Purple of Cassius

Purple of Cassius is a purple pigment formed by the reaction of gold salts with tin(II) chloride. It has been used to impart glass with a red coloration (see cranberry glass), as well as to determine the presence of gold as a chemical test.

Generally, the preparation of this material involves gold being dissolved in aqua regia, then reacted with a solution of tin(II) chloride. The tin(II) chloride reduces the chloroauric acid from the dissolution of gold in aqua regia to a colloid of elemental gold supported on tin dioxide to give a purple precipitate or coloration.

When used as a test, the intensity of the color correlates with the concentration of gold present.

References

Partially translated from the German Wikipedia article, Goldpurpur.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/6/2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.