rescuing wet chlorides

[thar]

I have some ancient chlorides which have taken in water and turned mushy, and others that have dried out again into a solid block. As I understand these have merely dissolved, not reacted with the water, so heat drying them out should restore a usable chloride of lithium, magnesium.
Am I right? Only used for flame tests so as long as it yields mobile metal ions I am not too bothered about any other changes.

 

[Luis Em]

to be honest not worth the effort - if only used for flame tests then use them in the spray version no need to dry them. Nice effect.

 

[thar]

thanks
Trouble is teacher wants solid and flame test wires. And logistically I can't make 10 sets of 6 ions each in sprays. They normally do it in a circus apparently but now they have to have everything for each student so they don't move about. I can give them semi-dried mush, not really a problem. I was just wondering if it would still produce a good colour.

 

[ajmc98]

For the hygroscopic ones just put in a dessicator if you have one or dry them as best you can, the others in theory should be salvaged by dissolving and evaporating the excess water leaving the hydrated salt.

 

[Fleur]

I'd give the practical you use them in a try to see if it works how you want it to! If it does, problem solved! If it doesn't I'd give drying them out a go, might as well if you have a drying cabinet/oven.

 

[clairelucas]

Our KCl is often a solid block- use a handblender (in the fume cupboard, as it raises a lot of 'dust')

 

[Luis Em]

we find a pestle and mortar is enough break any solid chunks

 

[thar]

thanks
I dried it out as much as I could in the time, and slightly mushy lithium gave a lovely colour, and magnesium didn't do anything weird, so that is all good.

 

[Jburns]

I wish my new Ferric Chloride had turned mushy like my old stuff! It was a pain to sort and it was giant lumps of rock pretty much

 

[Medchemist]

thanks
Trouble is teacher wants solid and flame test wires. And logistically I can't make 10 sets of 6 ions each in sprays. They normally do it in a circus apparently but now they have to have everything for each student so they don't move about. I can give them semi-dried mush, not really a problem. I was just wondering if it would still produce a good colour.

They would still make the right colour if they've just taken in some water. You'll want to keep the stock bottle pure though so perhaps chisel some small lumps out and give a small lump of each salt in each 'kit' maybe with a pestle and mortar as a hint.