It is impossible to trust to one"s judgment with regard to the washing of precipitates; the washings from !each precipitate! of a series simultaneously treated must be tested, since the rate of washing will often differ materially under apparently similar conditions, !No exception can ever be made to this rule!.
The habit of placing a clean common filter paper under the receiving beaker during filtration is one to be commended. On this paper a record of the number of washings can very well be made as the portions of wash-water are added.
It is an excellent practice, when possible, to retain filtrates and precipitates until the completion of an a.n.a.lysis, in order that, in case of question, they may be examined to discover sources of error.
For the complete removal of precipitates from containing vessels, it is often necessary to rub the sides of these vessels to loosen the adhering particles. This can best be done by slipping over the end of a stirring rod a soft rubber device sometimes called a "policeman."
DESICCATORS
Desiccators should be filled with fused, anhydrous calcium chloride, over which is placed a clay triangle, or an iron triangle covered with silica tubes, to support the crucible or other utensils. The cover of the desiccator should be made air-tight by the use of a thin coating of vaseline.
Pumice moistened with concentrated sulphuric acid may be used in place of the calcium chloride, and is essential in special cases; but for most purposes the calcium chloride, if renewed occasionally and not allowed to cake together, is practically efficient and does not slop about when the desiccator is moved.
Desiccators should never remain uncovered for any length of time. The dehydrating agents rapidly lose their efficiency on exposure to the air.
CRUCIBLES
It is often necessary in quant.i.tative a.n.a.lysis to employ fluxes to bring into solution substances which are not dissolved by acids. The fluxes in most common use are sodium carbonate and sodium or pota.s.sium acid sulphate. In gravimetric a.n.a.lysis it is usually necessary to ignite the separated substance after filtration and washing, in order to remove moisture, or to convert it through physical or chemical changes into some definite and stable form for weighing. Crucibles to be used in fusion processes must be made of materials which will withstand the action of the fluxes employed, and crucibles to be used for ignitions must be made of material which will not undergo any permanent change during the ignition, since the initial weight of the crucible must be deducted from the final weight of the crucible and product to obtain the weight of the ignited substance. The three materials which satisfy these conditions, in general, are platinum, porcelain, and silica.
Platinum crucibles have the advantage that they can be employed at high temperatures, but, on the other hand, these crucibles can never be used when there is a possibility of the reduction to the metallic state of metals like lead, copper, silver, or gold, which would alloy with and ruin the crucible. When platinum crucibles are used with compounds of a.r.s.enic or phosphorus, special precautions are necessary to prevent damage. This statement applies to both fusions and ignitions.
Fusions with sodium carbonate can be made only in platinum, since porcelain or silica crucibles are attacked by this reagent. Acid sulphate fusions, which require comparatively low temperatures, can sometimes be made in platinum, although platinum is slightly attacked by the flux. Porcelain or silica crucibles may be used with acid fluxes.
Silica crucibles are less likely to crack on heating than porcelain crucibles on account of their smaller coefficient of expansion.
Ignition of substances not requiring too high a temperature may be made in porcelain or silica crucibles.
Iron, nickel or silver crucibles are used in special cases.
In general, platinum crucibles should be used whenever such use is practicable, and this is the custom in private, research or commercial laboratories. Platinum has, however, become so valuable that it is liable to theft unless constantly under the protection of the user. As constant protection is often difficult in instructional laboratories, it is advisable, in order to avoid serious monetary losses, to use porcelain or silica crucibles whenever these will give satisfactory service. When platinum utensils are used the danger of theft should always be kept in mind.
PREPARATION OF CRUCIBLES FOR USE
All crucibles, of whatever material, must always be cleaned, ignited and allowed to cool in a desiccator before weighing, since all bodies exposed to the air condense on their surfaces a layer of moisture which increases their weight. The amount and weight of this moisture varies with the humidity of the atmosphere, and the latter may change from hour to hour. The air in the desiccator (see above) is kept at a constant and low humidity by the drying agent which it contains.
Bodies which remain in a desiccator for a sufficient time (usually 20-30 minutes) retain, therefore, on their surfaces a constant weight of moisture which is the same day after day, thus insuring constant conditions.
Hot objects, such as ignited crucibles, should be allowed to cool in the air until, when held near the skin, but little heat is noticeable.
If this precaution is not taken, the air within the desiccator is strongly heated and expands before the desiccator is covered. As the temperature falls, the air contracts, causing a reduction of air pressure within the covered vessel. When the cover is removed (which is often rendered difficult) the inrush of air from the outside may sweep light particles out of a crucible, thus ruining an entire a.n.a.lysis.
