Could you make a cast Al
based heating block by mixing Al shot or something with the stuff that is used to repair the cooker or car exhaust. The stuff for cookers is rated up
to 1500oC.
mick
The general idea is to be able to cast a cheap heat conducting block pre-formed that will fit on a stirrer hot plate and take up to a 500-1000 ml rb
flask rather than use an oil bath.
Problems I can think of is that if the setting compound is alkaline then Al could produce H2. This could be a technical problem by making sure every
thing sets fast and there is still some Al2O3.
The other thing I can think of is that if the expansion coefficients do not work, the thing might disintergate if it is heated up too much. 250-300oC
is more than enough for most solvents.
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