RogueRose
International Hazard
Posts: 1596
Registered: 16-6-2014
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Using silver shot for a heat bath instead of sand?
I was just looking at some posts about using a sand bath for some distillations (including H2SO4) and I was wondering if something like pure silver
shot would be a better choice (if it's already available - I know it's expensive for what it is...). I was amazed at how fast a 1oz silver round
melted an ice cube I set on top of it - it was amazingly fast for the coin only being heated by my hand before putting the ice cube on it. I know it's
only a little more thermally conductive than copper (I've seen sources say 9%) but it seems much higher for some reason.
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Texium
Administrator
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Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
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Mood: PhD candidate!
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Copper or aluminum shot is already well known as an excellent heating medium. Presumably silver would work just as well if not marginally better,
though as you point out, it would be prohibitively expensive for that use, so you may as well compromise and use copper.
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