Element collecting

[pulkit]

Dammit people, radiation is nothing to be worried about... or maybe it is. Just don't keep too strong gamma-stuff near you, and DON'T, I mean DON'T keep alpha-radiators near aluminum or beryllium. They kick off neutrons, and neutron radiation is something not to be played with. Beta and alpha radiators aren't too dangerous by temselves, just don't eat or inhale them.

 

Do you acctually have radioactive stuff in your collection ?

[Gilded]

Heh, as I said I have no samples yet (since I'm aiming for >99% lab/display grade ones), but I'm most likely getting tungsten and radium soon, so yes, soon I will have radioactive stuff in my collection.

 

Edit: Oh, forgot to mention that I also collect gemstones and cool minerals; going to get a sample of torbernite soon ( http://www.mindat.org/min-3997.html ). They are usually quite radioactive.

[jsatan]

I thinking about collecting a the 5th element and keeping her in a big bottle, I dont think it would go down well, lol.

[Gilded]

Thulium is a must for every element collector; it's probably the most useless naturally occurring element! It's expensive and has very little use. :>

[Gilded]

Since there was some element collecting stuff in the H2O2 thread and so, I thought it would be a good idea to wake up this thread again if you actually have questions about element collecting/storing.

 

Mwahahaha! It's alive, IT'S ALIVE!

 

PS. Ordered myself a 5g piece of iridium yesterday, a mighty start for a collection.

[jdurg]

If you want to see my collection, click on this link and you'll be able to download a 5MB .png file which is all of the elements in my collection from Hydrogen through Bismuth. (The fluorine is not mine, nor is the promethium and technetium. I just included them since the picture would look incredibly stupid with three big holes in there). Element collecting is an expensive hobby, especially if you want nicely sized samples of good purity. The "noble metals" will run over a thousand dollars to collect them, and the alkali metals and halogens can get kind of pricey, not to mention dangerous. A great source for elements in the UK is at www.element-collection.com , and for those in the USA you can go to www.elementsales.com where Dave Hamric sells virtually everything at a GREAT price. Dave will ship internationally, I believe, but you'd have to ask him via e-mail. I do know that he won't ship the alkali metals and some of the other more dangerous ones. But he has some great samples and has begun to ampoule a ton of things as well. (Having bromine in an ampoule is fantastic since it's permanently sealed and won't leach through the glass).

[MulderMan]

where is it possibe to buy these vials in england? I mean to collect the elements in,

[budullewraagh]

and DON'T, I mean DON'T keep alpha-radiators near aluminum or beryllium

and remember, kids, dont keep your bismuth pellets near alpha sources either. (smoke dectors, anyone?)

 

you definatley dont want the 206 bismuth to accept alpha particles and become 210 astatine. -> you die, and very quickly

[Professor]

LOL, ah Element Collecting , i have many many elements none radioactive but i have alot, i have a chemistry lab in wisconsin.

[Professor]

O and everyone talks about Cs but not one person has mentioned its importants to space exploration , Cesium can propell an velicle 140 times as far as any other know substance liquid/or solid. But i have no idea how? does anyone know how you would get Cesium to propell anything?¿

[budullewraagh]

well, i would imagine that it would involve rapid oxidation of cesium and reduction of another compound

[Gilded]

"you definatley dont want the 206 bismuth to accept alpha particles and become 210 astatine. -> you die, and very quickly"

 

Heh, never thought of that. Yes, astatine indeed is very toxic and radioactive, the longest lasting isotope is the 210 that bud mentioned, with a half-life of 8,3h. Actually, bombarding bismuth with alpha-particles is exactly how it was first discovered, if someone didn't know.

 

Edit: and congrats to bud for post #1000! Yay!

[swansont]

O and everyone talks about Cs but not one person has mentioned its importants to space exploration , Cesium can propell an velicle 140 times as far as any other know substance liquid/or solid. But i have no idea how? does anyone know how you would get Cesium to propell anything?¿

 

Click here

[Gilded]

How odd when you think that cesium has no international price or even a larger market. :| Probably because nations seem to be rather uninterested about space exploration. :/

[budullewraagh]

Heh, never thought of that. Yes, astatine indeed is very toxic and radioactive, the longest lasting isotope is the 210 that bud mentioned, with a half-life of 8,3h. Actually, bombarding bismuth with alpha-particles is exactly how it was first discovered, if someone didn't know.

yes, astatine 210 is actually something like 100,000x more radioactive than radium 226. i'll be receiving an order of chemicals in a few weeks, and among the chemicals is bismuth. i will keep my it away from smoke detectors, etc.

