Cadmium hydroxide is an
inorganic compound
In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemist ...
with the formula Cd(OH)
2. It is a white crystalline ionic compound that is a key component of
nickel–cadmium battery.
[Karl-Heinz Schulte-Schrepping, Magnus Piscator "Cadmium and Cadmium Compounds" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2007 Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. .]
Structure, preparation, and reactions
Cadmium hydroxide adopts the same structure as Mg(OH)
2, consisting of slabs of octahedral metal centers surrounded by octahedral of hydroxide ligands.
[Hemmingsen, L.; Bauer, R.; Bjerrum, M. J.; Schwarz, K.; Blaha, P.; Andersen, P., "Structure, Chemical Bonding, and Nuclear Quadrupole Interactions of β-Cd(OH)2: Experiment and First Principles Calculations", Inorganic Chemistry 1999, volume 38, 2860-2867. ]
It is produced by treating cadmium nitrate with
sodium hydroxide
Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions .
Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alkali ...
:
: Cd(NO
3)
2 + 2 NaOH → Cd(OH)
2 + 2 NaNO
3
Preparation has been achieved from some other cadmium salts,
[
Cd(OH)2 and cadmium oxide react equivalently. Cadmium hydroxide is more basic than ]zinc hydroxide
Zinc hydroxide Zn( OH)2 is an inorganic chemical compound. It also occurs naturally as 3 rare minerals: wülfingite (orthorhombic), ashoverite and sweetite (both tetragonal).
Like the hydroxides of other metals, such as lead, aluminium, beryll ...
. It forms the anionic complex Cd(OH)4
The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in October ...
2− when treated with concentrated base. It forms complexes with cyanide, thiocyanate, and ammonia.
Cadmium hydroxide loses water on heating, producing cadmium oxide. Decomposition commences at 130 °C and is complete at 300 °C. Reactions with mineral acids (HX) produce the corresponding cadmium salts (CdX2). With hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
, and nitric acid, the products are cadmium chloride
Cadmium chloride is a white crystalline compound of cadmium and chloride, with the formula CdCl2. This salt is a hygroscopic solid that is highly soluble in water and slightly soluble in alcohol. The crystal structure of cadmium chloride (describe ...
, cadmium sulfate, and cadmium nitrate, respectively.
Uses
It is generated in storage battery anodes, in nickel-cadmium and silver-cadmium storage batteries in its discharge:
: 2 NiO(OH) + 2 H2O + Cd → Cd(OH)2 + Ni(OH)2
References
{{Hydroxides
Cadmium compounds
Hydroxides