Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Metal Powders

=SkyNET= - 6-6-2006 at 20:51

Could someone tell me where i could get arsenic, silicon or vanadium?

Metal powders

Elawr - 6-6-2006 at 21:27

I have seen silicon in the form of wafers sold as surplus from the microchip industry. If I remember correctly, several on-line outfits specializing in surplus electronics components offered it at a price that seemed not unreasonable. It would seem that Si destined for chip manufacture would be of high purity. As far as As and V are concerned, I would try eBay first.

DeAdFX - 6-6-2006 at 22:16

Arensic I believe is used in the electornics industry too unless they are using something that is more "enviroment friendly"

[Edited on 8-6-2006 by DeAdFX]

ethan_c - 7-6-2006 at 09:11

Powder form, you're going to have issues with all of those elements.

Skylighter.com sells powdered silicon, at a very reasonable price if I remember correctly, but they also sell it as a hazardous item that you actually have to pick up at their warehouse…check it out if you live in the east coast of the US. Or you could buy some wafers, stick em in a ball mill, and see what happens…!

Powdered vanadium would oxidize much faster than chunks of the metal, so I don't exactly think that there are many uses for it outside the specialized Powder Metallurgy industry…just google it, I'd say. You can get dendritic V crystals on eBay, for a price, and they're very nice to look at, but certainly no powder.

And anyone besides a very experienced, safety-conscious chemical corporation would be absolutely nuts to deal with powdered arsenic.

The_Davster - 7-6-2006 at 15:42

We have a large ammount of all of those metals in the lab I work at, but that does not really help you.

I have seen vanadium powder on ebay once. The powder we have in the lab is kept under argon, too reactive to just be left in a bottle on the shelf.

I personally really really would avoid working with powdered arsenic, not because of the immediate toxicity, but because it is carcinogenic as well. It will be almost impossible for you to get ahold of any.

As for toxic elements I was offered some -325mesh powdered beryllium recently
"Hey ____(me) you want any powdered beryllium"
me: "Fuck no, keep that away from me"

I would have the same reaction to arsenic, but would not be against dustless lumps of either.

=SkyNET= - 7-6-2006 at 20:47

I suppose lumps would be good enough.

woelen - 8-6-2006 at 11:37

Have a look at www.emovendo.net. They have lots of metals, including vanadium. They also have many non-metal or semi-metals. Silicon, selenium, sulphur, and many more. The only really difficult thing is arsenic. I've not seen an affordable source of arsenic yet, although I would love to have a few tens of grams for my element collection.

Fleaker - 8-6-2006 at 12:03

I'd take the powdered beryllium. Melt it :) Look at www.smart-elements.com The guy there has many different samples, most high purity. IIRC, he can give you different forms, I don't know if he will do ultra fine powders though.

ethan_c - 11-6-2006 at 23:46

Quote:
Originally posted by Fleaker
I'd take the powdered beryllium. Melt it :) Look at www.smart-elements.com The guy there has many different samples, most high purity. IIRC, he can give you different forms, I don't know if he will do ultra fine powders though.


This option should be a last resort for anybody. While their products certainly aren't bad, the prices on virtually all of those items are absolutely nuts- he recently put up a tungsten zone-refined monocrystal, for literally more than 6 times the price per gram I picked one up for from the EXACT SAME STOCK.

Polverone - 12-6-2006 at 17:49

Try www.micronmetals.com for vanadium and silicon. They've been recommended to me before by someone from this forum (can't remember who) and they seem to stock a wide variety of powdered materials for reasonable prices -- though their vanadium is priced as 'inquire.'