Talk:Schweizer's reagent

Concentration of Cu

Does anyone know the concentration of copper in the Schweizer's reagent? I started from commercial Cu(OH)2 and was able to dissolve 1 g into 130 mL of concentrated ammonia, i.e about 0.5% of Cu ions. However, when used freshly precipitated Cu(OH)2, it only took 40 mL, i.e. about 1.6% of Cu ions. I need to prepare the most concentrated Cu possible, but the internet references only show how to dissolve cellulose. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.247.199.50 (talk) 17:21, 7 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Bis-aqua complex

I have commented out the structure of "Cu(H₂O)₂(NH₃)₄" for the following reasons

It is not a structure of the hydroxide which the article is about
There is no reference to a crystal structure or any other structural data.
The sulfate salt is known to contain the tetrahedral ion [Cu((NH₃)₄]²⁺.

Has the crystal structure of the title compound been determined? What about the structure in solution? Judging from the colour shown in the picture the Cu ion is tetrahedral in solution. According to the spectrochemical series the colour of a bis-aqua complex would be intermediate beween the colour of the tetrammine and the hexa-aqua ion, Petergans (talk) 07:38, 5 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Good catch. As far as I can tell, the structure has not been determined. It seems unlikely to get a hydroxide salt of an aquo complex. Search of the Karlsuhe database for inorganic structures gives several Cu-NH3 species, but none with Cu, NH3, H2O, and OH- together. Possibly better characterized are the en species. --Smokefoot (talk) 12:54, 5 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]