Note 25 — Chapter XIV · THE VALENCY AND SPECIFIC HEAT OF THE METALS. MAGNESIUM. CALCIUM, STRONTIUM, BARIUM, AND BERYLLIUM

The component parts of certain double salts diffuse at different rates, and as the diffused solution contains a different proportion of the component salts than the solution taken of the double salt, it shows that such salts are decomposed by water. According to Rüdorff, the double salts, like carnallite, MgK2(SO4)2,6H2O, and the alums, all belong to this order (1888). But such salts as tartar emetic, the double oxalates, and double cyanides are not separated by diffusion, which in all probability depends both on the relative rate of the diffusion of the component salts and on the degree of affinity acting between them. Those complex states of equilibrium which exist between water, the individual salts MX and NY, and the double salt MNXY, have been already partially analysed (as will be shown hereafter) in that case when the system is heterogeneous (that is, when something separates out in a solid state from the liquid solution), but in the case of equilibria in a homogeneous liquid medium (in a solution) the phenomenon is not so clear, because it concerns that very theory of solution which cannot yet be considered as established (Chapter I., Note 9, and others). As regards the heterogeneous decomposition of double salts, it has long been known that such salts as carnallite and K2Mg(SO4)2 give up the more soluble salt if an insufficient quantity of water for their complete solution be taken. The complete saturation of 100 parts of water requires at 0° 14·1, at 20° 25, and at 60° 50·2 parts of the latter double salt (anhydrous), while 100 parts of water dissolve 27 parts of magnesium sulphate at 0°, 36 parts at 20°, and 55 parts at 60°, of the anhydrous salt taken. Of all the states of equilibrium exhibited by double salts the most fully investigated as yet is the system containing water, sodium sulphate, magnesium sulphate, and their double salt, Na2Mg(SO4)2, which crystallises with 4 and 6 mol. OH2. The first crystallo-hydrate, MgNa2(SO4)2,4H2O, occurs at Stassfurt, and as a sedimentary deposit in many of the salt lakes near Astrakhan, and is therefore called astrakhanite. The specific gravity of the monoclinic prisms of this salt is 2·22. If this salt, in a finely divided state, be mixed with the necessary quantity of water (according to the equation MgNa2(SO4)2,4H2O + 13H2O = Na2SO4,10H2O + MgSO4,7H2O), the mixture solidifies like plaster of Paris into a homogeneous mass if the temperature be below 22° (Van't Hoff und Van Deventer, 1886; Bakhuis Roozeboom, 1887); but if the temperature be above this transition-point the water and double salt do not react on each other: that is, they do not solidify or give a mixture of sodium and magnesium sulphates. If a mixture (in equivalent quantities) of solutions of these salts be evaporated, and crystals of astrakhanite and of the individual salts capable of proceeding from it be added to the concentrated solution to avoid the possibility of a supersaturated solution, then at temperatures above 22° astrakhanite is exclusively formed (this is the method of its production), but at lower temperatures the individual salts are alone produced. If equivalent amounts of Glauber's salt and magnesium sulphate be mixed together in a solid state, there is no change at temperatures below 22°, but at higher temperatures astrakhanite and water are formed. The volume occupied by Na2SO4,10H2O in grams = 322/1·46 = 220·5 cubic centimetres, and by MgSO4,7H2O = 246/1·68 = 146·4 c.c.; hence their mixture in equivalent quantities occupies a volume of 366·9 c.c. The volume of astrakhanite = 334/2·22 = 150·5 c.c., and the volume of 13H2O = 234 c.c., hence their sum = 380·5 c.c., and therefore it is easy to follow the formation of the astrakhanite in a suitable apparatus (a kind of thermometer containing oil and a powdered mixture of sodium and magnesium sulphates), and to see by the variation in volume that below 22° it remains unchanged, and at higher temperatures proceeds the more quickly the higher the temperature. At the transition temperature the solubility of astrakhanite and of the mixture of the component salts is one and the same, whilst at higher temperatures a solution which is saturated for a mixture of the individual salts would be supersaturated for astrakhanite, and at lower temperatures the solution of astrakhanite will be supersaturated for the component salts, as has been shown with especial detail by Karsten, Deacon, and others. Roozeboom showed that there are two limits to the composition of the solutions which can exist for a double salt; these limits are respectively obtained by dissolving a mixture of the double salt with each of its component simple salts. Van't Hoff demonstrated, besides this, that the tendency towards the formation of double salts has a distinct influence on the progress of double decomposition, for at temperatures above 31° the mixture 2MgSO4,7H2O + 2NaCl passes into MgNa2(SO4)2,4H2O + MgCl2,6H2O + 4H2O, whilst below 31° there is not this double decomposition, but it proceeds in the opposite direction, as may be demonstrated by the above-described methods. Van der Heyd obtained a potassium astrakhanite, K2SO4MgSO4,4H2O, from solutions of the component salts at 100°.

From these experiments on double salts we see that there is as close a dependence between the temperature and the formation of substances as there is between the temperature and a change of state. It is a case of Deville's principles of dissociation, extended in the direction of the passage of a solid into a liquid. On the other hand, we see here how essential a rôle water plays in the formation of compounds, and how the affinity for water of crystallisation is essentially analogous to the affinity between salts, and hence also to the affinity of acids for bases, because the formation of double salts does not differ in any essential point (except the degree of affinity—that is, from a quantitative aspect) from the formation of salts themselves. When sodium hydroxide with nitric acid gives sodium nitrate and water the phenomenon is essentially the same as in the formation of astrakhanite from the salts Na₂SO₄,10H₂O and MgSO₄,7H₂O. Water is disengaged in both cases, and hence the volumes are altered.