• Question: what happens if you mix sodium nitrate and copper sulphate together

    Asked by 1234554david to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 11 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      Hi David. Im not actually sure! My instinct would be to say there would be no reaction, because copper is not a very reactive metal so won’t be able to displace the sodium and form sodium sulphate and copper nitrate. However if you mixed copper sulphate with pure sodium then the sodium would displace copper because it is much more reactive and you would get copper metal and sodium sulphate.

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      I’ve not got the foggiest idea.

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      If Will isn’t sure, then I definitely wouldn’t have a clue. Sorry!

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      Hi David! I’ve read through observations of people who have done the experiment, and they saw that nothing happened in the two liquids they mixed, no flakes or crystals appeared, no gas appeared either, and no extra water was produced – so they concluded that no reaction occured. But they did the experiment because they thought they might have had a reaction – so it’s a great question to ask! Why do you ask?

Comments

  • Photo: Will

    Will commented on :

    As I wasn’t sure, I decided to try it yesterday afternoon and see what happened, but as Sarah explains there were no bubbles or gas and no colour change, so unfortunately they don’t react. Thanks for your question.