jdurg

Well, in your example as the electrode is run, silver ions come out of solution and from silver metal, and copper metal comes out of solution and forms copper ions. Therefore, on the silver side of the cell there will be a shortage of positive ions. On the copper side, there's be a shortage of negative ions. The salt bridge will then supply the proper ions to each side in order to keep the charges balanced in the cells. (At least this is how I believe it works. Any experts can feel free to correct me).

Well, the plan is to completely dry out the tube through extensive heating which would be done in a completely inert atmosphere. The tube would then be sealed off at both ends with a vacuum contained within the tube, along with the fluorine generation source. (Either a fluoride salt or teflon as mentioned above). This way, there is no worry about any gasses inside the tube reacting with the fluorine, and very little, if any, chance of water being in there. Also, by having a vacuum in there the gas, as it's generated, will be more likely to rise up to the top section of the tube which is what we would want. The more I think about it, the more viable this seems. Hmmmmmm.........

Hmm. Perhaps then I should see about getting this done with teflon powder. The only reason I was thinking about CaF2 is that when reading the MSDS for it, it stated that it will decompose under elevated temperatures into some rather nasty gasses. (And the only gas I can think of is fluorine gas).

A lot of us here know that fluorine is incredibly reactive and amazingly toxic. I'm just wondering if there's anybody here who works with the pure element and/or knows a ton about it? The reason I ask is because I've come up with a way to generate the pure element that I think may work. You would start off by taking a standard glass tube that is maybe a foot long and heating the bejesus out of it. This would be to keep any and all water out of the tube, and to burn out any loose chemicals in the tube. It would basically be sterlizing and cleaning the tube with a ton of heat. (Basically heating the glass a small bit below it's melting point. You would then go and let the glass tube dry in an argon dry box with some anhydrous sodium silicate or cobalt chloride in there to absorb any random water molecules. With the tube cooled, and sealed fully at one end, you would then put a good bit of 100% anhydrous CaF2 in the tube. At this point, you'd pull a vacuum on the tube and remove any and all gas that is inside there. The tube would then be sealed off at the top. Now, you'd take the CaF2 end and put it in a high temperature flame. Not high enough to melt the glass, but high enough to decompose the fluoride salt into a tiny bit of fluorine gas. Due to the heat and the vacuum, the gas would then rise to the top of the tube. You would continue to do this until you could see the tiny, faint color of fluorine up at the top. At this point, you would quickly move the flame up to the middle of the tubing and seal off the tubing below the fluorine gas. You would now have an ampoule of pure fluorine gas. Since fluorine doesn't eat glass (HF does), it should remain pretty stable in there for quite some time. My only questions are #1, will this work?, and #2, how much fluorine is generated by the decomposition of CaF2? I've heard that the fluoride salt will decompose into fluorine gas, but I just don't know at what rate it will do that, and at what temperature.

Oh yeah, I'd LOVE to get a 1 kg bar of silver or gold. God that would be nice. VERY expensive and not going to happen on my salary, but nice.

You can always get gold, silver, palladium and platinum from E-Bay, but a LOT of the time you'll be paying a very high premium over the spot price. That's because if the spot price drops after the auction has been posted, the seller generally isn't going to cancel the auction just to lower the price. Also, you'll get the people who don't care about the price and will just bid until they win, thus jacking the price up quite a bit. You then have to factor in the insane shipping fees that a lot of the people on E-Bay charge. (I'm sorry, but 12 bucks to ship a tiny platinum coin is downright robbery). Probably your best bet for the common PGMs is to find a B&M coin shop that you can go to. Then you don't have to worry about shipping costs.

Well, I may indeed have some radon since I have a hefty quarter-pound lump of pitchblende which is severely secured in a lead lined tube in the far back corner of my closet. There's probably a good deal of radon coming out of that thing. heh. But since my collection only involves elements with a stable isotope, "having all the gasses" means all the non-radioactive ones. (Except for fluorine. For that element I have a VERY pure sample of CaF2 which over time may slowly release very microscopic quantities of fluorine gas.) I'm just very happy to have a pure sample of protium, deuterium, and tritium and have a way of displaying them all. As I said before, the other day I purchased gas discharge tubes of hydrogen, deuterium, and oxygen. While the deuterium tube will give off UV light, and the hydrogen and oxygen tubes will become fairly warm, I don't have my gasses on display 24 hours a day. I have them safely stored wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent accidental breakage. I only turn them on when someone asks to see them or I want to show them off. This helps them last longer and prevents any overheating. I still need to find myself a nice tube of nitrogen gas in order to say that I have them "all". While I know the non-noble gas tubes become quite warm, I'd still like to see Max Whitby come out with tubes of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen in the shape of the element symbols. In the meantime, I'll just have to deal with the plain old straight-length tubes. But I'm still happy to have some deuterium to go along with my protium and tritium. In other news, I'm very happy to see my platinum order arrive. There is nothing like opening up a package to see a third-ounce of platinum metal inside. Platinum is such a beautiful metal and is so incredibly heavy. Having a 1/10th ounce coin really doesn't show off the density of it, but when you have four of them in your hand at the same time, the overall weight really shows itself. The same can be said with my gold. I still can't get over how dense this metal is. My one ounce bar is so very heavy, and a little bit bent since this metal is incredibly soft. I hope to get one, or both, of my bismuth crystals in this coming week. I ordered a few of them since the only bismuth I have is some cheap little pellets. The photographs of my crystals look very impressive, and from the seller's feedback the bismuth should arrive just as I expect it. Finally, earlier today I was able to pick up a very nice lump of pure Nickel metal from Dave Hamric. I've got some nickel in the form of some candian coins made out of pure Ni, but nothing in a big "chunk" form. Dave was able to supply it for a very good price and I cannot wait to receive it. I've bought a lot of stuff this past week, but all for very good prices. It's fun when you upgrade your samples.

