[darockjc]

I am doing a lab for class and we were given a marble. We need to find a chemical to break down the marble so we can run test on the liquid to see what elements are in it that make up the marble. Just wondering what I can use to do this.

[Donaldson Tan]

marble? try some dilute mineral acid such as aq. HCl.

marble is mainly CaCO3, so there will be an effervescence of carbon dioxide. test for CO2. this confirms the presence of the carbonate anion in marble.

u might want to try other anion and cation tests with solution.

repeat the experiment with another acid, just in case there is chloride present in the marble as well.

[oldddog]

If you're talking about a glass marble that needs to be taken into solution you have two alternatives. 1) a mixed acid digestion containing nitric and hydrofluoric acids. 2) a fusion using sodium peroxide followed by a dilute acid dissolution of the fused bead. The query is very open ended - what elements are you trying to determine? What analytical techniques do you plan to use?