elementcollector1

I have nickel, and possibly other metals. The nickel has a high surface area, but it's said to only work at higher temperatures.

I would like to produce some tetralin for use as a solvent in a reaction I'm planning to do. I have pure napthalene, and the Wiki page on tetralin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetralin) states that it is produced by the catalytic hydrogenation of napthalene. I ordered a platinum wire recently that can act as catalyst, but I don't want to hydrogenate the napthalene past tetralin and all the way to decalin. How do I prevent this from happening? Procedure: 1)Melt naptha in a 2-necked, glass jointed flask, with the Pt wire already in the flask. An adapter is attached to one neck with a rubber hose leading to a cathode in an epsom salt solution. 2) Begin bubbling hydrogen through the mix. Excess hydrogen is allowed to escape via the second neck of the flask. 3) When hydrogenation to tetralin is complete (how to tell?), turn off all power sources, including the battery for the electrolytic hydrogen. Remove the flask from the heat source, and allow to cool. 4) Unreacted napthalene should precipitate out as it solidifies, leaving tetralin as a liquid.

You mean quartz with gold in it? Because if that's true, the quartz shouldn't affect anything, being similar to glass in chemical composition. The only way I can think of gold not precipitating is if it formed a soluble complex ion with some other impurity. Try evaporating or (carefully!) boiling your solution to get it concentrated, and try again.

Decided to restart this experiment with a more knowledgeable approach to the problem. From previous tests, I have concluded that: -There is no praseodymium in my magnets. -I can get to neodymium oxalate, but I can't calcine to oxide without serious equipment. -I think I'll follow "TheChemLife"'s procedure, outlined here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLEGMufP78 -OTC source of MEK (methyl-ethyl ketone)? We have "MEK Substitute" at the local McLendon's, which is presumably ethyl acetate. It appears lacquer thinner, if I can find any, would be a good option to distill for MEK. Plans for the purified NdCl3: 1) React with soluble fluoride (probably sodium fluoride) to precipitate insoluble NdF3. 2) React with Mg or Ca under argon blanket to (hopefully!) create Nd metal. 3) Ampoule under argon, and store!

What ore are you using? Ores are notoriously rife with impurities; these may have interfered with the precipitation process somehow.

Well, it's a bit late for me to use 'coarse' aluminum... The ignition mix I ordered is the classic mix of potassium permanganate and glycerin with some Mg ribbon mixed in. Have any pics or weights of your Mn yield?

What exactly is your 'refining' step? I tried upping the current/voltage to a car battery charger, but I got black, burnt Mn with noticeable hydrogen spots. I've tried igniting manganese thermite for quite a while now with a blowtorch with no success. Ordered some good ignition chemicals, and I'm going to try to make better Al powder (from cans, not foil. Cans are pure enough to melt). A tip from blogfast25, a poster on ScienceMadness who tipped me on manganese thermites: Mix in a 1.11 molar ratio of CaF2 to every mole of Al used. This acts as a heat sink and prevents some of the Mn from boiling away (yes, it does actually boil. No, I've never had this happen for above reasons).

Chill, chilled. No one's out to get you. Biology's not stupid, either. I'm not a biologist, but no one can say that any given branch of actual science is 'stupid' without me thinking of those dropout highschoolers who think math is useless. No offense. Ooh, what metal? I'd like a chance to see oxyhydroxides. I agree, electrolytic production seems a good choice here. I know, it uses outside power, but there's really not many ways to get out of that without chemical means like peroxide, chlorate, etc.

Sulfuric acid can be bought as certain drain cleaners, 'pH Down', and others. It can also be made with some difficulty. A good example of an inert anode is platinum, although carbon, lead dioxide, and MMO (Multi-Metal Oxide) have seen some use in the manufacture of perchlorates for their resistance to chlorine. All in all, I would recommend carbon for a simple, low-voltage home setup: The best is a carbon welding rod, as pencil lead and the rods from batteries tend to have resin and other organics in them, as well as maybe forming some sort of intercalated 'graphite oxide' which further breaks down the structure until all you have left is a black sludge. There have been no reports of this with welding-grade carbon rods, however.

Elemental-Scientific LLC is probably a very good choice for what you are looking for.

If you wish to remove mercury from sodium, distillation is your best option. Mercury boils at 357 C, while sodium boils much higher at 883 C. A good hotplate can easily achieve 360 C, and a ground-glass setup would probably help. Plus, you get your mercury back!

Not the best way to make chlorine solution. It wastes nitric acid, a much more valuable reagent than chlorine water, and a simpler way would still be to bubble elemental chlorine through distilled water in an opaque or possibly amber-glass container (as to prevent disassociation into HOCl and HCl). This will get you a very pure solution of chlorine water, without complications such as excess nitrogen compounds or acids.

