The King of the Elements

[jdurg]

But there comes a point where the reaction is so extreme that you really don't see a difference in the strength of an oxidizer. It's like trying to tell the difference in temperature between a 10,000 degree object and a 1,000 degree object just by touching it. Yeah the 10,000 degree object is hotter, but the end result is exactly the same. So to tell you the truth, you would not see any difference between cesium + 15 M HNO3 and really any other strong oxidizer out there. The reaction would take place far too quickly for you to see any difference.

[budullewraagh]

...which is why i would like to see this in one of those 1000+ fps cameras...

 

there is a significant difference. plus you can measure with different devices. for example, which can blow through ______ more effectively

[jdurg]

If you can notice those differences, then you should head out to the CIA right now. Another analogy is like saying that a rifle shot through your brain is more/less damaging than a magnum shot going through your brain. Either way, you're dead instantly and any differences are meaningless compared to the overall result.

[budullewraagh]

see, i have a thing for materials. i can look at things and tell you what they are composed of.

 

i found this out one time when in a competition and running low on time i identified metal samples as magnesium, chromium, aluminum and copper, without knowing anything about the samples prior.

 

have you seen rubidium with water? i can tell the difference between Rb+H2O and Cs+H2O quite clearly, although most others that i have consulted cannot.

 

also, unrelated, im interested to see barium and water.

[jdurg]

Ba and water is actually kind of dissapointing. I had some spare barium shavings so I threw them in some water, and they simply fizzed like alka seltzer without much violence at all. I always imagined that it would react kind of like K or Na, but instead it reacted about the same as Li.

 

For Rb and Cs, I have seen them both but I cannot make an accurate comparison. This is because I saw a 2 gram ingot of Rb dropped into some freshly poured tap water and the reaction was instantaneous. (The reaction vessel exploded before the Rb even got to the bottom of the water). With Cs, I only saw a tiny chunk about the size of a deer tick dropped into some absolutely still water, so while the reaction was intense, it wasn't nearly as intense as the one I saw with Rb. As a result, any comparison's on reactivity cannot be made since the reaction conditions were nowhere near the same.

[akcapr]

what exactly is the definition of reactivity

[H2SO4]

the potential for an element to react with other substances?

[akcapr]

ya obviously but wat defines that- how filled valence shells are, right?

[budullewraagh]

h2so4, that isnt necessarily true. it's not the potential so much as it is the rapidity of the reaction that is important in defining reactivity.

 

indirectly, you are right, akcapr. it basically involves the electrostatic forces involved. consider the charge of a nucleus, the amount of protons, the atomic radius, etc

[latentheat]

My favorite metal is magnesium. I really like the way it looks when it burns. I'm guessing this would change if I got to see gallium or indium, but sadly I have never seen them

 

You're gonna laugh at my favorite nonmetal, but I just love it. Sulfur. It's so innocent looking, yet it forms pretty dangerous compounds like the incredibly caustic sulfuric acid, and the deadly poison hydrogen sulfide. Phosphorus is also a very cool nonmetal. Oxygen is cool too, particularly in liquid state.

[bascule]

Hydrogen, duh!

[Mendelejev]

My favorite metal is magnesium. I really like the way it looks when it burns. I'm guessing this would change if I got to see gallium or indium, ...

 

OR if you just look a little too long at your burning magnesium

[YT2095]

*bump*

 

having recently been introduced to Chromium and it`s salts properly over the last year, I would have to say it is at least as good as Cobalt, although much harder to understand, there`s not Much in the way of colors you can`t do with Chromium

[woelen]

Chromium is one of my favorite elements. It is so colorful and its chemistry is increadibly rich. If I would call chromium the king of elements, then its neighbour, Vanadium, would be the queen. This element is as colorful as chromium, but it is easier to understand.

 

Or would I have to exchange things, being chromium the queen and vanadium the king? Women are more complex, isn't it ?

[YT2095]

Hmmm.. I have a sample of V2O5 here, but "Current Projects" test tube rack only holds 8 at a time.

I have a 100 tube rack also, but to use this AND keep track I would need a bigger black-board!

(I lose bits of paper)

 

maybe when most of these current ones are complete and containerised, I will start with V next!

 

I love Cobalts Thermo color properties, but I Think I may have found a similar sort with Chrome (I need to run more test first).

so Maybe we can have a King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook and few pawns too

[DaveC426913]

Well, when you do get a substantial number elements in your collection, what you want to do with them is put them in your Periodic Table table.

[jdurg]

It's kind of funny how once you get an element collection going and you've finally gotten a sample of everything, it's difficult to point out your "favorite". Every element to me has something about it that makes it interesting, but there are some that are just kind of "boring" because either not much is done with them or they are so similar to the other ones. (I think the right side of the Lanthanoid series is like that).

