metalresearcher
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Isolating Na metal from NaOH + Mg result ?
As I have tried this more times before and posted it here, now I got some sodium metal by reacting NaOH + Mg drillings in a steel tube retort. I
harvested the result from the retort and dumped it into lamp oil which I heated well above 97ºC to melt out the Na metal.
But the result is still slurry (photo 1 of beaker). And when I put pieces of this slurry in water, it contains obviously Na metal. Small balls float
on the water and reacting with it exhausting yellow flames.
What is the best method isolating the metal ?
 
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Hexavalent
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Dump the slurry into a beaker with some mineral oil and water. The sodium will remain in the oil, while the other components should sink into the
aqueous layer.
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill
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metalresearcher
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But then the Na will be in contact with the water at the border, so it will react, so I don't think this is a good idea.
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blogfast25
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Separating the obtained sodium from the slag has proved very difficult with this method. Try ‘panning’ (like panning for gold) or coalescing the
molten sodium by means of a lot of patience.
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