DalisAndy
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Borate Spirit Lamps
Hello everyone. Since Halloween is about a month away, I was think about making some borate spirit lamps. For those who don't know borate compound
tend to burn green. So I have gather nearly all the required chemicals to make trimethyl borate, triethyl borate, and triisopropanol borate. I was
wondering if dissolving a borate in water (or any other) would allow for it to be used in an alcohol lamp? And if not, how could I make a spirit lamp
for jack-o-lanterns? Also will the ending boron trioxide just fall to the bottom as a gray powder? And that isn't toxic/harmful. What I have read
says no. But I know there are a few of you out there with Ph.D.'s in chemistry
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
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DraconicAcid
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You cannot dissolve a borate ester in water to any appreciable extent (and it would hydrolyze anyway). You could dissolve it in alcohol, though.
I've poured it on campfires, but never tried it in a burner.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Oscilllator
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I've dissolved some boric acid in ethanol with some success. The flame is reasonably green to start, but there are problems with boric acid
accumulating of the wick due to evaporation of the ethanol. Sodium contamination also tends to colour the flame yellowish, so it isn't completely
green.
Perhaps using trimethyl borate or similar would avoid the accumulation problem though.
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DalisAndy
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Quote: Originally posted by Oscilllator  | I've dissolved some boric acid in ethanol with some success. The flame is reasonably green to start, but there are problems with boric acid
accumulating of the wick due to evaporation of the ethanol. Sodium contamination also tends to colour the flame yellowish, so it isn't completely
green.
Perhaps using trimethyl borate or similar would avoid the accumulation problem though. |
Where you attempting to make triethyl borate? Same way as with trimethyl borate btw. You could use borax instead of boric acid
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
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Oscilllator
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No, I wasn't. I just wanted to make the alcohol burner I used to head test tubes have a pretty flame so I dumped some in as an experiment.
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ave369
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Not the best fuel for alcohol burners: it soots B2O3.
Smells like ammonia....
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j_sum1
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I believe boric acid dissolves ok in methanol and gives a green flame. I haven't done it. I have mixed boric acid with methylated spirits and burned
it in a bowl without a wick. The effect is quite good.
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Little_Ghost_again
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You can get special glass fibre pens for cleaning pcb boards, the pen bit is like very very fine glass strands. I have used these before as wicks and
they dont soot up or discolor the flame as much, it might also be worth using cleaned rock wall (the insulation stuff) as a wick. I read somewhere you
can clean in conc sulphuric acid to burn off any organics (colourings etc) then was and clean in acetone, I have also used this as wick material but
prefer the fibre pens
Dont ask me, I only know enough to be dangerous
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PHILOU Zrealone
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Add a little CuCl2 it will enhance the blue/green.
Only CuCl2 saturated ethanol already makes wonders, but use glass fiber wick not a cotton wick (contains Na that polute the colour with
yellow-orange). Same process could be used with LiCl for deep red and CaCl2 for pink-orange.
PH Z (PHILOU Zrealone)
"Physic is all what never works; Chemistry is all what stinks and explodes!"-"Life that deadly disease, sexually transmitted."(W.Allen)
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aga
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The perfect wick is a strand off an old style mop head - the kind that are cotton.
Cheers to arkoma for that tip.
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