So I was trying to make some copper acetate crystals at home, and instead of the nice blue I was expecting, I ended up with this murky green sludge that just won't crystallize. I followed the basic vinegar and hydrogen peroxide method, but I'm wondering if my copper source—some old plumbing pipe I sanded—might have had other metals in it that messed things up. Has anyone else run into this kind of frustrating result when trying this?
Yeah blue is what copper acetate should look like so a murky green sludge hints at impurities or other metal salts.
I am skeptical the pipe is the whole story maybe the vinegar or the oxidizer interacted with other metals and changed copper acetate into a green mess.
If your plumbing pipe carried iron or zinc in the alloy those ions could form mixed copper salts that look green and mess with copper acetate crystals.
Meh I tried something similar once and got a pale goo that never crystallized and I just gave up.
Could be a matter of pH drift or too much water who knows what else remains in the solution?
Next time I would try a purer copper sample and control the conditions and see if copper acetate crystals appear I am not promising results though.