DETERMINATION OF MAGNESIUM
Procedure.—Evaporate the acidified filtrates from the calcium precipitates until the salts begin to crystallize, but do !not! evaporate to dryness (Note 1). Dilute the solution cautiously until the salts are brought into solution, adding a little acid if the solution has evaporated to very small volume. The solution should be carefully examined at this point and must be filtered if a precipitate has appeared. Heat the clear solution to boiling; remove the burner and add 25 cc. of a solution of disodium phosphate. Then add slowly dilute ammonia (1 volume strong ammonia (sp. gr. 0.90) and 9 volumes water) as long as a precipitate continues to form. Finally, add a volume of concentrated ammonia (sp. gr. 0.90) equal to one third of the volume of the solution, and allow the whole to stand for about twelve hours.
Decant the solution through a filter, wash it with dilute ammonia water, proceeding as prescribed for the determination of phosphoric anhydride on page 122, including; the reprecipitation (Note 2), except that 3 cc. of disodium phosphate solution are added before the reprecipitation of the magnesium ammonium phosphate instead of the magnesia mixture there prescribed. From the weight of the pyrophosphate, calculate the percentage of magnesium oxide (MgO) in the sample of limestone. Remember that the pyrophosphate finally obtained is from one fifth of the original sample.
[Note 1: The precipitation of the magnesium should be made in as small volume as possible, and the ratio of ammonia to the total volume of solution should be carefully provided for, on account of the relative solubility of the magnesium ammonium phosphate. This matter has been fully discussed in connection with the phosphoric anhydride determination.]
[Note 2: The first magnesium ammonium phosphate precipitate is rarely wholly crystalline, as it should be, and is not always of the proper composition when precipitated in the presence of such large amounts of ammonium salts. The difficulty can best be remedied by filtering the precipitate and (without washing it) redissolving in a small quantity of hydrochloric acid, from which it may be again thrown down by ammonia after adding a little disodium phosphate solution. If the flocculent character was occasioned by the presence of magnesium hydroxide, the second precipitation, in a smaller volume containing fewer salts, will often result more favorably.
The removal of iron or alumina from a contaminated precipitate is a matter involving a long procedure, and a redetermination of the magnesium from a new sample, with additional precautions, is usually to be preferred.]
DETERMINATION OF CARBON DIOXIDE
[Illustration: Fig. 3]