Qualitative Analysis of Cations: A General Chemistry Experiment

This lab explores how the composition of a solution can be determined using solubility rules and the formation of colored compounds. By selectively precipitating salts one at a time from the solution, the presence of certain cations can be determined. For cations not readily precipitated, they will be complexed in solution resulting in color changes. We will be using a qualitative analysis scheme to determine the cations present in an unknown solution. This scheme is "qualitative" because it informs you of composition, but is not "quantitative" because it does not measure the amounts of any of the cations.