I tried to make copper carbonate by mixing copper acetate with a sodium carbonate solution. I was expecting to see a light blue solid form at the bottom of the beaker and instead I found a green powder distributed throughout the solution. I filtered it through a coffee filter and it started turning orange. The entire coffee filter is now covered in a bright orange powder.
I need to know whether the green powder and/or the orange powder is toxic or corrosive and also what it is.
When you mix copper(II) and carbonate, instead of getting pure $\ce{CuCO3}$ you get "basic copper carbonate," which has some amount of the carbonate replaced with hydroxide. This can range from blue to green. I've done this a few times with various salts and mixtures and I don't know what factors actually control the color. But green shouldn't be a surprise.
The most likely reason it turned orange is that some combination of your coffee filter and impurities in your chemicals ended up reducing some of it to $\ce{Cu2O}$, which is orange or red. But naturally, regardless of what this unknown substance actually turns out to be, you'll treat it as though it's toxic and handle it responsibly, right?
