5499]

Great video!!

[@Project.Infinity]

Thank you!