Produce Copper Carbonate with Electrolysis

[max6333]

If I made an electroyte with water and sodium bicarbonate and then electrolised it with copper electrodes would it produce copper carbonate on one of the electrodes?

 

[Borek]

More like basic carbonate.

 

[max6333]

You sure?

 

[Borek]

Yes. Preparing pure carbon carbonate is quite tricky.

 

[max6333]

If someone is looking at this later,I tryed it and it worked great.Made rather pure copper carbonate until it ran out of electrolyte ( then copper hydroxide was made slowly).Turned to copper oxide nicely too

 

[Borek]

And what method have you used to check the purity of the product?

 

[max6333]

I didnt check how pure it is , but since it turned to copper oxide(mixed with hcl to test) I conclude its pretty pure.

 

[Borek]

I didnt check how pure it is , but since it turned to copper oxide(mixed with hcl to test) I conclude its pretty pure.

Please elaborate, I don't understand what you did.

Besides, I have a feeling whatever you did would yield identical result if you were to use a basic copper carbonate.

 

[max6333]

Now I you wrote carbon carbonate and now I am confused.So I'm going to start over:This is how I got the whole thing I ask will it make copper cabonate, you say it will make just carbonate(even tho that doesn't really exist), i do it, i make copper carbonate , i heat it up it turns black(becomes copper oxide), i test it with HCl and find out that it is copper oxide.

 

[Borek]

"Copper carbonate" and "basic copper carbonate" are two different chemical compounds. Basic carbonate is easy to prepare (and it is the green patina you see on the copper), copper carbonate is tricky to prepare (as in typical reactions in water you will produce the basic carbonate).

Both carbonate and basic carbonate decompose on heating producing copper oxide.

To make sure what you made you should precisely measure what is the copper percentage in your product, as that's the simplest to check difference between both compounds.

 

[max6333]

Ok ,I undestand, Then i guess i did make the basic one, but it works good for me

 

[NascentOxygen]

Preparing pure carbon carbonate is quite tricky.

I daresay it is.

 

[NascentOxygen]

If someone is looking at this later,I tryed it and it worked great.Made rather pure copper carbonate until it ran out of electrolyte ( then copper hydroxide was made slowly).Turned to copper oxide nicely too

One of the plates stayed clean, and bubbled off H₂? How did the other one change?