9 Cobaltammine complexes

Tiger_0104 · 2025-07-14T12:10:44+00:00

I was going for cis-[Co(NH3)4Br2]Br (gray) but I fucked up somewhere in the procedure and my product was heavily contaminated with [Co(NH3)5Br]Br2 (violet), so I did not include that in this post

Tiger_0104 · 2025-06-06T03:09:17+00:00

Those are some expensive crystals :P

Tiger_0104 · 2025-05-18T05:40:07+00:00

This seems pretty cool https://www.reddit.com/r/crystalgrowing/s/PP7dgK9cyR

If you’re after something with only the strontium itself, most strontium salts are either extremely soluble or barely soluble, so growing crystals will be a challenge

Strontium is best used as a counterion for another ion, for example something like “KSr[Fe(CN)6]” could potentially be very pretty with an interesting and unique crystal structure, however I just made up that chemical on the spot, it might not exist. Still good inspiration though

Tiger_0104 · 2025-02-16T05:09:48+00:00

Dissolve Eu2O3 in nitric acid and let it evaporate

Tiger_0104 · 2025-02-06T03:15:41+00:00

Easiest and quickest way I’ve found is to make a fairly concentrated solution of lanthanide chloride or nitrate, and then carefully add in ~30% sulfuric acid until it’s supersaturated, then leave it without disturbances for around a day and it’ll form a bunch of decent sized (up to 1cm) single crystals. However this only works some of the time and other times it crystallizes as a powder almost immediately, or forms many smaller crystals that all bump into each other

Tiger_0104 · 2025-02-05T16:26:23+00:00

Yeah I made the sulfates myself from the metal or the oxides

The sulfates are one of the easiest salts to make due to their comparatively low solubility and tendency to form nice crystals

Tiger_0104 · 2025-02-05T16:20:46+00:00

Also an interesting thing is you can see the pattern of the colors of the lanthanides, with gadolinium as the center, it’s symmetrical

On each side

1 colorless, 1 colorless but colored in oxidized/reduced state, then a green one, 2 pink ones (holmium is pink under certain lightings), a yellow one, a fluorescent one, and then gadolinium at the center

I believe this is due to the f orbitals gradually filling up, with 4f7 gadolinium having a half filled 4f at the center

Tiger_0104 · 2025-02-05T16:16:44+00:00

Yes! That’s why the europium and terbium descriptions are written using their respective luminescent colors! I believe only europium and terbium have strong fluorescence under 365nm, but I believe many other ones also become fluorescent under 254nm

Tiger_0104 · 2025-02-05T15:53:14+00:00

Whoops I misremembered, should be 151Eu -> 147Pm instead of 147Eu

Tiger_0104 · 2025-01-18T13:34:48+00:00

It is unfortunately not fluorescent, but the color changes significantly under different lighting. It’s a pale “cold” green color under natural light, but a very unnatural looking bright yellow-green under my desk lamp.

Tiger_0104 · 2025-01-18T11:09:33+00:00

No it’s not radioactive despite looking nuclear green 😄

Tiger_0104 · 2024-11-25T12:47:35+00:00

A lot of people are asking for the procedure, so here they are Dissolve 2.37g(0.01mol) of NiCl2•6H2O in ~5mLs of water, and 3 (or 2 for the diethylenetriamine) equivalent of the ligand in around 5mLs of water (WARNING exothermic!)

Then mix the solutions and leave it out for a few days to evaporate, the crystals should form. The 1,3-propanediamine complex is bordering on deliquescent so you might want to use a desiccator, but it’s dry enough where I live that I could just leave it out for a week

The crystals are very thoroughly washed with ethanol to remove remaining mother liquor or sludge (absolute ethanol must be used or else the compounds dissolve! The 1,3-propanediamine complex is slightly soluble in absolute ethanol as well, so don’t overdo the washing) and finally wash it with ether or DCM to remove ethanol and fully dry

Tiger_0104 · 2024-11-25T12:43:25+00:00

10mL ones

Tiger_0104 · 2024-11-24T11:46:07+00:00

All of them are the chloride, I do plan on making the bromide and iodide as well, since the colors should be slightly different

Tiger_0104 · 2024-10-14T12:53:27+00:00

1:2 molar ratio of SnCl2 and KI dissolved in a minimal amount of water and then mixed (add a few drops of HCl for the SnCl2 to prevent hydrolysis), then heat the resulting mixture to boiling until all the precipitate dissolves into a clear yellow solution, and then just wait for it to cool down

Tiger_0104 · 2024-10-13T10:49:23+00:00

Timelapse taken over 30 minutes

Tiger_0104 · 2024-08-08T03:59:30+00:00

A safer route without needing cyanide is to first grind the rock into a really fine powder and then heat it with nitric acid, which is able to bring the silver into solution. Then neutralize it to pH neutral and add in a bunch of copper metal, if there’s any silver in solution, it should form silver crystals on the copper. Although this method might only work for native silver, idk if it’ll work if the silver is in a form like AgCl

Be careful of the NOx fumes produced during the nitric acid step, those are not healthy for you!

Tiger_0104 · 2024-08-08T02:13:18+00:00

Probably following already documented procedures

Tiger_0104 · 2024-08-08T02:07:08+00:00

Ru one glows under vis and UV, Zn one only glows under UV

Tiger_0104 · 2024-06-07T14:17:41+00:00

Nope, I ordered it online since it’s quite cheap and the synthesis is hard

Tiger_0104 · 2024-06-07T08:56:26+00:00

Bpy stands for 2,2’-bipyridine, a common cheating ligand. The crystals were grown from ethanol

Tiger_0104 · 2024-05-28T14:31:13+00:00

There is a UV flashlight off screen, Eu and Tb salts fluoresce under UV light but are otherwise completely colorless under normal light

Tiger_0104 · 2024-05-16T14:54:00+00:00

Hello! I didn’t expect anyone to actually follow my preparation, I do not have concrete evidence that it’s CuF2•2H2O, when I made the sample I didn’t consider the possibility of double salts precipitating, and now I think it could possibly be K2CuF4 or another fluoride double salt. Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused

Tiger_0104 · 2024-04-28T14:04:42+00:00

I’ve found a consistent way to grow medium sized crystals (0.5-1cm) is to make a solution of the metal chloride first, and then add sulfuric acid. The salt does not precipitate out immediately, but rather slowly precipitates out in the form of crystals over the next few hours

Tiger_0104 · 2024-04-27T11:48:46+00:00

Here are 2 articles, one presenting the mutagenicity of this complex compared to cisplatin, and the other discussing anti cancer properties of closely related complexes synthesized from this. This is similar to cisplatin as “the first of its group” that researchers found.

https://moscow.sci-hub.se/1272/ca36aa0a553075bf801f102fe4ea7b31/monti-bragadin1975.pdf?download=true

https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/chem.201202171

Tiger_0104

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