In this post I will describe a semi-successful (?) preparation of a Cobalt (II) Phthalate complex.
While I’m pretty sure the complex did form, I highly suspect the high solubility of it fucked me over and I got some Potassium Hydrogen Phtalate (KHP from now on) contamination in it. But the end result was still satisfying.
2.81 grams of Cobalt (II) Sulfate Heptahydrate and 6.66 grams of KHP were added to a beaker, and dissolved in ~150ml of boiling hot water. The resulting solution was evaporated down to the 10ml mark and left to cool. On cooling a precipitate of light-pink crystals was formed, and was filtered on a buchner funnel, washed with cold water, chloroform (probably didn’t help) and isopropanol, and then was left to dry in the sunlight.
Dried, the crystals slightly changed colour to a more lavender colour, which is accurate to literature.
In the end, 2.48 grams of the complex were obtained, which is ~75% of theoretical yield.
