elementcollector1

Use a blender on aluminum foil. That is, if you can spare a blender. If you have something akin to a rock tumbler, put Al foil and a bunch of steel balls (like those from Magnetix sets) in, and run for a week or two. You will be left with black Al powder.

Oh, cool! I was just doing this today and yesterday! Anyway, I just got my impure mixture, and you say to grind it up and heat under oil? IT SHALL BE DONE, GOOD SIRRAH.

I have no idea if that would work... Is there any particular reason you want to avoid peroxides and acids?

I have an okay element collection, it goes as follows: Hydrogen - Sealed test tube Helium - Sealed test tube Lithium - Small metal chunks from coin cell Beryllium - Sample in ampoule, from Metallium Boron - Sample in ampoule, from Metallium Carbon - Coal, pencil lead Nitrogen - Sealed test tube Oxygen - Sealed test tube Neon - Sample in ampoule, from Metallium Sodium - VERY impure sample I made from a thermite of NaOH Magnesium - Chunk of a camp firestarter Aluminum - Foil, powder Silicon - 2" chunk, bought for $3 in California Phosphorus - Vial of powder scraped from matchboxes Sulfur - Crystals, powder Argon - Sample in ampoule, from Metallium Iron - Slug in mineral oil Nickel - Canadian dime (ironic, my nickel is a dime.) Copper - Ball, nuggets, wire Zinc - Scraped U.S. pennies Silver - 1 troy oz. bullion bar Tin - Ingot, Metallium Iodine - Home-made chunks Gold - 24k foil in vial (tourist style) Mercury - thermometer Lead - Fishing weights Bismuth - Crystals Also, I have a few other Lithium pieces that I accidentally oxidized. (or hydroxidized. It's covered in white, flaky... something.) This was lithium foil from a battery, so does the oxide or hydroxide take over the whole thing or can I just melt it?

Hey, I'm elementcollector1. As my name implies, I collect the elements of the Periodic Table. Favorite scientific branch is inorganic chemistry, and a fun fact about me is that I've written a pamphlet on collecting elements 1-83, and 95. So... hi.

I've got some sealed Boron from Metallium. What do you have to trade?

Well, if you want to make it yourself, get the caesium mineral pollucite and powder it, then putting it in a solution of sulfuric acid to get acesium alum (CsAl(SO4). Roast this with carbon, then add water toget cesium sulfate (CsSO4). Now that the sulfate is in aqueoussolution, add barium azide (Ba(N3)2 to get cesium azide(CsN3). Heat this to 800 degrees C to get exceptionally pure cesium.

Well, this is incredibly convenient. I'm in the exact same position! As for my extras, I have Lead, Magnesium, Aluminum, Sulfur, Gold, Copper, Bismuth, Zinc, Carbon, Iron, Molybdenum(unsure) and Lithium. I can make Helium, Argon, Chlorine, Silicon, very impure Sodium, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Iodine. Some great distributors I know are Metallium http://www.elementsales.com/ and United Nuclear http://unitednuclear.com/ Hope this helped.