formula ford - 21-9-2012 at 20:28
I was wondering how possible it would be to replace the Sodium Chlorate with Potassium and thus precipitate it out of solution of the following:
Pesticide sold in powder form in 50lb bags.
Sodium Metaborate (NaBO2) 40ish % Solubility: 260 g/L (20 C) PH:11
Sodium Chlorate (NaClO3) 30ish%
the rest undisclosed other than "this product contains a fire retardant", but Sodium Metaborate seems to be used as a fire retardant in combination
with Chlorate.
Given the high solubility of the 2 primary chemicals, and the unknown solubility of the remaining 25-30%, it seems possible to put it all in solution,
filter anything with low solubility, and then replace the Chlorate and precipitate it out, leaving everything else in. A very fast source for KClO3,
though not exactly cheap, and with a significant amount of leftover chemical to clean up.
1: MSDS says Metaborate is flamable and should never be mixed with oxidizers, strange given the original composition.
2: How is the Metaborate going to react with the KCl. Both Sodium and Potassium Metaborate seem to be used as industrial cleaners, with minimal Haz
restrictions.
So what happens if I try this?
woelen - 22-9-2012 at 06:09
You can afely try this. Metaborates are not flammable, they suppress the ability to burn. Probably there is some error in the MSDS.
Adding KCl most likely will precipitate out some KClO3, but you need to use boiling hot saturated solutions and then mix these solutions and allow to
cool down to room temperature and when cool, put them in a refrigerator. The solid you get is KClO3 of reasonable purity.
Better purity is obtained if all of this solid is dissolved again in as little as possible distilled water and again allowed to crystallize by cooling
down. The product, obtained in this way, is pure KClO3, suitable for many experiments and also suitable for pyrotechnical purposes.
hyfalcon - 22-9-2012 at 14:02
I would do a third recrystallization if I was going to use that KClO3 to make stars with. The left over sodium can really muddy your colors.
formula ford - 1-10-2012 at 07:11
So, I tried it, and the results were not good.
After multiple recrystalizations and rinses, the results will crackle a bit and try to light, and it does burn the correct color so far as it burns at
all, but that's about it.
I'm guessing that even in trace amounts the metaborate inhibits flame, but this seems odd given the solubility of every other possible chem in the mix
is so very much higher than KClO3.
Any thoughts?