Converting Copper...and Back Again!

In Honors Chemistry we explored the idea of Conservation of Matter - the idea that atoms cannot be created or destroyed in chemical reactions.

We first heated pure copper to convert if to copper(II) oxide. Many students were surprised that the mass increased after heating!

Then we reacted the copper(II) oxide with dilute hydrochloric acid to dissolve the copper +2 ions in solution.

Finally, we reacted the blue aqueous copper +2 solution with either zinc or aluminum to retrieve the copper again!

(thanks to BigScienceNotebook for some of the images!)