An examination of some methods employed in determining the atomic weight of CadmiumBucher, John Emery
History
An examination of some methods employed in determining the atomic weight of Cadmium
Bucher, John Emery
Cadmium; Thesis (Ph. D.)
The oxides resulting from these determinations were always tested for
oxides of nitrogen, sometimes by using meta phenylene diamine and at
other times by sulphanilic acid and naphthylamine sulphate, but no
traces were ever found. The average of the determinations made in
porcelain crucibles is 112.08. Morse and Jones obtained the same figure
or, if their results are reduced to the vacuum standard, 112.06, by the
same method under the same conditions. The results of the determinations
made in platinum crucibles are equally constant, but their average is
111.88 being .20 of a unit lower. Therefore, more oxide is obtained when
platinum crucibles are used instead of porcelain ones. In two cases the
platinum crucibles were weighed at the end of the determinations after
the cadmium oxide had been removed. Their weight remained unchanged. The
most probable explanation of these facts seems to be that something is
retained in the oxide in both cases, but that the amount is greater in
the determination made in platinum crucibles than in those in which
porcelain ones were employed. We should expect this, because in
porcelain crucibles some of the oxide is absorbed forming a silicate,
and any volatile impurity must be expelled from this part of the oxide.
Not finding oxides of nitrogen, it was thought that gases probably
nitrogen and oxygen might be occluded although Richards and Rogers
(Amer. Chem. Jour. 15, 567.) had examined cadmium oxide prepared from
the nitrate and found only a trace of gas. Accordingly two specimens of
cadmium oxide obtained in the above determinations were powdered in an
agate mortar and boiled with water for some time in order to remove any
adhering air. They were then dissolved in dilute hydrochloric acid from
which the air had been removed by boiling. A small amount of gas was
found in each case but not nearly enough to account for the difference
of .31 unit in the atomic weight of cadmium between 112.38 and the oxide
method. In fact not more than about one sixth of the amount required was
found. It may be that the powdering of the oxide and then boiling up in
water may have been to severe a treatment, and that the greater part of
the occluded gas escaped during these processes. It seems that there is
at least some error due to occluded gases in methods involving the
decomposition of cadmium nitrate to oxide, but no satisfactory idea of
its magnitude could be obtained from these two experiments as carried
out.
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