Murder Lab Day 1

The murder investigation lab seemed to be a very interesting lab. I love the idea of solving a a mystery while incorporating chemistry into it. It gives a taste of what forensic investigators do in reality. Today's task was combining an unknown solution with sodium carbonate in a beaker. Both reactants were clear, but when combined, the product was a milky white substance.

Then, we poured this substance into a funnel with filter paper inside an empty Erlenmeyer flask to collect any solid. While letting the liquid drip down into the flask, I noticed there was a sand-like substance forming inside the liquid, showing that the reaction definitely produced a solid. Thus, it can be inferred that the unknown substance is silver nitrate, due to the fact that it should produce a solid when reacted with sodium carbonate based on solubility rules.