Woo-Hoo! I just got gas-discharge tubes of hydrogem, deuterium, and oxygen. I now have a sample of every isotope of hydrogen in a relatively pure form. (The hydrogen gas sample I have, now the discharge tube, the deuterium discharge tube, and the tritium in my traser). All I need now is a nitrogen discharge tube and I'll have a neat way to show off every gas out there. I just wish that I could get Max Whitby to agree to sell hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in gas discharge tubes shaped like the Noble Gas tubes he sells. I've asked him in the past and he said that they get too hot and he doesn't want to deal with the problems that may cause. It would be neat to have them though. Maybe I should get into glass shaping? hehe.

Yeah. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to find pure samples of each element, RGB is a great place to go. They guarantee the purity of everything and give you nice sized samples. The only drawbacks are the high price, and the fact that you don't have the "fun of the hunt". For me, the fun part about collecting elements is the hunt. I love when I'm searching really hard for a good price on an element, and after months of no luck finally finding it. Or when I'm looking for one element, and I suddenly come upon a great sample of another element I was looking for. I just love that. Then you have the joy of opening up the packages in the mail and seeing your highly sought after element. I think it would be kind of a let down to get every one at once. One thing I HIGHLY reccomend getting from Max Whitby (RGB) are the Noble Gases. They have beautiful displays made from glass tubing which is bent into the elements' symbol. It's then filled with a low pressure sample of said element so that when an electrical current is passed through them they will glow. I bought those about a year ago and I am very happy with them. Another thing I love about collecting elements is the knowledge you gain. I had always known that gold was a dense metal, but I never realized just how dense it really is. When I got my first troy-ounce of it, I was shocked at how hefty it was. It was incredible. There is just so much joy in collecting elements that I could write a book on it. heh. I can't wait for my platinum to arrive next week. I have 1/3rd of an ounce coming in from http://www.apmex.com. Their prices are insanely good. Hopefully they'll start shipping internationally soon for all the non-USAers we have here on the board.

It was an attempt to make a good estimate. I was able to see the absorption spectrum from what is at http://www.webelements.com under the Gold section.

Fluorine itself doesn't really attack glass. However, if there is the slightest bit of water in the area the F2 will react with the water forming HF, and the HF is what eats glass. If you had 100% pure fluorine gas without any HF or H2O near it, and had a completely dry, and I mean COMPLETELY, ampoule you could seal it up and it would last a good long while.

You can't get fluorine gas unless you have a license. It's highly controlled due to its insane toxicity and reactivity. You're better off getting some fluoride salts, since they are not nearly as reactive and over a very long period of time they do give off a miniscule amount of fluorine gas.

If you are in the U.S.A., check out www.apmex.com. They are a precious metals/coin trading company which offers FANTASTIC prices on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. They sell the precious metals at a very small percentage over the spot price, but much cheaper than what you can find on E-Bay. Their minimum order is only 25.00 dollars, so it's not like other PGM dealers which require you to buy multiple ounces at a time. If you're in the USA and are looking for a good source of gold and platinum, check out their site. (I highly recommend picking up one of the 5 gram bars of platinum. It's a bit pricey at around 150 bucks, but it's amazingly heavy for its size and really shows off the beauty of platinum. Another good deal is their 1/10th ounce random coin deal. At only about 26 dollars per gram of platinum, you can't get a better deal than this. They'll give you any random 1/10th ounce Pt coin they have for a very small price. I picked up two of those and the 5-gram bar for nearly the going price of the metal. I'm still in awe).

Well, I believe gold imparts a cranberry/ruby red type color to glass if it's added in small quantities to glassware. It also has a spectral line at around 583 nm, which would explain the red color. I'm fairly confident that cobalt will impart a deep blue color if it's excited. Hence the term 'Cobalt Blue'. Silver has a bunch of spectral lines down in the blue/violet region of the spectrum, a strong doublet in the red section, and a couple of lines in the green area. I would guess that silver would put out a light blue or pinkish color flame. For platinum, well, I don't know. heh

Mercury has a blue-like color when its vapor is "excited". If you ever see cars driving down the street and their headlights seem really bright and have a blue tint to it, that's because they're probably using mercury vapor lights.