Constant heating of platinum causes a slight crystallization of the surface which, if not removed, penetrates into the crucible. Gentle polishing of the surface destroys the crystalline structure and prevents further damage. If sea sand is used for this purpose, great care is necessary to keep it from the desk, since beakers are easily scratched by it, and subsequently crack on heating.
Platinum crucibles stained in use may often be cleaned by the fusion in them of pota.s.sium or sodium acid sulphate, or by heating with ammonium chloride. If the former is used, care should be taken not to heat so strongly as to expel all of the sulphuric acid, since the normal sulphates sometimes expand so rapidly on cooling as to split the crucible. The fused material should be poured out, while hot, on to a !dry! tile or iron surface.
IGNITION OF PRECIPITATES
Most precipitates may, if proper precautions are taken, be ignited without previous drying. If, however, such precipitates can be dried without loss of time to the a.n.a.lyst (as, for example, over night), it is well to submit them to this process. It should, nevertheless, be remembered that a partially dried precipitate often requires more care during ignition than a thoroughly moist one.
The details of the ignition of precipitates vary so much with the character of the precipitate, its moisture content, and temperature to which it is to be heated, that these details will be given under the various procedures which follow.
DETERMINATION OF CHLORINE IN SODIUM CHLORIDE
!Method A. With the Use of a Gooch Filter!
PROCEDURE.--Carefully clean a weighing-tube containing the sodium chloride, handling it as little as possible with the moist fingers, and weigh it accurately to 0.0001 gram, recording the weight at once in the notebook (see Appendix). Hold the tube over the top of a beaker (200-300 cc.), and cautiously remove the stopper, noting carefully that no particles fall from it, or from the tube, elsewhere than into the beaker. Pour out a small portion of the chloride, replace the stopper, and determine by approximate weighing how much has been removed. Continue this procedure until 0.25-0.30 gram has been taken from the tube, then weigh accurately and record the weight beneath the first in the notebook. The difference of the two weights represents the weight of the chloride taken for a.n.a.lysis. Again weigh a second portion of 0.25-0.30 gram into a second beaker of the same size as the first. The beakers should be plainly marked to correspond with the entries in the notebook. Dissolve each portion of the chloride in 150 cc. of distilled water and add about ten drops of dilute nitric acid (sp. gr. 1.20) (Note 2). Calculate the volume of silver nitrate solution required to effect complete precipitation in each case, and add slowly about 5 cc. in excess of that amount, with constant stirring. Heat the solutions cautiously to boiling, stirring occasionally, and continue the heating and stirring until the precipitates settle promptly, leaving a nearly clear supernatant liquid (Note 3). This heating should not take place in direct sunlight (Note 4). The beaker should be covered with a watch-gla.s.s, and both boiling and stirring so regulated as to preclude any possibility of loss of material. Add to the clear liquid one or two drops of silver nitrate solution, to make sure that an excess of the reagent is present. If a precipitate, or cloudiness, appears as the drops fall into the solution, heat again, and stir until the whole precipitate has coagulated. The solution is then ready for filtration.
Prepare a Gooch filter as follows: Fold over the top of a Gooch funnel (Fig. 2) a piece of rubber-band tubing, such as is known as "bill-tie"
tubing, and fit into the mouth of the funnel a perforated porcelain crucible (Gooch crucible), making sure that when the crucible is gently forced into the mouth of the funnel an airtight joint results.
(A small 1 or 1-1/4-inch gla.s.s funnel may be used, in which case the rubber tubing is stretched over the top of the funnel and then drawn up over the side of the crucible until an air-tight joint is secured.)
[ILl.u.s.tRATION: FIG. 2]
Fit the funnel into the stopper of a filter bottle, and connect the filter bottle with the suction pump. Suspend some finely divided asbestos, which has been washed with acid, in 20 to 30 cc. of water (Note 1); allow this to settle, pour off the very fine particles, and then pour some of the mixture cautiously into the crucible until an even felt of asbestos, not over 1/32 inch in thickness, is formed. A gentle suction must be applied while preparing this felt. Wash the felt thoroughly by pa.s.sing through it distilled water until all fine or loose particles are removed, increasing the suction at the last until no more water can be drawn out of it; place on top of the felt the small, perforated porcelain disc and hold it in place by pouring a very thin layer of asbestos over it, washing the whole carefully; then place the crucible in a small beaker, and place both in a drying closet at 100-110C. for thirty to forty minutes. Cool the crucible in a desiccator, and weigh. Heat again for twenty to thirty minutes, cool, and again weigh, repeating this until the weight is constant within 0.0003 gram. The filter is then ready for use.