 

I'm kind of going through a spell right now where I've been kind of observing my elements in "groups". Taking out all my Lanthanoids and observing them. Looking at my alkali and alkaline earth metals. Photographing my radioactive metals or my platinum group metals. I can't wait until a couple of weeks from now when I get to see all of my halogens again. (They are currently being sealed in thicker glass ampoules and then getting placed in a large resin casting as an extra barrier and a way to display them all. Once the resin casting comes back I'll paint the back side of it white to really show off the colors of the halogens).

[woelen]

Indeed, there are quite some elements, which are very similar and as a whole are not very interesting. To me, the alkali metals are not interesting. The free metals are to some extent, but the ions are not. Really boring stuff. As energetic as a dead dog and as colorful as a grey sky.

 

After Cr,V, the set of non-metal elements in the right upper corner are my favorite group (except F and the inert gases). It really is remarkable what can be done with these elements and combinations of them. I've made the weirdest compounds in this area, compounds like ONBr, ON-SCN, S2Br2, PBr5, SeBr4. A lot of things are still to be discovered there also. Also, quite energetic and colorful compounds can be made this way, often with colored vapors or gases (I also really think the idea of colored gases is quite special).

[jdurg]

Quite true. The alkali metals are only really interesting in their pure form and the various compounds they can form. (All the different oxides and other unusual compounds). Though it is kind of neat using some not so common chemicals to get them to precipiate. Things like Uranyl Acetate being used to ppt Na+ out of solution is always fun because you get to use an organic/metallic/actinoid combination to get a simple alkali to settle out of solution.

 

Right now I'm sitting at work in my office looking at the wall behind me where I have a poster I got printed out of my element collection. (It's basically the same idea as the one Theodore Gray put out, but I had mine done a long time before that but never made it available for sale since I'm using a good deal of photos that aren't mine for the radioactive elements I don't have). Looking at all these elements, it's amazing when you think about how just one extra proton can make an element so completely different.

 

Look at gold. If you add one little proton to gold you go from a comparitively unreactive, beautiful yellow metal to a highly toxic, fairly reactive liquid metal in mercury. Going from fluorine to neon you go from an INSANELY reactive, light yellow colored gas to a completely colorless and completely unreactive gas. Going from Xenon to Cesium you go from a barely reactive, colorless gas to an absolutely insanely reactive, golden colored liquid metal. (Well liquid at just a teency bit above room temperature).

 

The sad thing about collecting elements is that once you've got a sample of everything there really isn't much more to do. I mean, I can always upgrade and I do plan on getting larger samples of thallium, molybdenum, hafnium, osmium, vanadium, germainum, arsenic, zirconium and a few of the lanthanoids, but aside from that I'm done. Perhaps in the future i'll start a collection of element oxides. This will be fairly tough for things like sulfur, carbon and the halogens, but for the regular metals it would be kind of neat. For the really reactive metals I could just get a tiny sample of them and let them react with atmospheric oxygen leaving me with just the oxides.

[Sanguine]

Oxygen for president!(!1)

[TATER]

mine would have to be one of the alkali metals because of their reactivity=]

[confused]

...lol Francium

[YT2095]

I think thorium for me, it contains alot of energy

 

I dunno, I`m not so sure.

I have a pure metal sample of Th here and it`s really quite Boring for the most part, yes it will make the GM counter go mental, but beyond that it`s really rather Dull

 

Uranium Nitrate is nice though, esp under a UV light! it`s looks like the Typical Idea of a radioactive Green Glow in the dark isotope popularised in Cartoons and some poorer researched films, Green Kryptonite springs to mind when I see Uranyl Nitrate

[Tealman535]

Unbelievable, not a single one of you mentioned my favorite.

(I think)

(not that I am trying to say you are all wrong)

In my unique opinion, Bromine is my favorite.

It is very nasty stuff.

Nasty here withholding the reference that bromine reacts with nearly everything, is virtually uncontainable, is derived from the greek word brómos meaning stench, and is a very dark crimson liquid.

 

Other attributes that catch my interest:

•It is the only liquid non-metal element.

•If temporarily contained in an open container at room temperature, it will soon evaporate itself away.

•556,000,000 kg of bromine was produced in 2007 alone.

•Although it reacts with most metals to produce a pyrotechnic display,

(as seen in link number three) it is primarily used for fire retardants.

 

In case anyone cares...

 

I was introduced to element collecting by my good friend Dave who owns a Neon sign shop. (he has barrels of magnesium turnings and 20 pounds of mercury) I have been collecting for a little over a year and currently have 37 elements out of the 86 that are obtainable by someone like me. Ironically I do not have any bromine in my collection, I will within the next two weeks though thanks to this thread: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11004&highlight=bromine

 

 

Tim Ambrose: Teenage Inventor/Scientist

[CaptainPanic]

I kinda like oxygen. Feels good to breathe, and without it I do think the world wouldn't be the same.

 

A big thanks to all who can do photosynthesis!