Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Precipitate

A precipitate is a solid that is formed during a chemical reaction.

Precipitate formation is useful in detecting the type of cation in an unknown salt. To do this, an alkali first reacts with the unknown salt to produce a precipitate which is the hydroxide of the unknown salt.

To identify the cation, the colour of the precipitate and its solubility in excess are noted.

Resources