The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Tell us more and i'll try to help
Reply 2
strips of magnesium ribbon become corroded on their surface, if they are left lying around in the lab for several days. The corrosion layer is mainly a mixture of magnesium oxide and magnesium hydroxide, but a small amount of magnesium carbonate is sometimes present.

plan experiments
a) find out whether or not the corrosion contains magnesium carbonate
b)to determine the % purity by mass of magnesium in a corroded sample of magnesium ribbon using an acid of your choice
Reply 3
Ahh yes, sumone else posted about this, the carbonated can be detected if it fizzes with HCl but unfortunatly Mg dissolves in HCl
Reply 4
Im pretty sure i can find out if it contains carbonate, but not quite sure what it wants me to do with the acid. Any suggestions???
Reply 5
I mean im not sure how to find the % mass with an acid, is it hinting at a titration or is it another method??
Reply 6
have you covered redox titrations?
Reply 7
umm.....no not in AS
Reply 8
Then it could be more difficult cos if you did a titration with manganate 7 i rekon youcould find the mass and do a % mass calc and that would be it, yeah we didnt do redox until A2 so i'm baffled now
Reply 9
i figured everythin out, but thanks everyone
Reply 10
Good, what was the answer