F. S. Havens — Separation of Aluminum, etc. Ill 



Aet. XV. — The Separation of Aluminum and Beryllium 

 by the action of Hydrochloric Acid; by Franke S. 

 Havens. 



[Contributions from the Kent Chemical Laboratory of Yale University— LXIY.] 



In a former paper* a method was described for the determi- 

 nation of aluminum in the presence of iron, based upon the 

 fact that the hydrous aluminum chloride A1C1 3 . 6H 2 is prac- 

 tically insoluble in a mixture of strong hydrochloric acid and 

 anhydrous ether saturated with hydrochloric acid gas, while the 

 ferric chloride is entirely soluble in that medium. 



The work to be described in this paper is an extension of 

 this process to cover the separation of aluminum from beryl- 

 lium, with the subsequent determination of the beryllium by 

 weighing as the oxide after conversion to the nitrate and igni- 

 tion. 



The aluminum chloride solution was prepared by dissolving 

 the so-called pure aluminum chloride of commerce in as little 

 water as possible, precipitating and washing free from iron with 

 strong hydrochloric acid, dissolving the chloride thus obtained 

 in water, precipitating the hydroxide by ammonia, washing the 

 precipitate free from all alkalies, and redissolving it in hot 

 hydrochloric acid. From this solution, after cooling, gaseous 

 hydrochloric acid precipitated the pure hydrous chloride. This 

 prepared chloride was dissolved in water and the solution 

 standardized by precipitating with ammonia the hydroxide 

 from weighed portions and weighing as the oxide. The solu- 

 tion of beryllium used was made by dissolving in water beryl- 

 lium chloride found to be free from iron by the sulfocyanate 

 test, and giving no precipitate when tested by the gaseous 

 hydrochloric acid process to be described later on. This was 

 standardized by precipitating with ammonia the hydroxide 

 from weighed portions and weighing the ignited oxide in the 

 usual manner. 



In the experiments of Table I, weighed portions of the 

 aluminum solution were mixed with portions of the beryllium 

 chloride solution representing from *01 gram to *10 gram of 

 the oxide, an equal volume of a mixture of strong hydrochloric 

 acid and ether (taken in equal parts) was added to the solution 

 of the mixed chlorides, and the whole was completely satu- 

 rated with gaseous hydrochloric acid while kept at a tempera- 

 ture of about 15° C. by immersing the receptacle in running 

 water. Ether was added, equal in volume to the aqueous 



* Gooch and Havens, this Journal, vol. ii, December, 1896. 



