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Copper - my two cent's worth...
> Re: removing copper
> >
> > (Boston?) area water. Why don't you try to remove (reduce) it?? You
> > can just add a drop of iron chloride. You have to be carefull though
> > because in this process hydrogen carbonate is consumed and this may
> > lead to a fall of Ph value (on overdose only). As far as I can think
> >
> I can't imagine how this would work. I'm afraid the posting
> above makes little sense.
>
> Paul Sears (One of the chemists on the list) Ottawa, Canada
>
As (another Chemist on the list) I must concur with Mr. Sears. Reduced
Iron will reduce copper in solution (the old iron nail in the copper
sulphate solution trick..) but reduced copper is not necessarily REMOVED
copper. I remember reading of someone accidently dropping a copper penny
into a tank of anglefish. He could not fathom why everything died until
he found the chalky blue assasin hiding in the gravel much, much later...
Again, I recommend a ion exchange resin to permenantly remove the fatal
cupric nemesis (on a transient basis). Zeolite is readily available and is
recharged like a battery (by soaking it in a salt solution). Salt -
Sodium chloride - is generally used, but this tends to increase the
Sodium concentration over time (bad for plants, fish and those with
hypertension). A clever route around this is to use Potassium chloride,
but this is not generally available to the public. Bostonians (and those
of you who have high Copper concentrations in the public water supply)
might actually benefit from the "sand method" mentioned earlier. I
suspect the sand has enough lime to drive the soluable Copper into its
insoluable carbonate salt, which the sand then will filter out rather
effectivly if one percolates the tainted water through it. Of course,
the excess lime will increase the PH somewhat, but remember, Copper is
far less toxic at a higher PH.
I have no idea how "hydrogen Carbonate" (Coca Cola Fizz) is consumed by
an overdose of Iron chloride in a solution of copper ions...
Roger L. Sieloff