zoteman94

Thanks for that info! It would be great... But my problem for now isn't how to purify it... is how to make it... You know, heating Al will not burn it because of passivation. Also Al2O3 doesn't react with water and CO2 to make Al2(CO3)2 it would be like adding oxygen to salt to make NaClO. If I'm not wrong the way of making it is by double substitution reactions like Al2(SO4)3+3 Na2CO3→Al2(CO3)3+3 Na2SO4. Al2(SO4)3 + 3 Na2CO3 → Al2(CO3)3 + 3 Na2SO4 My frien passivation also happens if I try to add Al to NH4OH or other oxides/hydroxides to oxidise... I think the only way would be thermite or something similar (melting), but I still don't have something to heat at such high temps. (If I had something to reach 1000° I would melt NaCl you know for what, by the way, I'm joking I don't want to electrolyse that, No way of getting rid of Cl2, and impeding Na from reacting with air)

Hmmm, interesting method, but Cl2O and gaseous HClO aren't "a bit" dangerous?, I also don't have any sulfur. Maybe I'll try that later, just for experimenting, but for now, the best is by logic... to buy it from a battery store and my lab teacher said that there's a hardware store that sell it near his home, so he maybe can get me some. Thank you for helping.

I dont think metallic beryllium is needed, a chemical compound should do... what do you say about emeralds, they're a compound of it and aren't dangerous.

Ok, thank you, any easy (more improtant... cheap) way to get beryllium then? I already read that article, I said about the security equipment for the same reason...

Because I live in Costa Rica, and don't go out home very often... only for going to high school and the Church... And buying chemicals from other countries is problematic for me... But I think I'll just go to a battery store ASAP... (they aren't very near to my home)

This can sound ridiculous, but I can't buy any sulfuric acid... So I want to make mine. I noticed that 2HCl+CaSO4=CaCl2+H2SO4 is indeed exothemic, but I saw somewhere that CaSO4 doesn't dissolve in HCl. Do I have a problem with entropy here? (so just heating it will work), CaSO4 is indeed soluble or maybe the levels of hydration affects something?

I won't do it until I get all security equipment, so don't worry. If I take some uranium rich rocks and cover them with aluminium foil, would it make a significant amount of neutrons? I'd like to transmute some elements. Thanks and blesses =D

I've always wanted to make syntetic gems, so I want to start with transparent sapphire (pure Al2O3). If you can help me to make quartz I would be also happy. Ideas of making it? Here are mine: Reacting Al with water and KOH (I don't have NaOH for the moment). Reacting HCl with K2Al2O4. (I think that's the way is made in the Bayer process) to make KCl and Al(OH)3 and heating to make Al2O3. The problem with this is that I can't measure the amounts and adding excess HCl could make it react with Al(OH)3 to make AlCl3. And I'm planning to make an oxyhydrogen torch to melt it, but while that happens I don't want to have Al2O3 powder, any way to make a single crystal? Another method would be reacting Al with HCl to make AlCl3 and further heating to give HCl again and Al2O3, I'm waiting for my glass equipment because HCl gas can be a problem... Another method would be reacting the AlCl3 with KOH to give KCl and Al(OH)3 but I get the problem that if I add too much KOH it would give K2Al2(OH)4. Another that can be funny is thermite but I can't get the materials easily in my country. (Costa Rica) I know this makes the Al2O3 very impure but iron impurities give it a nice color. Another can be using a oxidiser but I have the problem of not having powder aluminium and grinding isn't an option because it would be without machines and the mesh is far to be the best. Some other crazy ideas would be reacting K2Al2O4 with AlCl3, but I think it would be difficult for me to have a decent purity of those. Another is for the future, for making alkalis. Using an inert atmosphere melting Al and adding NaOH, It would react to give Na2Al2O4 and Na2O and the Na2O further reacts with Al to make Na and Al2O3 and Al with Na2Al2O4 to give the same compounds. That reactions are indeed exothermic. Any ideas? (I don't have access to a lot of chemicals because I can't buy them from USA (ok I can buy some but shipping is expensive) and here are only a few companies that sell chemicals and I don't have equipment, I'm waiting some friends to give their ones because they were chemists but they don't work anymore. Thanks.

Hi there, I just want to make a radioactivity detector to see if some minerals are radiaoctive or not, I want it to be as cheap as possible, it doesn't have to be too accurate, just for detecting if some ores contain significant ammounts of radioactive metals. Any ideas?, I found a very cheap one here:http://madscientisthut.com/wordpress/ but I have to be moving so I don't know if it would broke or something like that.

I hope this is the correct place to post this: How is gravitational potential energy stored?, because all the other energy I know about is kinetic (like an electron that moves faster has more energy than other that is slower) or in form of mass (E=mc^2). But I don't see any of them doing something there. Off of topic, my native language isn't English so tell me if you don't understand what I'm trying to say.

By the way, Wikipedia says that you can make elemental sodium with NaOH*H2O if you keep the temperature higher than 100 degrees Celsius, maybe some graphite electrodes and mineral oil work for this? (preventing oxidation of Na)

What about dimethyl mercury? Isn't as explosive as other chemicals but can kill easily even if you use protective equipment. By the way, why do you want to know what are the most dangerous chemicals? Maybe free radicals are even more dangerous, but you can't (as I know) keep them in a container.

I think if all the water reacted with sodium you will be left with anhydrous NaOH, and unless you melt it, it doesn't conduct electricity...

Can't you do electrolysis of it with carbon (or anything inert) as an electrode? So... Sodium goes to cathode and reacts with water to make NaOH and H2 (be careful of not igniting it if you're using a lot of current, do it outside or with fume-hood), and at anode if I'm not wrong HCO3 reacts with water to make H2CO3+OH, H2CO3 decomposes to H2O and CO2 and OH radicals react to make water and oxygen. So it would be an easy way, the part I'm not totally sure is if HCO3 radical reacts with water to do the above reaction or does something different (like reacting with more HCO3 to make H2C2O6, and that's a peroxide and is probably unstable, or if it makes H2 and CO2) Anyway you get some NaOH...