The following lab is a supplement to section 2D.3. In the lab students remove
Cu from CuCO3 by heating the compound in an airless environment.
To achieve this natural gas is purged into the test tube which contains copper
carbonate and then flared-off. This lab requires a lot of caution and may
be best done as a demo. The copper carbonate must be strongly heated. Normal
lab burners are not very effective. I normally use Fischer Burners. The
experiment produces very good results quantitatively. The calculations in
the lab go beyond those given in the text. The actvity reinforces concepts
found in this section: pyrometallurgy, redox reactions, and % composition
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O'Donnell