Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
Author: Subject: Sodium/Potassium Gallium Sulfate
TheChemiKid
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 493
Registered: 5-8-2013
Location: ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 1-1-2014 at 17:36
Sodium/Potassium Gallium Sulfate


Could Sodium Gallium Sulfate or Potassium Gallium Sulfate be made in a similar technique as making Sodium Aluminum Sulfate or Potassium Aluminum Sulfate?

Step One: Dissolve Gallium in Sodium/Potassium Hydroxide to form the Gallate.
(2 Ga + 2 NaOH + 2 H2O → 2 NaGaO2 + 3 H2)
(2 Ga + 2 KOH + 2 H2O → 2 KGaO2 + 3 H2)
Step Two: Add Sulfuric Acid to Gallate to form Sodium/Potassium Gallium Sulfate. This is really a two step reaction, but is simplified here.
(NaGaO2 + 2 H2SO4 → NaGa(SO4)2 + 2 H2O)
(KGaO2 + 2 H2SO4 → KGa(SO4)2 + 2 H2O)

Is this viable?
I am only asking this because I do not want to go using my limited supply of Gallium on a project I am not sure will work.




When the police come


\( * O * )/ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
View user's profile View All Posts By User
HeYBrO
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 289
Registered: 6-12-2013
Location: 'straya
Member Is Offline

Mood: :)

[*] posted on 1-1-2014 at 22:12


You could always try your hypothesis on a mg scale and report back.



View user's profile View All Posts By User
TheChemiKid
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 493
Registered: 5-8-2013
Location: ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 04:04


I will do it on a small scale, but at 0.7g of Gallium and 0.4g of Sodium Hydroxide.
I cannot do it on a milligram scale because I do not have a precise enough scale. That is definitely a future buy.
EDIT: I will post my findings when I am done.

[Edited on 1-2-2014 by TheChemiKid]




When the police come


\( * O * )/ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
View user's profile View All Posts By User
bismuthate
National Hazard
****




Posts: 803
Registered: 28-9-2013
Location: the island of stability
Member Is Offline

Mood: self reacting

[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 04:53


The problem is that Ga dissolves very, very slowly in NaOH (in my experience). I would recomend using Ga(OH)3 instead of Ga.



I'm not a liar, I'm just an enthusiastic celebrant of opposite day.
I post pictures of chemistry on instagram as bismuthate. http://iconosquare.com/bismuthate
or this viewer if you don't have an instagram (it sucks though) http://web.stagram.com/n/bismuthate
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
vmelkon
National Hazard
****




Posts: 669
Registered: 25-11-2011
Location: Canada
Member Is Offline

Mood: autoerotic asphyxiation

[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 07:07


How would you identify it? By the Crystal structure?
View user's profile View All Posts By User
TheChemiKid
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 493
Registered: 5-8-2013
Location: ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 12:31


Yes.



When the police come


\( * O * )/ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'̵͇̿̿з=༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿ ༽
View user's profile View All Posts By User
blogfast25
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 10562
Registered: 3-2-2008
Location: Neverland
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 13:44


The sodium gallium alum may not be the best choice: the sodium aluminium alum is one of the hardest to crystallise because it is very water soluble at all temperatures. The ammonium aluminium alum by contrast is poorly soluble in the cold but very soluble hot.

For this first dissolve gallium in excess strong (50 %?) H2SO4:

Ga + 2 H2SO4 === > 1/2 Ga2(SO4)3 + 1/2 H2SO4 + 3/2 H2

Neutralise the excess H2SO4 with strong NH3 (33 %?) solution:

NH3 + 1/2 H2SO4 === > 1/2 (NH4)2SO4

Add up for overall stoichiometry:

Ga + NH3 + 2 H2SO4 === > NH4Ga(SO4)2 + 3/2 H2

Add water to both sides for NH4Ga(SO4)2.12H2O

Some information on the Gallium alums:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01251a012


[Edited on 2-1-2014 by blogfast25]




View user's profile View All Posts By User
eidolonicaurum
Hazard to Self
**




Posts: 71
Registered: 2-1-2014
Location: Area 51
Member Is Offline

Mood: Hydric

[*] posted on 3-1-2014 at 02:19


I have done a fair bit of work on the simple chemistry of gallium; I got a bit frustrated by the lack of information on gallium, so I decided to work it out myself. I have made both potassium gallium sulphate and gallium sulphate. Gallium sulphate was interesting to make, I discovered that gallium sulphate is insoluble in sulphuric acid. I ended up heating/boiling the acid with gallium to make it dissolve. The 50% concentration is about the ideal one to use. I then evapourated the solution down to obtain crystals of gallium sulphate. Interestingly, they were reniform: kidney shaped. This might be due to the small scale I was working on; they may have formed tiny crystals which then clumped together. After a while, I decided to turn them into potassium gallium sulphate, by recrystallisation from a solution of potassium sulphate. They were not too difficult to form, in contrast to aluminium it seems. The picture is of my double salt. The other thing is that you may have difficulty getting the gallium to dissolve in sodium hydroxide solution, it is not as reactive as aluminium, closer to that of zinc. But I would be interested to hear of your exploits in this reaction when you do it!

[Edited on 3-1-2014 by eidolonicaurum]

DSC_0778-1.jpg - 7kB
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
blogfast25
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 10562
Registered: 3-2-2008
Location: Neverland
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 3-1-2014 at 12:52


Quote: Originally posted by eidolonicaurum  
They were not too difficult to form, in contrast to aluminium it seems.
[Edited on 3-1-2014 by eidolonicaurum]


Interesting bit about the KGa alum.

But the highlighted bit is not true. KAl alum is very easy to prepare (various routes exist) and can be thermally crystallised very well, with 90 % + actual yields and nice, chunky crystals.




View user's profile View All Posts By User

  Go To Top