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Mmesoma Nwajagu

Some questions about FeCl2 experiment results.

Chemistry point  Follow
Air oxygen is enough.

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Carey Sublette  Follow
Over the past two days I recrystallized and decanted the solution, I have come up with a product that seems about half FeCl2 and half FeCl3. What must have happened is only some of the solution oxidized while I left it to sit for a week, but not enough to result in a color change. I will be running two more experiments off of this to try and produce both iron(II) and (III) solutions respectively based on different waiting periods before recrystallization. I would like to thank you all for your help.

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Chukwuebuka Sunday  Follow
Quote from:
shouldn't I have noticed a color change before I boiled the solution?

To some extent yes, no idea why you have not seen it. As Bill wrote, check if the crystallization made immediately won't give better effect.

Also note most of Fe(II) compounds are not stable in contact with air, they will slowly oxidize.

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Darren Farley  Follow
@Count of Monte Cristo
Have you done the experiment of
Doing your process and NOT waiting the week to see if you have the same result?

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Art Hobson  Follow
So it slowly oxidized over the past week? But then shouldn't I have noticed a color change before I boiled the solution?

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Caren McElrea  Follow
Oxygen in air can easily oxidize iron (II) chloride hydrates to Iron (III) chloride hydrates.
The hexahydrate is usually given as the simplified empirical formula FeCl3⋅6H2O. It should be shown as trans-[Fe(H2O)4Cl2]Cl⋅2H2O and the systematic name tetraaquadichloroiron(III) chloride dihydrate, which more clearly represents its structure.
From this, you can clearly see that it's the oxygen that oxidizes the iron, not chlorine, so as long as an excess of chloride ion is available in a solution of iron (II) chloride, (III) chloride will form - granted available oxygen or hydrogen peroxide is present.

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