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Registered Member #316
Joined: Mon Mar 13 2006, 01:30PM
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 212
Tonight I was electrolyzing ammonium nitrate dissolved in water to create nitrogen gas and ammonia. When I accidentally submerged the copper wires attached to my carbon electrodes, the solution started to turn a deep blue. I've google searched for half an hour, but can't seem to figure out what this blue stuff is, and I'm not too knowledgeable about chemistry. Can someone tell me what I've done and how to dispose of or use whatever this blue solution is?
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
My guess is that it's a cue for an old joke. What's copper nitrate? Overtime pay for police officers.
If you sort out the electrodes so the carbon (rather than the copper wires) is back in the solution and keep electrolysing, the copper will plate out onto the cathode and the solution should go clear again.
Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
If you have electrolyzed copper in ammonium nitrate, you have made the deep blue compound Tetramminecopper Nitrate, TACN, an unstable explosive in its dry form. In dilute form it won't hurt anything, so it will be fine to dump. Many unwitting chemists have unknowingly made this compound and been injured.
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
Chris wrote ...
If you have electrolyzed copper in ammonium nitrate, you have made the deep blue compound Tetramminecopper Nitrate, TACN, an unstable explosive in its dry form. In dilute form it won't hurt anything, so it will be fine to dump. Many unwitting chemists have unknowingly made this compound and been injured.
You can only make the tetramine salt if you have a very high concentration of free ammonia so I doubt that it was fromed here.
Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
Well the tetrammine complex has a very distinctive dark/deep blue color, much more so than ordinary copper nitrate, which btw is the only other salt possible here from the selection of ions. So if it has that color, it has TACN. However since it was just from some little copper wires I would guess the tetrammine copper concentration is still much less than the ammonium nitrate concentration, depending on how long it was left to electrolyze anyhow. Complete electrolysis of the solution would yield nothing but nitric acid and copper nitrate I would think, but would take quite a long time.
Clearly it is wisest in any case to air on the side of caution.
Registered Member #316
Joined: Mon Mar 13 2006, 01:30PM
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 212
Chris wrote ...
If you have electrolyzed copper in ammonium nitrate, you have made the deep blue compound Tetramminecopper Nitrate, TACN, an unstable explosive in its dry form. In dilute form it won't hurt anything, so it will be fine to dump. Many unwitting chemists have unknowingly made this compound and been injured.
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Electrolysis of aqueous ammonium nitrate solution: what's this blue stuff?
