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How to Remove Chlorine Out of Sylvite

Sylvite is the mineral form of a salt called potassium chloride. Like most potassium compounds, it dissolves quite readily in water. You can separate the chlorine or chloride ions from the sylvite by first dissolving it, then adding another salt that will combine with the chloride ions to form an insoluble precipitate. You have several options you could choose, though one of the simplest is a common laboratory reagent called silver nitrate.

Things You'll Need

Gloves
Lab coat
Eye protection
2 centrifuge tubes
Sample of sylvite
Deionized water
Graduated cylinder
1 molar solution of silver nitrate
Centrifuge
Small 25 mL beaker

Instructions

- 1
  Put on a lab coat, a pair of gloves and eye protection -- the first thing you should always do when working in a lab.
- 2
  Add one gram of sylvite to your centrifuge tube, followed by 5 mL of deionized water: Stir to dissolve. If the sylvite will not dissolve completely, add a couple more milliliters of water and continue to stir.
- 3
  Add 5 mL of your silver nitrate solution. You should observe the formation of a precipitate at the bottom of the centrifuge tube.
- 4
  Find a second centrifuge tube and add water, until it contains roughly the same amount of fluid as the first tube. Cap both of them and insert them into the centrifuge directly across from each other.
- 5
  Close the device and centrifuge both tubes for two minutes.
- 6
  Remove the tubes and uncap them. Carefully decant the fluid from the silver nitrate and sylvite tube, pouring it into a beaker without dislodging the solid at the bottom of the centrifuge tube. The solid in your tube contains the chloride ions from the original sylvite but combined with silver to form silver chloride.

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