Making Salts - Required Practical 1
Ever wondered how table salt is actually made in a lab? This practical shows you how to create pure, dry salts from scratch using simple chemical reactions.
You'll be mixing copper oxide (an insoluble base) with sulfuric acid to make copper sulfate crystals. The key trick is adding the copper oxide until it stops fizzing - this means you've used up all the acid and have some left over to filter out.
The final steps involve crystallisation - basically letting water evaporate slowly so perfect crystals form. You'll heat the mixture gently, then leave it for 24 hours to get those satisfying blue crystals that look like tiny gems.
Top Tip: Always add the base in excess and filter it out - this guarantees your salt will be pure!
