cesium

[r1dermon]

i want to know how to safely extract cesium from cesium chloride. first of all, i need to know just how dangerous chlorine gas is...second of all, i know that sodium melts at 801C, what temp does cesium take? third of all, for electrolysis i will be using a 12V car battery and two steel prongs. i need to know, what type of container is used to conduct this experiment in? also, i know that cesium reacts with air, and burns, so i am hesitant to use deisel fuel, are there any other solutions that cesium will not react with? i've heard vinegar works, not sure though. also, people have told me that the cesium just pops out, like little silver fireworks, is this true? i've read in books that the cesium goes toward one of the prongs and the same with the chlorine. if this is true, then it wouldn't be difficult to get the cesium into a stable environment, but if its false, basically i just have to hope that molten cesium doesnt contact my skin, and that the molten cesium can land in the stable solution...lol, all input is appreciated

[budullewraagh]

chlorine gas wont be your problem; the smell becomes unbearable before you are exposed to dangerous doses. you will cough and feel it in your lungs.

 

if you want to get cesium from cesium chloride, take a blowtorch to it, melt it and put a car battery to it. you will get molten cesium metal balls flying out of it, which you will have to catch and throw into a beaker of motor oil. it's kinda dangerous; i know somebody from another forum who does electrolysis often but recently got a molten sodium ball up his nose. another way of extracting the cesium is adding lithium (from lithium batteries). your problem is that you will have to heat it a bit and it's very exothermic (being a thermite reaction).

[Gilded]

Ahh cesium, the king of elements. Well, maybe not the king but it's cool anyway. A) It's the closest thing you get to liquid gold (except for actual liquid gold) B) It goes KABOOM nicely C) You can melt it with your body temperature! However, holding cesium with bare hands is not recommended, since it burns through your skin, your flesh, and your bone, if it doesn't explode, that is. If you require a liquid metal to play around with, choose gallium. It's NEARLY non-toxic (I think you could eat a bit without experiencing any harm), though it leaves nasty stains. :/ The best way to store cesium is in a noble gas atmosphere (usually in glass ampule, in an argon atmosphere). Mineral oil is also good, but you won't get as good liquid-gold-effect as you do in an ampule (though the mineral oil/motor oil method is waaay easier). It's a nice element indeed, and if anyone gets it isolated and especially if someone is going to throw some in a bucket of water, please tell me.

 

PS. That molten-Na-ball-up-nose-thing sounds sort of painful. As bud said, be careful with this sort of things.

[boris_73]

"Ahh cesium, the king of elements" actually francium is the "king" of elements and has anybody seen brainiac 2 on sky one thursdays 8.00pm they set of about 2-5g of rubidium and caesium in a bath rubidium blew the bath apart and ceasium completly distroyed it full size baths as well not water baths baths which humans go in. they are elements you really should not mess with

[YT2095]

Gallium as a liquid metal? do you mean at room temp like Mercury, or just molten (like any other metal with enough heat)?

 

I`ve only ever seen it in High Temp thermometers, and it`s quite solid at room temp?

 

 

edit: about 30c or something like that.

[Gilded]

Hmmph. If francium is the king of elements, "long live the king" doesn't really matter since its most stable isotope (Fr-223, beta- & alpha decay) has a half-life of 21 minutes or something. So, if you had a visible amount of francium, you wouldn't get to tell anyone about it since you would die of radiation poisoning rather quickly. :/ Same goes with astatine and radon. Although, a quite large amount of radon has been isolated (1g or something?), it's not actually visible since it's a colorless gas.

[Gilded]

YT, I meant that you can melt it with your body temperature (melting point about 29 degrees Celsius).

[boris_73]

i know all that i was just joking did you not see my face anyway the point is you really should not mess with either element

[Gilded]

Yeah I sure noticed it, just wanted to share the beautiful aspects of francium with those that don't know about it.

[swansont]

Hmmph. If francium is the king of elements, "long live the king" doesn't really matter since its most stable isotope (Fr-223, beta- & alpha decay) has a half-life of 21 minutes or something. So, if you had a visible amount of francium, you wouldn't get to tell anyone about it since you would die of radiation poisoning rather quickly. :/ Same goes with astatine and radon. Although, a quite large amount of radon has been isolated (1g or something?), it's not actually visible since it's a colorless gas.

 

Depends on what you mean by "visible." A group at Stony Brook trapped ²¹⁰Fr and took pictures of the fluorescence.

[Gilded]

Well hit me in the head and call me Cthulhu. I had no idea that that much francium has been generated. Cool machine they got there.

[r1dermon]

thats ok...i dont think i'll be wanting to "catch" molten balls of cesium in my hand and quickly transfer them to a stable atmosphere. i want cesium so that i can mess around with it, check out some of its reactions with different elements. not to melt it in my hand... i've read that electric prongs used in electrolysis(usually carbon) attract the elements in the crystal, or molten lava. lol. i definately dont want to chance catching a ball of cesium at well over 800C coming for my nostral. lol.

[aommaster]

Gallium as a liquid metal? do you mean at room temp like Mercury' date=' or just molten (like any other metal with enough heat)?

 

I`ve only ever seen it in High Temp thermometers, and it`s quite solid at room temp?

 

 

edit: about 30c or something like that.[/quote']

 

In some periodic tables, they have THREE liquid elements, bromine, mercury and GALLIUM. Some only have two. It is low melting point, so, on hot days, it can be liquid!

[YT2095]

of course the only problem with that is the fact that Cs being so reactive will Oxidise very rapidly in air, and several orders of magnitude faster, if molten!

[r1dermon]

exactly my dilemma...who wants to try to throw something at 2,000 degrees into a vat of fuel...? not me!! especially if its burning as its flying through the air!!

[aommaster]

I am not sure, but, I think caesium and below it (alkali matals) react so badly with air, that they are molten since the time they are exposed to it. Is it true?

[YT2095]

it`s true

[Gilded]

By the way, for those who don't know, cesium is a really important element because of it's use in atomic clocks (1 second = exactly 9,192,631,770 complete oscillations of a cesium-133 atom).

[YT2095]

cool, I knew it as roughly 9 gig, it`s nice to see a complete figure, Cheerz

[swansont]

I am not sure, but, I think caesium and below it (alkali matals) react so badly with air, that they are molten since the time they are exposed to it. Is it true?

 

Cs melting point is about 28.5 C, so it's close to melting at room temp. IIRC Rb is about 37 C. I think it's lower as you move down the list of alkalis, and they become more reactive as well. (Only Fr is below Cs, and as has been noted, there are no stable Fr isotopes)

 

The problem with an alkali melting is that it will then flow, and expose more surface to the air, which can then react.

[swansont]

By the way, for those who don't know, cesium is a really important element because of it's use in atomic clocks (1 second = exactly 9,192,631,770 complete oscillations of a cesium-133 atom).

 

Of the ground state hyperfine levels, with no perturbations (i.e. no E or B field)