How Coprecipitation Contaminates Precipitates

Coprecipitation is the contamination of a precipitate by substances that should stay dissolved. It can happen through several different processes. In colloidal precipitates, one common route is surface adsorption, where ions stick to the outside of the particles.

A classic example is barium sulfa...

Coprecipitation is the contamination of a precipitate by otherwise soluble species and occurs via different processes.

Surface adsorption can introduce impurities in colloidal precipitatessuch as barium sulfate.

Here, a primary layer of adsorbed barium ions and a secondary layer of nitrate counterions result in contamination by bar...