Place the crucible in the funnel, and apply a gentle suction, !after which! the solution to be filtered may be poured in without disturbing the asbestos felt. When pouring liquid onto a Gooch filter hold the stirring-rod at first well down in the crucible, so that the liquid does not fall with any force upon the asbestos, and afterward keep the crucible will filled with the solution.
Pour the liquid above the silver chloride slowly onto the filter, leaving the precipitate in the beaker as far as possible. Wash the precipitate twice by decantation with warm water; then transfer it to the filter with the aid of a stirring-rod with a rubber tip and a stream from the wash-bottle.
Examine the first portions of the filtrate which pa.s.s through the filter with great care for asbestos fibers, which are most likely to be lost at this point. Refilter the liquid if any fibers are visible.
Finally, wash the precipitate thoroughly with warm water until free from soluble silver salts. To test the washings, disconnect the suction at the flask and remove the funnel or filter tube from the suction flask. Hold the end of the tube over the mouth of a small test tube and add from a wash-bottle 2-3 cc. of water. Allow the water to drip through into the test tube and add a drop of dilute hydrochloric acid. No precipitate or cloud should form in the wash-water (Note 16).
Dry the filter and contents at 100-110C. until the weight is constant within 0.0003 gram, as described for the preparation of the filter.
Deduct the weight of the dry crucible from the final weight, and from the weight of silver chloride thus obtained calculate the percentage of chlorine in the sample of sodium chloride.
[Note 1: The washed asbestos for this type of filter is prepared by digesting in concentrated hydrochloric acid, long-fibered asbestos which has been cut in pieces of about 0.5 cm. in length. After digestion, the asbestos is filtered off on a filter plate and washed with hot, distilled water until free from chlorides. A small portion of the asbestos is shaken with water, forming a thin suspension, which is bottled and kept for use.]
[Note 2: The nitric acid is added before precipitation to lessen the tendency of the silver chloride to carry down with it other substances which might be precipitated from a neutral solution. A large excess of the acid would exert a slight solvent action upon the chloride.]
[Note 3: The solution should not be boiled after the addition of the nitric acid before the presence of an excess of silver nitrate is a.s.sured, since a slight interaction between the nitric acid and the sodium chloride is possible, by which a loss of chlorine, either as such or as hydrochloric acid, might ensue. The presence of an excess of the precipitant can usually be recognized at the time of its addition, by the increased readiness with which the precipitate coagulates and settles.]
[Note 4: The precipitate should not be exposed to strong sunlight, since under those conditions a reduction of the silver chloride ensues which is accompanied by a loss of chlorine. The superficial alteration which the chloride undergoes in diffused daylight is not sufficient to materially affect the accuracy of the determination. It should be noted, however, that a slight error does result from the effect of light upon the silver chloride precipitate and in cases in which the greatest obtainable accuracy is required, the procedure described under "Method B" should be followed, in which this slight reduction of the silver chloride is corrected by subsequent treatment with nitric and hydrochloric acids.]
[Note 5: The asbestos used in the Gooch filter should be of the finest quality and capable of division into minute fibrous particles. A coa.r.s.e felt is not satisfactory.]
[Note 6: The precipitate must be washed with warm water until it is absolutely free from silver and sodium nitrates. It may be a.s.sumed that the sodium salt is completely removed when the wash-water shows no evidence of silver. It must be borne in mind that silver chloride is somewhat soluble in hydrochloric acid, and only a single drop should be added. The washing should be continued until no cloudiness whatever can be detected in 3 cc. of the washings.
Silver chloride is but slightly soluble in water. The solubility varies with its physical condition within small limits, and is about 0.0018 gram per liter at 18C. for the curdy variety usually precipitated. The chloride is also somewhat soluble in solutions of many chlorides, in solutions of silver nitrate, and in concentrated nitric acid.
As a matter of economy, the filtrate, which contains whatever silver nitrate was added in excess, may be set aside. The silver can be precipitated as chloride and later converted into silver nitrate.]
[Note 7: The use of the Gooch filter commends itself strongly when a considerable number of halogen determinations are to be made, since successive portions of the silver halides may be filtered on the same filter, without the removal of the preceding portions, until the crucible is about two thirds filled. If the felt is properly prepared, filtration and washing are rapidly accomplished on this filter, and this, combined with the possibility of collecting several precipitates on the same filter, is a strong argument in favor of its use with any but gelatinous precipitates.]
!Method B. With the Use of a Paper Filter!