Unless you pre-leached your wood ash in water and drained it before reacting it with HCL, then it also contains some amounts of Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) in it, hence you were getting that high pH value. That’s the reason why it was called *potash* in ancient times. Thanks for acknowledging in the end that your CaCl2 has some KCL contamination in it. Had you used dry sea weeds to burn, the Sodium contamination would have been higher.
I got the high pH value when I was washing the ashes. I washed most of the soluble salts out but I definitely still had some sort of contamination. Also, thank you for commenting! I enjoy replaying to any comments I get.
@Tony´s Pastimes There´s also magnesium carbonate present in the insoluble part of the ashes, besides the calcium carbonate. It comes from the thermal decomposition of the chlorophyll. You can separate the calcium from magnesium, if you want, but it can be a bit tricky. One way is to add a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide a.k.a. limewater to the solution of calcium and magnesium chlorides to precipitate magnesium hydroxide while creating more calcium chloride. MgCl2 (aq) + Ca(OH)2 (aq) = Mg(OH)2 (s) + CaCl2 (aq)
great video
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have some more chemistry videos planned and they should be out by Thanksgiving.
Unless you pre-leached your wood ash in water and drained it before reacting it with HCL, then it also contains some amounts of Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) in it, hence you were getting that high pH value. That’s the reason why it was called *potash* in ancient times.
Thanks for acknowledging in the end that your CaCl2 has some KCL contamination in it.
Had you used dry sea weeds to burn, the Sodium contamination would have been higher.
I got the high pH value when I was washing the ashes. I washed most of the soluble salts out but I definitely still had some sort of contamination.
Also, thank you for commenting! I enjoy replaying to any comments I get.
@Tony´s Pastimes There´s also magnesium carbonate present in the insoluble part of the ashes, besides the calcium carbonate. It comes from the thermal decomposition of the chlorophyll. You can separate the calcium from magnesium, if you want, but it can be a bit tricky. One way is to add a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide a.k.a. limewater to the solution of calcium and magnesium chlorides to precipitate magnesium hydroxide while creating more calcium chloride.
MgCl2 (aq) + Ca(OH)2 (aq) = Mg(OH)2 (s) + CaCl2 (aq)
Thanks, I didn't know that I had the magnesium in there. If I ever need high purity CaCl2 I'll try it out. Also thanks for leaving a comment.
Hold up, Whos ashes do you have
No need to question the ashes. They are courtesy of my wood burning fireplace.