Appearance of common ions in solutions and precipitates

It is important to know how solutions and precipitates of many compounds look like. This information is used in qualitative analytic chemistry, but sometimes it simply is useful for recognizing a certain compound in aqueous solution.

On this page, for many elements, solutions of common ions are shown and common precipitates are shown, such as hydroxides.

Not all elements have colorful solutions of their compounds. In the periodic table chart below, highlighted elements can be clicked for pictures and short descriptions of solutions of its compounds and some of its precipitates. Most elements are not highlighted. Most of them, because there are no colored or otherwise interesting ionic compounds in aqueous solution for those elements, sometimes, however, simply because I as an amateur chemist do not have access to (compounds of) the element.

Group 1 2   3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Period
1 1
H
2
He
2 3
Li
4
Be
5
B
6
C
7
N
8
O
9
F
10
Ne
3 11
Na
12
Mg
13
Al
14
Si
15
P
16
S
17
Cl
18
Ar
4 19
K
20
Ca
21
Sc
22
Ti
23
V
24
Cr
25
Mn
26
Fe
27
Co
28
Ni
29
Cu
30
Zn
31
Ga
32
Ge
33
As
34
Se
35
Br
36
Kr
5 37
Rb
38
Sr
39
Y
40
Zr
41
Nb
42
Mo
43
Tc
44
Ru
45
Rh
46
Pd
47
Ag
48
Cd
49
In
50
Sn
51
Sb
52
Te
53
I
54
Xe
6 55
Cs
56
Ba
* 71
Lu
72
Hf
73
Ta
74
W
75
Re
76
Os
77
Ir
78
Pt
79
Au
80
Hg
81
Tl
82
Pb
83
Bi
84
Po
85
At
86
Rn
7 87
Fr
88
Ra
** 103
Lr
104
Rf
105
Db
106
Sg
107
Bh
108
Hs
109
Mt
110
Ds
111
Rg
112
Uub
113
Uut
114
Uuq
115
Uup
116
Uuh
117
Uus
118
Uuo
 
*Lanthanoids * 57
La
58
Ce
59
Pr
60
Nd
61
Pm
62
Sm
63
Eu
64
Gd
65
Tb
66
Dy
67
Ho
68
Er
69
Tm
70
Yb
**Actinoids ** 89
Ac
90
Th
91
Pa
92
U
93
Np
94
Pu
95
Am
96
Cm
97
Bk
98
Cf
99
Es
100
Fm
101
Md
102
No

Some metals are not highlighted, but are in bold-face. These will be described in a similar way as the highlighted ones. This page is still under construction and for all of the metals, mentioned in bold face, similar pages are added as for the highlighted ones.

   

 

   

 

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