Re:One Way to Fight California's Drought: Desalt the Ocean
by gus_massa on Monday August 03, 2015 @05:17PM
(#9999888)
It's almost impossible to use a chemical reaction to precipitate sodium and chloride. Almost all their compounds are soluble in water. [1]
The easier way to precipitate chloride is using silver, you mix the salted water with silver nitrate and the silver chloride goes to the bottom. But you now have a sodium nitrate solution. (It's safe to do this experiment at home, if you are careful and follow minimal laboratory safetely procedures. But don't drink the water!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_chloride#Chemistry
Just assume that all the sodium salts are soluble. The only example that I remember is the sodium uranil acetate salt. But it's definitely not a good idea to drink that water later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranyl_acetate#Safety
[1] I think that this is the main reasons why most of the salt in the sea is sodium chloride. Related question: Why doesn't the sea have too much potassium?
The easier way to precipitate chloride is using silver, you mix the salted water with silver nitrate and the silver chloride goes to the bottom. But you now have a sodium nitrate solution. (It's safe to do this experiment at home, if you are careful and follow minimal laboratory safetely procedures. But don't drink the water!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_chloride#Chemistry
Just assume that all the sodium salts are soluble. The only example that I remember is the sodium uranil acetate salt. But it's definitely not a good idea to drink that water later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranyl_acetate#Safety
[1] I think that this is the main reasons why most of the salt in the sea is sodium chloride. Related question: Why doesn't the sea have too much potassium?