 

speaking of cesium, anybody seen the chloride salt for sale? i almost purchased some from the al-chymist. unfortuantely it isn't terribly feasible for me to create a helium atmosphere, melt the chloride and electrolyze it all

[YT2095]

use an Argon atmos then, goto a welding shop and buy a bottle

[Gilded]

Yay, my iridium came today; 5.08g, +99.98 pure, with platinum as major impurity (as you might guess). It's fun throwing it around, and it's incredibly small for its weight. That's what element collecting is about. No, not necessarily throwing stuff, especially if it's a sample of a dangerous material.

[MulderMan]

agian to my question of vial-ly things to keep them in, what do you use?

[jdurg]

I tend to use small borosilicate glass vials which I purchased off of E-Bay, or off of the person I bought my elements from.

 

Iridium is neat, and it's like a slightly cheaper version of Osmium. That is, if you want an incredibly dense metal, it's a LOT cheaper to get a big piece of Iridium than it is Osmium. I remember when I got my sample of Osmium. I was simply amazed at how heavy that tiny little button was, and at how blue the metal was. It's really impressive, and I'm very happy that the solid metal doesn't oxidize like the powdered and sponge forms do.

 

So many of the elements are just so freaking neat to see. My bromine is really neat looking inside the sealed ampoule it's in. The liquid is so thick and dark, and the vapor fills up the tube nicely. I also am quite happy that it can't leach through the sealed glass ampoule and emit any nasty odors. (Bromine REALLY reeks). If I was ever fortuneate enough to come across a few hundred million dollars and retire for life, I would spend a lot of money and build myself a nice lab inside a new house where I could work with all the air sensitive and reactive elements. My dream is to have a nice wooden display on the wall of where I live which would have one mole of each element. I think that would be cool to make molds for each element stating the element name, symbol, molecular weight, and state "1 Mole". For the liquids I'd have some special vials made up, and for the gasses, well, it's hard to have a mole of gas in a transparent container, so I'd probably just have glass tubing made out in the shape of the element it contains. If only I were Bill Gates. hehe

[Gilded]

Yeah, element collection is one hobby you have to be ready to pay for. Unless you're a master scavenger like Theodore Gray. I wonder if you could buy a gram of neptunium legally if you were really rich.

 

"agian to my question of vial-ly things to keep them in, what do you use?"

 

Well, most of the vial-needing samples are sold in vials. And for the non-reactive samples any sort of glass jar is good, or if they're big and not hazardous, why don't you just put them on your table as a decoration. And for radioactives, a thick pot of iron is good (lead is better, though a pure lead pot is way more hazardous than even a medium-activity uranium ore sample).

[MulderMan]

i just thought that i could have the elements in the same sort of vial, to keep neatness n everything.

[Lance]

That would work fine.. Depending on the element I buy glass tubes and seal both ends with the element inside.

[Gilded]

Yeah, I recommend Lance's method if you want to make the vials yourself. That one is commonly used; just seal the ends and put a label on it if you want to. You might also want to put some mineral oil or argon inside (depending on the sample).

[jdurg]

And for radioactives, a thick pot of iron is good (lead is better, though a pure lead pot is way more hazardous than even a medium-activity uranium ore sample).

 

Lead metal is completely harmless and non-toxic if you're not ingesting the metal. An Iron pot will quickly rust through if there's humidity in the air, while the lead pot will remain fairly stable. Also, the lead is a much better blocker of radiation than iron is. As for it being more harmful than a medium-activity uranium ore sample, that's also false. Lead doesn't emit alpha particles and gamma rays, while a uranium ore sample does. I highly doubt that you'd be eating out of the container holding the radioactive materials, nor do I believe that you'd store anything in there that you might eat. So when dealing with radioactives, lead containment is really the only safe way to contain them. If you are even remotely worried about the lead, you can coat it in a thick layer of clear varnish and you'll easily solve that problem.

[boris_73]

how do you seal both ends because you would have to heat them to make the glass go soft so you can seal the ends but surly some elements will react with the heat in an explosive way sending glass every where so it isnt really safe unless there is another way of doing it, i dont know how you do it this is just my guess