"Making an illicit substance" Likely not. I've never seen a drug procedure where oxygen is required to dissolve in a salt solution; but we are curious as to what you intend with the dissolved oxygen. "Bubbling" I would suggest (and this may seem too simple) that you take your salt solution and place it in a container, then fill the container somehow with pure oxygen. Shake rapidly to dissolve the oxygen (at least, I think that might work). Er, mercury?

First, you need to understand batteries. Having taken apart almost every battery made from alkaline to NiCd to lithium, none of these contain 'battery acid' (diluted sulfuric acid) except for a car battery, which is expensive unless you can find one in a junkyard. Obtaining the acid should be a relatively simple matter of taking the top part of the battery off, and decanting the liquid (do NOT attempt to filter, H2SO4 will eat right through it) into a glass container. Pyrex, mason jar, beaker if you have one. As for bases, your options are relatively few: 1) Sodium hydroxide, NaOH. This is a common and very strong base, and can be found in the drain cleaners section of McLendon's or some such under names such as "100% Lye", "Lye Crystals", etc. Be sure to check, upon opening, that your product is a waxy white solid. 2) Sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3, also known as baking soda. Do you intend to do titration of the acid? What exactly do you mean by 'evaluating the products of the reaction, etc'? EDIT: The part about removing the sulfuric acid from the car battery is speculation on my part; as I have never been fortunate enough to take apart an actual car battery.

Wow, that was ages ago. Since then I have gotten a much shinier plate of Mn by using two half-cells, with the catholyte being concentrated MnCl2 and the anolyte dilute MnCl2, a copper PCB blank as cathode and 60/40 solder as anode (eliminates production of MnO2 at anode), and a 9V battery as power source. I kind of wish I could build the plating up to a point where I could physically remove it from the electrode, but I'm still not entirely sure if that's possible with my setup. It would take forever, and I have to keep in mind that the cathode needs heavy cleaning with a towel every 15 minutes to an hour or so to keep that shiny coat of metal and not have it pockmarked with oxides and hydrogen bubbling sites.

We don't have to. It melts without ever catching with this method. (It takes a while, though.)

The odds of just about everything possible are existent. The probability, however, is as hypervalent said: Probably quite low. I do agree, however, that full safety protection should be used just in case; I've heard stories about HF. And they gave me nightmares.

United Nuclear! $10 or something, I ampouled some the other day. Still have plenty left for reactions, etc. I wonder if I could reduce some rare earths with this stuff? EDIT: Incidentally, how did you dehydrate your CaSO4? I blowtorched some of mine in a ceramic bowl, and it didn't *seem* to do anything.

Whoa there! Aluminum isn't as difficult to *melt* as you might imagine. (I have a problem with the misuse of the word smelt. It means 'to refine from ore'.) Step 1: Get a good coal fire going inside a large steel soup can. This will have an empty, smaller soup can in the center of the fire. Step 2: Place a crushed aluminum can inside the smaller can, being careful to avoid burning yourself. Step 3: Wait until the first can melts, then add more aluminum. Step 4: Repeat until you have a good, can-sized bit of molten aluminum. Step 5: Wait until the fire dies completely, and remove the can. Cut it open if you have to to remove the aluminum ingot. Step 6: BAM! Aluminum ingot. Repeat for a ton of aluminum that looks cool, but is basically useless. I do this regularly with my Scout Troop, and do have a few notes to add to the procedure: -Some, if not most of your aluminum WILL oxidize to a gray, useless flaky mix of aluminum and its oxide. If you really want to get rid of this, take a stainless steel strainer and pour your molten aluminum through it. -Don't cast into water. BAD THINGS HAPPEN. -Use relatively clean cans, otherwise they're much harder to melt and have carbon in them from all those organic impurities. So, you need a few soup cans of various sizes, coal, a lighter, and of course the aluminum in question. Again, be careful, this is molten metal at 1000 C we're discussing.

Well, off to pour sulfuric acid on my printer. XP Anyway, couldn't do any tests for you because that drain cleaner is not available where I live. Rooto, right?

I would recommend coarse gravel on the bottom, getting progressively finer as the filter goes up, and that should filter out the stuff just fine (if the sand is relatively free of reactive impurities). Alternatively, glass grit?

Topic died. I hear a better, more efficient way is to place some 3% on a hotplate and heat it to 99 C (just under boiling). After a few hours, it'll evaporate right down to a good concentration. Source:

What about a current pic of the calcium metal? I've got some we can compare with.

Excellent! Furthermore, I found out the 2 sound-playing circuits I was talking about are not HQ enough to handle the sounds properly. Is there one large circuit that can play quite a few different sounds at the touch of different buttons? Arduino-based, maybe? portalgun_powerup1.wav portalgun_shoot_blue1.wav portalgun_shoot_red1.wav portal_fizzle2.wav

Pictures, please? Pretty please? With a cesium on top? XP