safe disposal of sodium metal
WWAORI
does anyone know of a safe, non-exciting method to dissolve sodium metal
lumps? These were found in our lab.
Eric Lucas
WWAORI wrote:
>
> does anyone know of a safe, non-exciting method to dissolve sodium metal
> lumps? These were found in our lab.
Package them in low-volatility mineral oil in a glass jar in vermiculite
inside a metal can (paint can) and get a hazardous waste disposer to
take them away. If they're *lumps*, that probably means they're pretty
big, and any method of quenching would either take a very long time or
be very exciting. Very little middle ground here.
Either that, or if there's a pond near you, just go and chuck it in,
then sit back and watch the fireworks. This is especially impressive if
that pond is a big make-out spot for local teenagers. (Potassium is
more impressive, too). (For the humor-challenged, no I'm *not*
advocating he do this.)
Eric Lucas
Rebecca M. Chamberlin
Eric Lucas wrote:
>
> if there's a pond near you, just go and chuck it in,
> then sit back and watch the fireworks. This is especially impressive if
> that pond is a big make-out spot for local teenagers. (Potassium is
> more impressive, too). (For the humor-challenged, no I'm *not*
> advocating he do this.)
>
> Eric Lucas
Reminds me of a story of the late great Geoff Wilkinson. It seems that
on one rainy day in London, his graduate students decided to entertain
themselves by tossing chunks of potassium out the lab window, into some
puddles on the rooftop 2 floors below them. An irate professor
(probably a theoretician) saw the fireworks from his office one floor
below, and stormed upstairs to Wilkinson's office. He announced that
sodium was being thrown out the lab windows, demanded that the guilty
parties be summarily executed, and stormed back out.
Wilkinson confronted his students and demanded to know whether they had
been throwing sodium out the window as charged. No sir, they replied,
it was potassium. Wilkinson muttered "Bugger doesn't know his flame
tests..." and dismissed all charges.
Becky
Eric Lucas
Becky,
Great story. It confirms what I consider one of the worst personal
tragedies of my scietific career--I never me Sir Geoffrey, even though
he gave talks at various institutions I've been at, but always when I
was out of town.
Eric Lucas
A. W. Czarnik
Sodium metal reacts slowly in isopropanol at room temperature. Use lots,
with excellent ventilation to remove the hydrogen gas evolved. The
strongly basic solution (no worse than Draino) may be disposable down the
sink, depending on the state you live in. Try this on a small scale first.
AWC
WWAORI <wwa...@aol.com> wrote in article
<19970327163...@ladder01.news.aol.com>...
Ed Gauss
In article <19970327163...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
WWAORI <wwa...@aol.com> wrote:
>does anyone know of a safe, non-exciting method to dissolve sodium metal
>lumps? These were found in our lab.
No less than Linus Pauling himself, once cleared out the first three
rows of his freshman chemistry class by demonstrating the non-exciting
reaction of sodium metal with ethanol. Being the showman that he was,
he had filled a 1 liter beaker with water earlier in the lecture and had
been playing with a 1 inch cube over the beaker for the last half of the
class. Needless to say we payed extreme attention. He then flipped the
cube into the liquid, saying "as all of you know, sodium reactes with
explosive violence removing the hydrogen ion from water. And less
violently removing the hydrogen from ethanol. I switched beakers on you."
He delighted in showing us the other beaker, still containing water, that
was still down in the demonstration table sink. I assume that the ethanol
was dry, such as shellac solvent. The sodium acetate so produced is not
a product that would present a disposal problem.
--Ed Gauss, Caltech '54
Matthew Derek Le Page
A. W. Czarnik (tony...@san.rr.com) wrote:
: Sodium metal reacts slowly in isopropanol at room temperature. Use lots,
: with excellent ventilation to remove the hydrogen gas evolved. The
: strongly basic solution (no worse than Draino) may be disposable down the
: sink, depending on the state you live in. Try this on a small scale first.
: AWC
Yes, I agree. We use either i-PrOH or n-BuOH and just let it sit for a
few days. This works for us on the 10 gram scale.
Reiner Dieden
Try distroying it by reaction with Ethanol : throw small lumps, one at a
time, into a beaker with ethanol.
WWAORI <wwa...@aol.com> a écrit dans l'article
<19970327163...@ladder01.news.aol.com>...
Eric Lucas
Ed Gauss wrote:
>
> In article <19970327163...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
> WWAORI <wwa...@aol.com> wrote:
> >lumps? These were found in our lab.
>
> rows of his freshman chemistry class by demonstrating the non-exciting
> reaction of sodium metal with ethanol.
[snip a great Linus Pauling story]
The sodium acetate so produced is not
> a product that would present a disposal problem.
Well, yeah, but the sodium *ethoxide* that forms would present a big
disposal problem. It is very corrosive, and if the pH is above 10, most
places won't let you dump it down the drain.
And if the sodium is in lumps, as the original poster said, this implies
a fairly large quantity. (The lumps we buy are on the order of a pound
of sodium.) Dissolving these in isopropanol, as suggested by Tony
Czarnik, may not be dangerous in itself. However, the solution of
sodium isopropoxide in isopropanol had better be quenched with water
*before* it goes down the drain. That reaction is highly exothermic.
Plus, you need to make sure *all* of the solid is dissolved before you
add the water. Imagine your surprise and terror when the water
dissolves a clump of NaOH, only to find a nice hot ball of sodium metal
at its center that it suddenly exposed to water! Finally, it is
strictly illegal (and environmentally a very bad idea) in most places to
dump a large amount of waste (more than a few mL) with a pH of > 10
(which this will *certainly* have) down the drain.
I stand by my suggestion to pay for its proper disposal, particularly if
(as I suspect) you have more than a few grams.
Eric Lucas
wire...@sb.net
On 3/29/97 1:08AM, in message <01bc3c21$dee88920$c99eaec7@default>, "Reiner
Dieden" <rdi...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> Try distroying it by reaction with Ethanol : throw small lumps, one at a
> time, into a beaker with ethanol.
>
> WWAORI <wwa...@aol.com> a écrit dans l'article
> <19970327163...@ladder01.news.aol.com>...
> > does anyone know of a safe, non-exciting method to dissolve sodium metal
> > lumps? These were found in our lab.
> >
I hope you have not disposed of your Sodium yet. If it still under inert
atmosphere/liquid, I would like to inquire about buying it from you.
I purchase certain surplus chemicals, and sodium happens to be on the list.
I own Chemical Resale of Santa Barbara as well as another chemical company.
If you have in interest in selling, trading for other chemicals or labware or
whaterver, let me know...
Thank you,
Thomas C. Kasper
http://www.sb.net/wirehead
Gene
Cut sodium into small beads and add to a generous amount of ethanol. You will see
rapid bubbling, there is no cause for alarm. The end product will be sodium ethoxide
in ethanol, just rinse down sink.