How can you separate ferric chloride and sodium hydroxide in a solution?

1 Answer
Feb 8, 2018

Refer to the explanation.

Explanation:

It would be difficult to separate ferric chloride #("FeCl"_3")#, and sodium hydroxide #("NaOH")# in a solution because they react to form the solid precipitate ferric hydroxide #("Fe(OH)"_3")#, and aqueous sodium chloride #("NaCl")#.

The balanced equation is:

#"FeCl"_3("aq")+"3NaOH(aq)"##rarr##"Fe(OH)"_3("s")+"3NaCl(aq)"#

You could use filtration to separate ferric hydroxide, a reddish brown precipitate, and sodium chloride.

If you were asked to give the chemical composition of the residue in the separating process of ferric hydroxide and sodium chloride, and you filtered and thoroughly rinsed the reddish brown precipitate, then the chemical composition would be #"Fe(OH)"_3"#.