a123x
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elements collection
I had this idea. Collect the elemental forms of all the elements that could be collected. Yeah, not such a new idea but I thought of an add on to it.
Not just collect all of them in elemental form but also isolate all of them from their compounds. Obviously not an easy task and one that might
require years to accomplish but still a most worth while achievement. I mean, some are easy to isolate like chlorine and then with a bit more effort
the less reactive halogens could just be replaced from a compound by the elemental chlorine. Others though, like the more reactive alkali metals might
be quite difficult. Obviously though the inert gases which don't form compounds and gold, silver, and copper which are abundant in elemental form
would have to simply be gotten from nature. I was just wondering if any one had any thoughts about collecting elements in this fashion. I'm
currently not in much of a position to start doing so but it is something I would like to eventually accomplish.
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a_bab
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I am doing it right now, at least in the collecting stage. Some future plans are isolating the boron, silicon, manganese and calcium. An absolutely
great link concerning our hobby is here.
[Edited on 19-6-2003 by a_bab]
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a123x
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Yeah, I've seen that page before. It's actually what gave me the idea to start a collection of self isolated elements although I
haven't gotten around to doing this yet.
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sirius_cm
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Uncle Tungsten is a really good book for it too, about chemistry in general.
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Darkfire
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Flourine compound are pretty readily availble, do you plan on ever trying to isolate them?
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a123x
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I have at this point every intention to isolate every element possible, rapidly decaying things like francium obviously can't really be isolated.
I think it will take me quite a long time to do but I will. I think I might start tomarrow with some of the transition metals. I already have a copper
plated coin that I made so I'll consider that my isolated copper. Hmm, probably a manganese dioxide thermite would be good for getting manganese.
Pretty much all the transition metals are easy enough to do since aluminum or magnesium can be used to replace them in a compound. Making charcoal is
isolating carbon so that's easy. Really the only tough ones are metals more reactive than Al. Most of the non-metals are tough but nitrogen can
be isolated from sodium azide airbags, along with the sodium although containing the products properly is tough. Pretty much the really tough ones are
fluorine, and all of the alkaline earth and alkali metals. Then again, according to the activity tables I've seen lithium is always at the top,
above all other elements in its ability to reduce positive ions. Makes me wonder if simply putting lithium and the hydroxide of active metals into a
sealed metal container and heating to the melting point of the hydroxide would be a feasable way to isolate the other alkali and alkaline metals.
Anyway, that's getting ahead of myself.
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a_bab
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sirius_cm, do you have the printed "Uncle Tungsten" book ? If so, a scan could bring you lots of congratulations 
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I am a fish
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Stability of elements
(note: the following refers only to stability of elements, not to the difficulty of isolating them or the legality of obtaining them)
Assuming you wanted to collect the 92 elements up to Uranium:
83 (thorium and uranium, plus all the elements from hydrogen to bismuth, with the exception of technetium and promethium) can easily be collected in
large quantites.
5 (prometheum, technetium, radium, radon and polonium) are difficult to collect in macroscopic quantites.
4 (francium, actinium, protactinium and astatine) are practically impossible to collect in any meaningful quantity.
1f `/0u (4|\\| |234d 7|-|15, `/0u |234||`/ |\\|33d 70 937 0u7 /\\/\\0|23.
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vulture
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You can add polonium to your impossible list too, although it seems to be present in tobacco. It's extremely radioactive, the metal heats itself
substantially and it's as rare as astatine.
Radiating a kilogram of bismuth for a year yields something like 25mg polonium...
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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Nick F
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Anti-static brushes are still available from some photography suppliers; they contain a hundred uC or so of polonium-210, depending on the size of
brush that you buy. They cost about $15. Obviously this would be hard to isolate, since that amount is TIIINNNNY, physically. And after a few years
you won't have much left. Recently some guy on eBay was selling a mg of Americium - the first time I have ever known it to be sold anywhere in a
size that you can see. $180, making it expensive stuff, but it would have been perfect for the serious collector  .
"easily be collected in large quantites"
If you know of an easy way to collect large quantities of caesium, please let me know .
I have a small but growing elements collection. I would like to isolate them all myself, but would never get round to it.
Currently I'm trying to isolate some uranium; I got a gram or so of autunite + host rock off eBay for about 70p a while ago. It turns out that
the autunite dissolves in 70% HNO3 quite easily, leaving the host rock behind  .
Adding NaOH precipitated stuff which looks like Fe(OH)3, but lighter in colour. I assume it to be a uranium hydroxide. After I check exactly what it
is I'll work out what I think would be the easiest way to extract metallic uranium from it...
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vulture
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Extracting metallic uranium is going to be a pain in the ass, because it's a highly reactive metal, which readily oxidizes upon contact with air.
Not to mention it's toxicity.
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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a_bab
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Nick F, need lots of cesium uh? I bet that you want to try the reaction with water.
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I am a fish
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Nick F
"easily be collected in large quantites"
If you know of an easy way to collect large quantities of caesium, please let me know .
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Sigma Aldrich sell if for about £40 (UK pounds) a gram. That's quite cheap in comparison to some elements.
1f `/0u (4|\\| |234d 7|-|15, `/0u |234||`/ |\\|33d 70 937 0u7 /\\/\\0|23.
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a_bab
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Since the cessium chloride or other compounds are MUCH cheaper than the pure metal, I'd say that isolating Cs from the compounds is much better.
Yes, I know it's very hard, but it was done more than 100 years ago, so it shouldn't be imposible.
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I am a fish
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vulture
Extracting metallic uranium is going to be a pain in the ass, because it's a highly reactive metal, which readily oxidizes upon contact with air.
Not to mention it's toxicity. |
I think the toxicity is the main obstacle, as this precludes many methods that could be used for a safer metal.
For example, uranium could be extracted by thermally decomposing its nitrate, carbonate or hydroxide and then reacting the resulting oxide with
aluminium powder. However, I would have slight reservations about lighting a uranium based thermite mixture.
1f `/0u (4|\\| |234d 7|-|15, `/0u |234||`/ |\\|33d 70 937 0u7 /\\/\\0|23.
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GZAust
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| Quote: | | elemental form but also isolate all of them from their compounds. |
I assumed nothing else.
It's an excellent idea, and yes it would take many years perhaps, that's why it would be fulfilling.
Maybe as you start finding it not so much of a challenge as in your earlier years/elements, you make a new rule: Novel route to isolation of the
element. 
Great lifelong project. I'm up for it.
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a123x
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Well right now I've isolated copper and carbon. I'll probably do hydrogen and oxygen soon since that's an easy one, first I need to
build myself a periodic table cabinet for each element. Also I'll have to get a bunch of small glass jars for each sample.
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blip
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Well, I'm starting such a collection, too. I'm hopefully going to be
successful in isolating elemental iodine from tinctures, but probably less than a gram considering my current supply. I already have a slightly
damaged display case that I should be able to modify to look at least close to a periodic table. Because my brother makes his own lump charcoal, I
should be able to do electrolysis of molten salts to get some more elements.
Here's a bit of interesting info from http://www.webelements.com/webelements/scholar/elements/yttr...
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...yttrium is used as a "phosphor" to produce the red colour in television screens.
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sirius_cm
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| Quote: | Originally posted by a_bab
sirius_cm, do you have the printed "Uncle Tungsten" book ? If so, a scan could bring you lots of congratulations |
rofl, yes i do, but alas, i dont have a scanner 
cant spare like 14 bucks to buy it?
Alpha Canis Major
\"The Enemy Gate is Down\"
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