Strange Orange Powder?

[YT2095]

I`ve come across a complete Mystery for me whilst experimenting with red phosphorus.

 

take a small quantity of RP (about 50mg) and put that in a test tube, then cap the tube leaving a small hole to inject CO2 gas into, thus removing any air.

and then heat this over a flame, soon a gas will form and condense as an Orange powder on the walls of the test tube.

it`s quite a Bright orange too, almost Peach colored when cold.

 

has anyone got a clue what this stuff is???

[Gilded]

Might be just a mix of red and white phosphorus?

[YT2095]

it doesn`t glow in the dark when the cap`s removed though, WP should do that.

there`s also More solid product than there was to start with.

 

it gets Stranger, because when you add a drop of water some instantly catches fire! with the yellow/green Phosphorus flame color, however on addition of More water, there is still this bright peach/orange PPT that will not dissolve?

[mr d]

Hello

 

Any chance of contamination in equipment or source materials?

 

Mr D

[woelen]

YT, I have been thinking about this, and I really think you made white P, contaminated with red P. Here is a picture of a sample of white P, which also looks very orange/red.

 

http://www.periodictable.ru/015P/slides/P1.jpg

 

I think that you made white P, which partly is converted to red P again. The fire you obtain most likely is not due to the water, but due to the air (with oxygen), which gets in the test tube again. Probably the tube still was somewhat warm, when you removed the stopper. At a temperature of 40 C the white P ignited already.

[mr d]

hello

 

just to rule it out. any calcium in the water?

 

mr d

[YT2095]

there`s no equipment contam or RP contam, the water will have Ca traces sure, but the material was made before any water was used.

Woelen, the color is Remarkably similar to that in the pic, the test tube was just below room temp (it never got warmer than 18c in here yesterday).

the orange PPT behaves very similar to RP in reactions also.

[woelen]

I did the same experiment today, and indeed it is quite remarkable. I obtained a yellow smoke and a lot of yellow, orange, and even pink solid, subliming at the glass of the test tube. The yellow smoke is really dense, it fills half of the test tube, with a fairly sharp "almost liquid" "surface", above which the air (mostly CO2) remains clear. The dense smoke is totally opaque when viewed through more than appr. 2 cm.

 

When I opened the test tube while it was still luke-warm, I got really beautiful glowing in the still present dense smoke. I had swirlings of yellow light inside the test tube, especially, when I kept it horizontal for a while and then put vertical again (taking care that the remaining solid powder did not fall out of the test tube, while keeping it horizontal).

 

In order to see the yellow light, you need to go to a darkened room and let your eyes get used to the darkness. The effect is not very strong, but once your eyes are used to the darkness, it is beautiful.

 

So, I really think it is white P, contaminated with red P.

 

I also did an experiment by letting Cl2 gas flow into the test tube with the orange/pink solid. The solid becomes white and seems to liquefy. A thick white fume is produced as well. I did not see any fire though (I first shaked all the remaining red P powder out of the test tube).

[YT2095]

it`s got me wondering now, if there`s anyway to dissolve the WP component in a solvent to purify it. I`ve read somewhere that ciniminic(sp?) acid + WP and gentle heat can be used to make Glow-in-the-dark ink.

although I suspect it would require vacuum distilation to evap the solvent again leaving the WP product in as little "air" as possible.