Some fun with Gallium.

[collector]

I searched eBay for gallium. Take a look here:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=45721&item=7500606879&rd=1

 

Remeber that gallium is classified as hazardous material according to USPS Pub 52.

Consequently the hazmat fees...

[collector]

And the publication itself:

http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub52.pdf

[BenSon]

That is the seller i got my gallium from only 10g though not 50. There wasn't any hazmat warnings when i recieved it but it was shipped from austria I think. So maybe their laws are less strict or 10g isn't enough to worry about...

 

~Scott

[jdurg]

Gallium is considered a Hazmat material in large quantities since when molten it will quickly dissolve aluminum metal. If your plane is made of aluminum, you don't want molten gallium spilling out and eating a hole in your plane. When I melted my gallium I did so in the open air and did see a little bit of a crust form. When it was solidifying in the vial, however, I took some teflon wrapped wire and just removed the crust from the surface. The metal then proceeded to solidify with a bright, HIGHLY reflective mirrored surface on the top.

 

I too noticed a blue color on the metal sides where it met the glass vial, but that color has now dissapeared a few days later. Strange. Still, I do like the stuff and am glad that I got some more of it.

 

Collector, if you'd like to see my entire collection click on this link here. It's a large photograph of the elements in my collection, including a few which I don't have. (I'm using Theo Gray's photo for fluorine as I only have some CaF2 salt as my fluorine sample, and some other photos for the plutonium, technetium and promethium as I do not have those elements. I'm only fortuneate enough to have my Uranium).

 

With your potassium, the potassium superoxides are actually a light canary yellow in color. If the rind on your K has any yellow tinges to it, then you do need to be VERY carefull with it. If you have some grayish-white oxidation, then it's usually just potassium hydroxide that may have further reacted with CO2 to form potassium carbonate or some other junk. It's still pretty dangerous and not something you want to mess with, but it's not nearly as nasty as the superoxides are. I'm trying to find a way to melt some of my sodium and potassium down inside a glass ampoule under argon and then seal it off. This way I'll have a forever 'shiney' sample of the metals.

[collector]

Potassium

 

Well, actually, the crust on the potassium ingot had a dirty yellow-brownish tint!! (someone once called it "snot coloured").

Within just a few days the crust was thick. Looked awful.

I realized that this was definitely DANGEROUS, and that´s why I destroyed it.

 

Later, I got a piece from the same lot of potassium but this time under paraffinum oil. When fresh, the metal did not even sink when immersed in the oil! I had to mechanically push it down under the surface with a thin polyetylene net.

 

After some days, the metal oxidized, at first a blue-violet surface colour.

Within a week or two the oxide coating was thicker, but this time the oxide was pure white, almost looked like white dust on the metal. And that was definitely K2O.

 

Fortunately.

 

About fluorine.

I have been thinking of surface coatings on glass. Now there exist a technique for antireflex glasses, coated with a thin layer of MgF2. And this is one of the very few substances (like CaF2) that withstand chemical attacks from fluorine completely.

 

So, coating a glass tube with MgF2 or CaF2, could be aa way to permanently seal F2 inside a glass tube. And the same coating on the sealing ends.

[collector]

Radioactive elements.

 

I have 30 year old a cataloge from The Radiochemical Centre, Amersham. The stuff they produce (produced) was rather exotic. Most of the chemicals were isotope labeled organic molecules (labeled with tritium, C 14, O 18 etc).

 

But they also had some interesting compunds of the unstable elements, although not as pure elements, only as chemical compounds.

The compounds are oxides or water souluble salts (nitrates, chlorides).

 

Examples (quotes from catalog):

 

Tc 99, as ammonium pertechnetate (NH4TcO4) in 0,1M ammonia, 1mCi £16;

Pm 147, as promethium chloride in 1M HCl, 1-10 mCi £11;

Po 208, as polonium chloride in 1M HCl, 1uCi £78;

Po 210, as nitrat in 3M HNO3, 1mCi £30;

Ra 226, as crystalline chloride, or as bromide in sealed ampoule, total 25-250 mg Ra. Price on request

Ac 227, as crystalline nitrate 1mCi £60

Ac 227 also available as solution in 3M HNO3

Th 228 (radiothorium) as crystalline nitrate, ~100 mCi/mg Th. Price on request

Also available as solution in 3M HNO3.

Th 232 as Th(NO3)4.6H20, 1-10g £30.

Pa 233 solution in 11M HCl/0,5M HF, 1mCi £50

U 232 solution in 3M HCl, ~5 ml, 1-50uCi £56

U233 solid UO2, or solution in 3M HNO3, ~5 ml. Price on request

U 235 (93% enriched): solid UO2 or solution in 3M HNO3, ~5 ml. Price on request

Np 237: as oxide, 100mg £105

Also as solution in 3M HNO3, ca 5 ml, 1 mg £30

Pu 238, solution in 3M HNO3, ca 5 ml. Price on request

Pu 239: as solid PuO2, also available as solution. Price on request

Am 241 as americium oxide, 100 mCi £100, also available as solution in HNO3

Cm 242, solution in 3M HNO3, 1mCi £45

 

But no berkelium or californium.

 

I was never tempted to try to get some of these chemicals... (Yikes...!)

But the cataloge was fun.

[jdurg]

Yeah, most of the radioactive elements don't attract my attention because in order to have a nicely visible sample, I'd be putting myself and everybody around me at risk. Radium in particular is INCREDIBLY radioactive and a one gram sample of the metal is enough to give a fatal dose of radiation to someone just looking at it. With my Uranium, it's depleted uranium and about 2 grams of it. That's less than 1.0 uCi which is less than what's in a smoke detector. (My Am-241 comes from the ionization chamber of an old smoke detector).

