fun with copper?

Question

i have a little experiment happening and i want to know what, if any are some good tests for both copper(II) acetate and copper(II) chloride
also if you think copper(II) chloride can be a hydrate
would love some awnsers by monday

i have a little experiment happening and i want to know what, if any are some good tests for both copper(II) acetate and copper(II) chloride to see if that is what the two substances i have really are those
also if you think copper(II) chloride can be a hydrate
would love some awnsers by monday

i want the tests to see if the substances i have are really copper(II) acetate and copper(II) chloride
or if i need to spend more time thinking on what the heck they could be

Answer 1

Copper(II) acetate exists as a monohydrate, while copper(II) chloride exists as a dihydrate. If you heat both gently, you should be able to prove loss of water by change of colour from blue to pink in cobalt chloride paper. Also, the smell of vinegar should be evident from decomposing the copper(II) acetate. Adding either HCl or NaCl solution to the chloride could be rewarding too. You could precipitate white silver chloride from a solution of copper(II) chloride by adding a few drops of silver nitrate. Filter and wash the precipitate to show that it is white. (It will of course darken to purple or black on exposure to light). Silver acetate is reasonably soluble, so no precipitate expected with a small amount of dilute AgNO3.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Are you looking to test for the presence of Copper ions in general, or the presence of specifically those two compounds?
And/Or are you looking to test for one or the other of the two compound, or both together?

A lot of the tests which come to mind would either only test for the presence of Copper ions in general.
What other ions are in solution, if any?

More information would not hurt.


EDIT:
So you apparently have two mystery substances (powders?) and you want to confirm if each is actually what you suspect them to be.
The Copper ion in solution is pretty easy to stop as it will form a complex with H2O and turn the solution a distinctive blue color.
Testing for the Chloride ion in Copper Chloride can be done by adding some cation which will form an insoluble compound with Cl-, such as Silver+1 to form a AgCl precipitate.
Copper Chloride is very soluble in water, so this test should be easy to do.

Copper Acetate is soluble in water, but not nearly to the degree as CuCl2. Never the less, one could test for the Cu+2 ion in much the same way as before.
Cu(C2H3O2)2 is said to have an odor similar to vinegar (acetic acid) due to the acetate ion. Trying to precipitate out an acetate compound is not nearly as easy as it is to precipitate out a Chloride compound with common substances.