I first heard about that acid when I was in high school. The textbook had a listing of the strongest acid, and H2Sb2F6 was listed as the strongest. (I can't remember the exact formula, but it's the acid being talked about in this thread). It's some pretty strong stuff. hehe.

Chances are, the gel ethanol contains some other "not so pleasent" chemicals in there to prevent people from making drinking alcohol out of it. Like if you try and buy ethanol from a chemical supplier, it will generally be denatured with other nasty things like methanol and whatnot in order to make it undrinkable. (If you need absolutely pure ethanol, you need to get a license and state that you're not buying it for drinking).

If you need some acetaldehyde, just drink a lot of ethanol and wait a few hours. Your liver enzymes will dehydrate the ethanol into acetaldehyde. Then all you need to do is distill it from your blood.

It takes a little bit more than just mixing HCl and NaOCl to get chlorine. You will also need to run the generated gas through some distilled water to remove any remaining HCl gas, or contamination from the sodium hypochlorite. After it goes through the water, you'll also need to dry it by passing it through some anhydrous sodium bicarbonate. Once the chlorine has passed through the water AND the bicarbonate, it should be clean and dry enough to ampoule. (At least that's how I did it. But I used 37% HCl and some powdered calcium hypochlorite).

I think it would also be a neat idea to have people list which elements they have extra of and would be willing to trade/sell. I just picked up a few bismuth crystals, so now I have a bunch of extra bismuth metal pellets. The pellets are 1 cm in diameter and 7 mm tall. They're good for melting down or just having around as a pure sample. I have 10 pellets and can part with about six of them. I also have a tiny, 2 mL ampoule of chlorine gas. I purchased it a long while ago and have since obtained a MUCH bigger ampoule of chlorine. As a result, I have no need for this one and am willing to trade/sell it.

It will form Na2SO4 because the H+ ions from the acid will attack the HCO3(-) ion forming carbon dioxide gas and water.

I always found it kind of strange that benzoyl peroxide is used to clean up acne, but it's also a VERY powerful and VERY shock sensitive explosive. I can imagine how the acne uses of it were discovered. Somebody was in a lab and a bunch of benzoyl peroxide detonated and bits of it were thrown all over their acne covered face. The next day the chemist comes in and says "Hey. My acne's gone! Let's try putting more high explosives on my skin!" hehe.

Strontium will react with water at about the same rate as lithium does, so you cannot do this in an aqueous solution. You'd have to melt the strontium nitrate and perform the electrolysis on the molten salt.

I believe that the ionic bond is stronger. Just because something dissolves into separate ions in water does not mean it has a weak bond. The amount of energy needed to break an ionic bond is pretty high compared to a covalent bond. That is why it requires so much energy to melt an ionic solid. When the solid melts, the ionic bonds between the cations and anions need to be broken apart. Another thing to consider is that water is composed of covalent bonds, but it's VERY easy to break those bonds like any alkali metal will, or any other substance which reacts with water. I'll have to look up the exact numbers to be 100% sure on this.

Very nice. I've been collecting elements for a while now, and I have a sample of every non-radioactive element except fluorine. (For that I have some fluoride salts). I even have multiple allotropes of the elements, like carbon and phosphorus, which exist in different forms at room temperature. One thing I quickly learned is that smaller is better. Having 50 grams of sodium, for example, is just a hassle and incredibly dangerous compared to having maybe 5 or 6. The smaller amount is less dangerous, easier to store, cheaper, and shows off the same properties as the higher amounts. As I've gone on in my collecting, I've also learned that it never really stops. You're constantly going to be upgrading samples when you get a chance, and spending quite a bit of money to do so. Collecting elements is NOT cheap. On the plus side, however, it's incredibly fun and there is a stopping point. Over time you'll also meet some interesting people. A few weeks ago I met Dave Hamric in person after buying many, many, many things from him. (He is the head of Metallium, Inc.) It was a great day spent generating chlorine gas, purifying it, drying it, and sealing it up in an ampoule. On that day we were able to make quite a few chlorine ampoules, and he was able to seal up my bromine and iodine into matching ampoules as well. (Unless it's permanently sealed, bromine and iodine will eat their way through everything. The only way to display them with the rest of your elements is to have them sealed in an ampoule. Otherwise you'll need to store them far away and deal with how they corrode whatever's around them). We had a great deal of fun and I was able to upgrade quite a few samples. I HIGHLY suggest purchasing from Dave if you're in the USA because his samples are fantastic and constantly improving, and his prices are very reasonable. If you're ever in the Boston, MA area, send him off an e-mail and see about stopping by.