I am trying to make a 10% Barium Chloride solution for a Year 12 quantitative sulfate analysis. It WILL NOT dissolve.
I've had it sitting on the magnetic stirrer for about half an hour and still the solution is totally cloudy. When I let it rest it looks like a flocculant - and settles to leave a clear supernatant.
I know Barium Chloride is supposed to be soluble in water at this concentration and I'm sure (I think) it used to dissolve to a clear solution when I made it up in the waters lab I used to work in.
I have had trouble with dissolving barium chloride in the past. Have you got heat as well as the magnetic stirrer? If it can dissolve 37g/100ml then 10% should be ok (that's 10g/100ml isn't it?). I remember I couldn't make a 1M solution because it just wouldn't dissolve.
Barium Chloride has a limit of 37g/100mL as a solubility constant. You will find that the BaCl2 will be difficult to dissolve at this mass with 100mL even upon heating, because it will just fall back out of solution once it is cooled as crystals.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Robb.....
Dr Robert Crosdale. MRACI. NSS. NSSA. NASA.
Ph.D (Chem), Post Grad Ph.D (Physics), M.Ed, B.Sc (Hons), Dip. Appl. Sc. (Chem)
Lake Munmorah High School.
University of New England.
University of New South Wales.
University of Newcastle.
To understand the Universe from our perspective, we need to look towards our own backyard first for answers.
It's pretty old. The bottles in the store are just labelled barium chloride with no information on molecular weight or whether its BaCl2 or BaCl2.2H2O. Either way it should still dissolve.
not sure if I can remember accurately but....From another life time, i used a method to determine sulfate by adding barium chloride to water samples and a ppt formed - the higher the conc of sulfate, the denser the suspension. If the amt of BaCl you're adding is below the solubility I'm wondering if there might be some reaction with the water you're using to make the solution. Is it tap water ( which often is great for my junior school here) or is it something better like distilled or deionised?
Just a thought.....or maybe I've got it all wrong.
Hey Jazz
Did you create that risk assessment sheet or is on some website?
How do I get access? as I wanted to create a reciepe data base and that would be re-inventing the wheel if this is out there
Hi
I did these Risk assessments sheets for the Parramatta Diocese Catholic Schools. They are accessible now through Staff net OH&S site.
They are combination of MSDS (latest upgrades), CSIS book and CLEEPS cards. As far as I know there is nothing similar on the net accept for the CLEEPS cards but they are from UK and they are not comply with our legislation 100%. I do have quite big recipe collection with risk assessments and I’ll be looking for the publisher soon. If I find someone who is interested I’ll let you now.
labels with a dot are included as well
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not sure if I can remember accurately but....From another life time, i used a method to determine sulfate by adding barium chloride to water samples and a ppt formed - the higher the conc of sulfate, the denser the suspension. If the amt of BaCl you're adding is below the solubility I'm wondering if there might be some reaction with the water you're using to make the solution. Is it tap water ( which often is great for my junior school here) or is it something better like distilled or deionised? 
