Rubidium alums chloride

Rubidium-alaun, m. rubidium alum, -chlorid, n. rubidium chloride, -jodid, n. rubidium iodide, -oxydhydrat, n. rubidium hydroxide, -platinchlorid, n. rubidium chloroplatinate. 

Precipitate with aq. ammonia. Evaporate the soln. down to about 100 c.c., and filter the ot liquid so as to remove calcium sulphate. The cone. soln. is sat. with ammonium alum and allowed to stand for some time. The mixed crystals of potassium, rubidium, and oeesium alums and of lithium salt are dissolved in 100 c.c. of distilled water and recrystal-lized. The recrystallization is repeated until the crystals show no spectroscopic reaction for potassium or lithium. The yield naturally depends on the variety of lepidolite employed. 100. grms of an average sample gives about 10 grms. of crude crystals and about 3 grms. of the purified caesium and rubidium alums. For the purification of caesium and rubidium salts, see the chlorides. The mother-liquors are treated with an excess of barium carbonate, boiled, and filtered. The filtrate is acidified with hydrochloric acid, and evaporated to dryness. The residue is extracted with absolute alcohol in which lithium chloride is soluble, and the other alkali chlorides are sparingly soluble. 

In the leaching processes, large volumes of liquid have to be handled, and the mother liquors contain large amounts of salts in soln. much potassium chloride is rendered less useful since these liquors are boiled down and utilized in other ways— principally as fertilizers. The mother liquors also yield rubidium alum. The cost of the operation, small as it is, does not enable potassium sulphate to be prepared of a sufficient degree of purity to enable it to displace the potassium chloride and sulphuric acid process which can be made to yield almost the theoretical amount of sulphate. Consequently, most of the schonite—natural or artificial—is sold as a fertilizer. 

Preparation.—The main source of rubidium compounds is the residual mother-liquor obtained in the extraction of potassium chloride from carnallite. The solution contains rubidium-carnallite, RbCl,MgCI2, a substance transformed by addition of aluminium sulphate into rubidium-alum, RbAl(S04)8,12H20. Separation from the potassium and caesium salts also present is effected by fractional crystallization of the alum,8 of the chloroplatinate 8 Rb2PtCl8, of rubidium-iron-alum,4 and of the double chloride with stannous chloride5 or with antimony trichloride.6... 

Rubidium also may be recovered by the chlorostannate method. In this method the alkali metal carbonate solution obtained from the mixed alum is treated with carbon dioxide. Most potassium is precipitated as bicarbonate, KHCO3. Addition of hydrochloric acid converts the carbonates to chlorides. The chlorides are converted to chlorostannates by carefully adding stoichiometric quantities of stannic chloride at pH just below 7 ... 

In 1863 R. C. Bottger of Frankfort-on-the Main found that thallium occurs in some spring waters. A certain salt mixture from Nauheim contained, in addition to the chlorides of sodium, potassium, and magnesium, those of cesium, rubidium, and thallium. Since he was able to prepare a thallium ferric alum exactly analogous to potassium ferric alum, he regarded thallium as an alkali metal (72, 73). Although it is sometimes univalent like sodium and potassium, it is now classified in Group III of the periodic system. 

Uses Of the Stassfurt salts.—The magnesium compounds in the Stassfurt salts are used for the preparation of magnesium and of its salts. The potash salts are an essential constituent of many fertilizers used in agriculture, etc. 22 and potassium chloride is the starting-point for the manufacture of the many different kinds of potassium salts used in commerce—carbonate, hydroxide, nitrate, chlorate, chromate, alum, ferrocyanide, cyanide, iodide, bromide, etc. Chlorine and bromine are extracted by electrolysis and other processes from the mother liquids obtained in the purification of the potash salts. Boric acid and borax are prepared from boracite. Caesium and rubidium are recovered from the crude carnallite and sylvite. 

An intimate mixture ot 274 grms. of rubidium iron alum, or 260 grms. of rubidium aluminium alum with 100 grms. of calcium carbonate, and 27 grms. of ammonium chloride, is heated in a nickel crucible to a dull red heat until ammonia vapours are no longer evolved, and then the temp, is raised to redness. The product is ground with a litre of cold water for 15 minutes filtered by suction and washed with 400 c.c. of water, added in small portions at a time. The combined sulphuric acid is precipitated by the addition of barium hydroxide, and the filtered liquid boiled while a stream of carbon dioxide is passed through the soln. If the soln. loses its alkaline reaction, and yet retains some calcium, a little rubidium carbonate must be added to precipitate calcium carbonate. The soln. is then treated with hydrochloric acid and evaporated. 

Preparation.—The isolation of caesium compounds is facilitated by the relatively low solubility of certain double salts, such as the alums, chloroplatinates, and double chlorides with antimony, tin, and lead.3 Its separation from rubidium depends on the solubility of its carbonate in alcohol, that of rubidium being only slightly soluble. 

Quantitatively cesium does not appear to be particularly abundant in the earth s crust. It is generally found as a constituent of complex minerals, not in a pure halide form as are potassium and sodium. The two best known minerals are pollucite and rhodizite, though cesium can be found dispersed in rocks, soils, and clays [3]. High-purity cesium is produced from Canadian pollucite ore by a cyclic sulfuric acid leach followed by fractional crystallization to give a rubidium-ftee cesium alum, which is subsequently converted to cesium chloride by thermal decomposition and ion exchange [4j. 

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