Hard6 marksExtended Response
Chemical changesMaking SaltsRequired PracticalsAcids and Bases

AQA GCSE · Question 11.1 · Chemical changes

This question is about making a soluble salt. Plan a method to make pure, dry crystals of zinc chloride from zinc carbonate and a dilute acid.

How to approach this question

This is a standard method for making a soluble salt from an insoluble base/carbonate and an acid. Break the method down into logical stages:\n1. **Reacting:** What acid do you need to make zinc chloride? How do you make sure all the acid has reacted? (Hint: add the solid until it is in excess).\n2. **Separating:** How do you remove the unreacted solid from the salt solution?\n3. **Crystallising:** How do you get solid crystals from the salt solution? (Hint: evaporate some water then let it cool).\n4. **Drying:** How do you dry the final crystals?

Full Answer

To make a soluble salt from an insoluble reactant, the following four-stage process is used:\n\n1. **Reaction:** The correct acid is needed to provide the chloride part of the salt, so **hydrochloric acid (HCl)** is used. Zinc carbonate is an insoluble solid. It is added to the acid until no more reacts (the fizzing stops) and there is solid left over. This is called adding in **excess** and ensures all the acid is neutralised. The reaction is: ZnCO₃(s) + 2HCl(aq) → ZnCl₂(aq) + H₂O(l) + CO₂(g).\n\n2. **Filtration:** The excess (unreacted) zinc carbonate must be removed from the zinc chloride solution. This is done by **filtration**. The zinc chloride solution passes through the filter paper as the **filtrate**.\n\n3. **Crystallisation:** To get solid crystals from the solution, most of the water must be removed. The filtrate is gently heated in an evaporating basin to evaporate about half the water, creating a saturated solution. This solution is then left to cool slowly. As it cools, the solubility of the zinc chloride decreases, and pure crystals form.\n\n4. **Drying:** The crystals are separated from the remaining liquid (e.g., by decanting or filtering) and then dried, for example, by patting with filter paper or in a low-temperature oven.

Common mistakes

✗ Using the wrong acid (e.g., sulfuric acid would make zinc sulfate).\n✗ Not adding the zinc carbonate in excess, which would leave unreacted acid in the final solution.\n✗ Trying to evaporate all the water to dryness, which can lead to impure crystals or decomposition.\n✗ Mixing up the order of the steps (e.g., crystallising before filtering).

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