[Gilded]

The most stable isotope of technetium is relatively safe, and could be easily kept as a pure few gram metal sample. It's just that you won't easily get such amounts anywhere.

 

"When dripping Br onto the metal, it just inflamed and burned with a red flame (!), the bromine drop fizzing around on the metal surface."

 

Interesting. If my bromine ampoule breaks, I won't be throwing my gallium at it that's for sure.

[collector]

Somewhere I have an old catalog from Ingal GmbH, a german company in Schwandorf extracting gallium from aluminum source (bauxite).

 

I remember a small note at the end of the catalog, saying that Ga with a purity of at least 6N is considered strategic material by the SEATO treatise!

 

Probably the use of Ga in the semiconductor industry that is the reason for this. I don´t know what this really means if you try to purchase some of this material.

Maybe some formal permit applications, checking out by some authorities?

 

However, Ga 4N is certainly pure enough for any chemical and element collecting purposes.

 

Ingal GmbH does not exist today, it was bought by Rhodia (former Rhone-Poulenc) some years ago.

 

Seller of Ga 6N:

http://www.emovendo.net/store/customer/home.php?cat=255

[BenSon]

Does any1 know where i would be able to get mercury from? elementsales.com wont ship to australia, seltenerden.de is rediculously expensive. emovendo dosn't carry it and i cant find any on Australian Ebay (I've been looking for some time). The Kno3 sample makes me a bit nervous i would have to transfer the mercury to a clear container and i dont realy have any safety equiptment. I'm lost...

 

~Scott

[jdurg]

A one time, small exposure to mercury in a well ventillated area (or preferably outside) isn't anything to worry about. It's the long term, constant exposure to it that is horribly vicious. Besides, metallic mercury is not as toxic as the salts or organic forms of the element are. So if you were to take yourself outside and handle the mercury you'd be just fine. That's what I did with mine. I went outside and did the coffee filter cleaning trick and bottled everything up while outside with the wind blowing any mercury vapor away from me. When I was done I closed up the vial and continued on. If you had a silicon sealing compound you could probably clean the mercury, put it into the clear vial, then use the sealant to seal the cap on permanently and prevent any oxidation and/or loss of the sample.

[YT2095]

have any of the Gallium owners tried obtaining Arsenic and making Gallium Arsenide yet?

 

I`m pretty sure that`s something I`de want to try if I had both.

 

just a Thought/Sugestion

[YT2095]

after having received my gallium metal, I`ve this morning attempted to make gallium Phosphide with a little red phosphorous that I "made" a while back and had no real use for. there was certainly a reaction, now all I have to do is leave it to cool, clean it up and get a 3volt charge across 2 needles and have a poke about with them on the compounds surface whilst looking for a red glow

 

I`ve no idea if it`ll work or even if I`ve done it correctly yet, but it should be fun to find out if I HAVE actualy made an LED

[budullewraagh]

good luck with that. how did you "make" your rp? please dont tell me you used thousands of books of matches.

[YT2095]

I made WP and converted it, my thread is on here for the sake of a search

 

 

edit: my appologies, I don`t think it is anymore, it`s probably been removed ages ago under the Hazardous Materials synth policy.

but anyway, I made my own

[akcapr]

i read about your little synth/mishap. I was thinking about making phosphoric acid like u did, just before the actual WP. does anyone know any experiments or synths someone (me) could do using phosporic acid, or would it be more of a new addition to the collection?

[Hephaestus]

Molten Ga + As at room temp does nothing. I thought it might dissolve.

GaAs is formed by heating Ga2O3 in a reducing stream of H2 containing As vapour.

Don't even try this one in lab.

Product is dark gray and brittle. MP 1238C

[Hephaestus]

*GaBr3 is easy to make.

Metallic Ga is heated in a stream of N2 laden with Br2 vapour. A water-clear melt forms first, becoming yellow to re-brown, due to dissolved Br2, when all the Ga hgas reacted. When the bromination is complete, the GaBr3 is distilled in an inert, Br free gas stream into a receiver and hence freed of dissolved Br2.

Properties: Colourlesss, very hygroscopic crystals. MP 121.5C BP 279C

OK Im using a good source for these preps. If I have tried them out, my post will begin with an *.

[YT2095]

I`de like to add a correction to my post #38

 

it wouldn`t be a RED glow/light I`de be looking for, but a Green one (at 555nm).

 

take a look here: http://theledlight.com/technical3.html

 

sorry about that

[akcapr]

wat r some stuff do with phosphoric acid?

[budullewraagh]

phosphoric acid is a bit sketchy at times. you can do some unpleasant things with it.

 

also, you can reduce it to white phosphorus. just please dont ask; phosphorus compounds are generally sketchy.

[akcapr]

sketchy?

[budullewraagh]

yes. consider certain...cholinesterase inhibitors, etc. plus all the oxides and halides of phosphorus arent pleasant. phosphine as well. phosphides arent good either. organophosphates? alkylated phosphorus? scary as hell man.

[YT2095]

can anyone figure this out.

 

the MP of Gallium is over 30c, the gallium I tried reacting with the red Phos, is still liquid at 19c?

 

granted the reaction doesn`t seem to have worked for making GaP as there`s still metal there, but it wont solidify unless I put it in the fridge.

 

what`s going on?

[BenSon]

It's solidifying only very slowly. This happens with my Gallium as well it was liquid at room temperature for a week (if I remeber correctly) before it solidified. Either that or your Gallium is realy pure and has become a super fluid which is not likely.

 

~Scott