Precipitation (chemistry)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the chemical phenomenon. For other uses, see Precipitation
(disambiguation).
"Precipitate" redirects here. For other uses, see Precipitate (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (February 2008)


Chemical Precipitation
Precipitation is the creation of a solid in a solution or inside another solid during achemical
reaction or by diffusion in a solid. When the reaction occurs in a liquid solution, the solid formed
is called the precipitate. The chemical that causes the solid to form is called the precipitant.
Without sufficient force of gravity (settling) to bring the solid particles together, the precipitate
remains in suspension. Aftersedimentation, especially when using a centrifuge to press it into a
compact mass, the precipitate may be referred to as a pellet. The precipitate-free liquid
remaining above the solid is called the supernate or supernatant. Powders derived from
precipitation have also historically been known as flowers.
Precipitation may occur if the concentration of a compound exceeds its solubility(such as when
mixing solvents or changing their temperature). Precipitation may occur rapidly from
a supersaturated solution.
In solids, precipitation occurs if the concentration of one solid is above the solubility limit in the
host solid, due to e.g. rapid quenching or ion implantation, and the temperature is high enough
that diffusion can lead to segregation into precipitates. Precipitation in solids is routinely used
to synthesize nanoclusters.
[1]

An important stage of the precipitation process is the onset of nucleation. The creation of a
hypothetical solid particleincludes the formation of an interface, which requires
some energy based on the relative surface energy of the solid and the solution. If this energy is
not available, and no suitable nucleation surface is available, supersaturation occurs.
Contents
[hide]
1 Applications
2 Representation using chemical equations
3 Precipitate colors
4 Anion/Cation Analysis
5 Digestion
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links
Applications[edit]


Crystals of meso-tetratolylporphyrin from a reflux of propanoic acidprecipitate on cooling


Copper from a wire displaces silver in a silver nitrate solution it is dipped into, and solid silver precipitates out.
Precipitation reactions can be used for making pigments, removing salts from water in water
treatment, and in classical qualitative inorganic analysis.
Precipitation is also useful to isolate the products of a reaction during workup. Ideally, the
product of the reaction is insoluble in the reaction solvent. Thus, it precipitates as it is formed,
preferably forming pure crystals. An example of this would be the synthesis of porphyrins in
refluxing propionic acid. By cooling the reaction mixture to room temperature, crystals of the
porphyrin precipitate, and are collected by filtration:
[2]


Precipitation may also occur when an antisolvent (a solvent in which the product is
insoluble) is added, drastically reducing the solubility of the desired product. Thereafter,
the precipitate may easily be separated by filtration, decanting, orcentrifugation). An
example would be the synthesis of chromic tetraphenylporphyrin chloride: water is added
to the DMF reaction solution, and the product precipitates.
[3]
Precipitation is also useful in
purifying products: crude bmim-Cl is taken up in acetonitrile, and dropped into ethyl
acetate, where it precipitates.
[4]
Another important application of an antisolvent is in ethanol
precipitation of DNA.
In metallurgy, precipitation from a solid solution is also a useful way to strengthen alloys;
this process is known as solid solution strengthening.
Representation using chemical equations[edit]
See also: solubility product
An example of a precipitation reaction: Aqueous silver nitrate (AgNO
3
) is added to a
solution containing potassium chloride(KCl), the precipitation of a white solid, silver
chloride (AgCl), is observed. (Zumdahl, 2005)
AgNO
3
(aq) + KCl (aq) AgCl (s) + KNO
3
(aq)
The silver chloride (AgCl) has formed a solid, which is observed as a precipitate.
This reaction can be written emphasizing the dissociated ions in a combined solution.
This is known as the ionic equation.
Ag
+
(aq) + NO
3

(aq) + K
+
(aq) + Cl

(aq) AgCl (s) + K

+
(aq) + NO
3

(aq)
A final way to represent a precipitate reaction is known as a net ionic reaction. In
this case, any spectator ions (those that do not contribute to the reaction) are left
out of the formula completely. This simplifies the above equations to the following:
Ag
+
(aq) + Cl

(aq) AgCl (s)

Precipitate colors[edit]
Many compounds containing metal ions produce precipitates with distinctive
colors. The following are typical colors for various metals. However, many of
these compounds can produce colors very different from those listed.
Gold Orange
Chromium Deep green, murky green, orange, purple, yellow, brown
Cobalt Pink
Copper Blue
Iron (II) Green
Iron (III) Reddish brown
Manganese Pale pink
Nickel Green
Other compounds generally form white precipitates.
Anion/Cation Analysis[edit]
See also: Qualitative inorganic analysis
Precipitate formation is useful in the detection of the type of cation in a salt. To
do this, an alkali first reacts with the unknown salt to produce a precipitate that
is the hydroxide of the unknown salt. To identify the cation, the color of the
precipitate and its solubility in excess are noted. Similar processes are often
used in sequence - for example, a barium nitrate solution will react
with sulfate ions to form a solid barium sulfate precipitate, indicating that it is
likely that sulfate ions are present.
Digestion[edit]
Digestion, or precipitate ageing, happens when a freshly formed precipitate is
left, usually at a higher temperature, in the solution from which it precipitates.
It results in cleaner and bigger particles. The physico-chemical process
underlying digestion is called Ostwald ripening.
See also[edit]
Salting in
Salting out
References[edit]
1. Jump up^ Dhara, S. (2007). "Formation, Dynamics, and Characterization
of Nanostructures by Ion Beam Irradiation". Critical Reviews in Solid
State and Materials Sciences 32 (1): 1
50. doi:10.1080/10408430601187624.
2. Jump up^ A. D. Adler; F. R. Longo; J. D. Finarelli; J. Goldmacher; J.
Assour; L. Korsakoff (1967). "A simplified synthesis for meso-
tetraphenylporphine". J. Org. Chem. 32 (2): 476
476. doi:10.1021/jo01288a053.
3. Jump up^ Alan D. Adler; Frederick R. Longo; Frank Kampas; Jean Kim
(1970). "On the preparation of metalloporphyrins". Journal of Inorganic
and Nuclear Chemistry 32 (7): 2443. doi:10.1016/0022-1902(70)80535-8.
4. Jump up^ Dupont, J., Consorti, C., Suarez, P., de Souza, R.
(2004), "Preparation of 1-Butyl-3-methyl imidazolium-based Room
Temperature Ionic Liquids", Org. Synth.; Coll. Vol. 10: 184
5. Precipitaion colours - From Chemistry For Wa Stage 2 Units 2a and 2b by
Chris Lewis and Peter Lewis
Further reading[edit]
Zumdahl, Steven S. (2005). Chemical Principles (5th ed.). New York:
Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-37206-7.
Smith, Mark (1993). Principles of Science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation_(chemistry)