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  • Chemical Separation of Magnesium Carbonate (MgCO3) from Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)
    Yes. MgCO3 and CaCO3 can be separated chemically by taking advantage of the different solubilities of their respective chlorides in ethanol. Here's a procedure to separate them:

    1. Convert the carbonates to chlorides:

    - Dissolve the mixture of MgCO3 and CaCO3 in dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl) to convert them into the corresponding chlorides, MgCl2 and CaCl2.

    - Evaporate the solution to dryness to obtain the solid mixture of MgCl2 and CaCl2.

    2. Recrystallize MgCl2 from ethanol:

    - Dissolve the solid mixture in a minimum amount of hot ethanol.

    - MgCl2 is soluble in ethanol, while CaCl2 is not. So, upon cooling the solution, MgCl2 will crystallize out, leaving CaCl2 in the solution.

    - Filter the solution to separate the MgCl2 crystals from the remaining solution.

    3. Recover CaCl2 from the solution:

    - The filtrate from the previous step contains CaCl2, along with any remaining MgCl2.

    - Evaporate the filtrate to dryness to obtain solid CaCl2.

    By following this procedure, you can separate MgCO3 and CaCO3 chemically by selectively recrystallizing MgCl2 from ethanol.

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