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FrozenGate by Avery

Sodium metal

Got my Erlenmeyer flask today and decided to test out the heating apparatus and boiling point of the mineral oil. I could only find 99% mineral oil locally, with 1% being "mixed tocopherols". I don't know if it will be suitable for the synth reaction, but it should do fine for storing the alkali metals, and I have some Na coming in the mail to test that for sure. At 1% I'm looking at only 2ml of tocopherol for the largest size container or reaction I'll be doing, so I don't think it will cause too much trouble, at least not for Na and K storage. The thermal test was a success but I had to use the old hot plate I built years ago when I was a welder and not the lab burner stand as it was too flimsy and the sterno can was too intense of a flame for it.

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I have some "100% mineral oil" coming in the mail that was sold as an "ethnic hair care product" that I'll use for the synth first, just in case this 99% stuff isn't good enough.

Edit: I had to switch from imageshack after about a decade of use as it is no longer free! Trying Imgur now and it seems to work fine, but I had to figure out how to resize, lmfao. Pic was so big I couldn't hardly scroll to the edit button!
 
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Did you get the erlenmeyer on ebay? Can those things be shipped international without breaking?

As for the oil, the one I used for storage doesn't even have a chemical composition on the label. Just "pure mineral oil". Seems to be working decently, though. Despite the sample being almost white externally, today a very superficial cut revealed the metallic shine. The oxide coat is way less than a mm thick. Hope it stays that way!
 
Yup, grabbed it from eBay for under $12. They're pretty sturdy so as long as the seller packs it well I don't see why it wouldn't survive a trip across the pond. Years ago I had a huge chemistry lab (for a kid) but when I moved out my folks threw it all away in the trash despite my requesting they mail it to me (at my expense). Flasks and beakers ranging from 100ml to 2L, pipettes, distilling tubes and condensers, stirring rods, magnetic stirrers, hot plates, scoops, PH meters, titration droppers, etc. I had a very healthy supply of reagents too. My family are douchebags.
 
That's cool, all I had when I was a kid were 3 of those "chemistry kits" they used to sell as toys (I believe they have been outlawed here and are no longer sold). Nothing fancy but had a lot of fun :P

I'm lucky in that my family doesn't mess with my stuff. Apart from telling me I collect all sorts of crap. Which isn't far for the truth, LOL.

BTW: anyone knows a cheap source for bismuth?
 
Atomicrox said:
BTW: anyone knows a cheap source for bismuth?
Click to expand...

How much do you need? I have several ingots weighing several ounces each, high purity 5N stuff. I have either five or six of these, I'd have to go find them in my closet. I had intended on doing some diamagnetic stuff but couldn't source the pyrolytic graphite cheaply enough. I'd like to keep one ingot so I can have a ring made of it someday.

I found another website showing success of the potassium-magnesium-redox synth last night, this time using the tert butanol, so that's good news. I can't wait to start the experiment/project, just waiting on a scale and noncontact thermometer in the mail. It is so tempting to just eyeball the reagents and give it a go.

https://sites.google.com/site/energeticscribble/preparation-of-metallic-potassium
 
Not much, just a nice sample for the collection. If it isn't very expensive I might also try to make a crystal. PM me if you're willing to sell one of those ingots.

I have parts of what used to be a nice block of pyro graphite. The block was too big to levitate so I had to cut it and make some chips. They look good floating atop NdFeB magnets :) Are you still looking for it? Large pieces or just some chips?

That reaction is really cool, don't forget to post us a video when you do it.
 
Yup I'll PM with info about the ingots, happy to sell ya one! I sold off the NdFeB magnets I had years ago, save for two 1" N42 spheres I use to destroy credit cards. I'd only be interested in the graphite if you had a 25mm x 25mm x 1mm or 2mm piece as that would make it worth it for me to order in some new 12.5mm x 12.5mm x 3.175mm magnets. I can't remember exactly how but I think you need four magnets where the diagonal ones are oriented with the same poles facing up. Would be happy to just trade if ya had graphite like that!

Oh don't worry, there will be tons of video!
 
Looks like I should try the Mg reduction process too :P

The only oil I have though is HV grade transformer oil , not sure if it would be happy at 200C and glass ware wise I have a small flask and matching water cooled condenser .

The tert-butanol I can get from ebay at £11.99 per 200mL
 
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Yeah, I'd say give it a go, Twirly! I think Atomic found you can get Nujol from local stores there. Any Mineral oil (paraffin oil, unscented baby oil) should work, and my research says that kerosene can be used as well (dangerous!). Likewise there are specialized chemical hydrocarbons that can be used like Shellsol D70 or D80. You've got a much higher change of success and better yield ratio since you have a condenser.
 
Got my Sodium sample in the mail the other day. Finally got around to cutting it today. Advertised was 50g in a single square/rectangular ingot, but what I got was two foil-sealed-under-argon 1-oz hexagonal ingots. This is not only a bonus of 9grams but the fact that one ingot can stay in its own seal foil wrapper and the other I can cut up and have fun with.

I opened the one 28.5g ingot today and was surprised to see it was rather oxidized already, with a puplish-grey coating. I quickly cut it in half and then cut off a 3/32" thick sliver to have fun with and put all three sections under mineral oil. The sliver weighed about 0.75g. Immediately upon immersion in oil I saw very small amounts of hydrogen being evolved, likely from dissolved H2O or the 1% mixed tocopherols. It subsided after about 10min.


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I sectioned off the 0.75g sliver into several pieces; 0.45g, 0.15g, 0.1g, 0.05g. I began dropping them into water and observing the effect. Below 0.45g the Na would ball up and skirt around on top of the water, with no flame or sputtering. If I blew from several feet away into the reaction vessel a small spark of flame would occur. The 0.45g sample reaction caught me by surprise. I was very glad I had my face shield on! Which is why there is a bit of bad cinematography after the explosion; I had to blow out the burning paper and get the burning Na spatter off my face shield, lol.


Natrium Boom - YouTube

I'll have to experiment more with some 0.25g, 0.3g, and 0.35g pieces to see where it goes from unimpressive to holy crap what happened.
 
I'm kind of curious what causes it to explode as my test showed there was already a hydrogen flame so it wasn't h2 buildup. I doubt it reached boiling point either.

Btw Na burns beautifully in air but the resultant oxide fumes turn to hydroxide when in presence of water vapor, which means it would be very bad to breathe in.

Did you get tert amyl or butyl alcohol? My 97% t-amyl was still liquid at -12C or so.
 
I got tert butyl as it's all I could find available .

I'm not sure why it explodes xD
 
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