Camroc37
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Any info on Gallium compounds and production needed!
There is really very little info on Gallium compounds out there, but does anyone know how to make any? I ordered 100g of it and would like to do
something with it instead of playing with it until it slowly turns to nothing since it sticks to most everything. The metal seems very nonreactive
with most things. I don't want to make Gallium Arsenide by the way, but anything else I may try. Just give a suggestion! I will post pics if I make a
compound successfully. (An example is Gallium (III) Oxide, but I don't even know how to make that)
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gdflp
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Gallium is soluble in nitric acid. To make gallium compounds, simply dissolve the metal in nitric acid, then add a stoichiometric amount of a base
such as sodium hydroxide (gallium oxide is amphoteric similar to aluminum, so an excess will cause yields to drop) to precipitate Ga(OH)3.
This should be soluble in acids to make the corresponding gallium salts, and soluble in bases to yield gallates.
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Tdep
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I did some gallium chemistry once. I was making some gallium trioxide for a gallium thermite, because I liked throwing my money away (now I just spend
it on food, it's miserable).
Anyway, the gallium metal very slowly dissolved in concentrated HCl, and precipitated white Ga(OH)3 with NaOH solution. Adding just a slight excess of
the NaOH caused it to redissolve, forming sodium gallinate (that's the right word yeah?). I then heated the gallium hydroxide to form the oxide. The
thermite failed but forget about that bit.
But importantly, if you don't have all the information in front of you, experiment a little! Treat gallium like a less reactive aluminium. It's going
to be amphoteric, not going to form pretty complexes and won't be particularly colourful at all, hardly straying from white or clear. See what you can
create.
Oh and have fun
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diddi
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I have made Gallium nitrate. it is a faintly yellow translucent solid and extremely hygroscopic. it must be produced in cool nitric acid as the
reactivity reduces substantially if the Ga is molten.
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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fluorescence
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I just translate a small passage from Gmelin's Gallium. By the way whenever you want to know
something about an element and it's compounds look into the Gmelin Books. It's full of elemental
chemistry.
So basically it says here:
- 50% HF will produce Galliumfluoride
- Diluted HCl (1n) won't react very fast at cold temperatures, however at elevated temperatures it should start with a vigorous reaction
- Nitric Acid will react at about 50°C producing Nitrous Oxides (highly concentrated)
- Con. Nitric Acid will cause passivation
- It dissolves very slowly in Sulphuric Acid
- It will react with a potassium hydroxide solution
- There is also some reaction with Ammonia but the temperatures are too high to do that at home
- If cooled you can react it with dry Chlorine to form the Chloride, but be careful, at elevated temperatures it will ignite as it is very exothermic.
Oh and them amount of chlorine is important. It says here that a slow stream of Chlorine will produce Gallium(II)Chloride and a strong stream
Gallium(III)chloride (didn't know that even existed)
- Here is something interesting. If you add Bromine to the metal you'll get the Bromide however this must be done at (-35°C) . If you do that close
to 0°C it will ignite and will 'react like an alkali metal in water' to quote the author. What you can do however is to make a solution of Bromine in
Potassium Bromide solution. It will react at room temperature to form Gallium(III)Bromide.
- You can heat it with Iodine but that is quite dangerous, too and it will produce layers that don't react so it has to be shaken while heating it and
it might catch fire. So I wouldn't do that with iodine.
Yeah that's basically it. But no guarantee that it will react that way or won't explode at some point.
Most of the reactions seem to be quite exothermic. So be careful !
The Book is from 1936 and some passages quoted from 18xx so there might be different products formed if you analyze it with modern technology who
knows.
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aga
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Dissolved some Ga metal in HNO3 once to make Gallium Nitrate, and it was impossible to drive off all of the excess Nitric acid.
This pearl of wisdom from gdflp is the key :-
Quote: Originally posted by gdflp  | | Gallium is soluble in nitric acid. To make gallium compounds, simply dissolve the metal in nitric acid, then add a stoichiometric amount of a base
such as sodium hydroxide (gallium oxide is amphoteric similar to aluminum, so an excess will cause yields to drop) to precipitate Ga(OH)3.
This should be soluble in acids to make the corresponding gallium salts, and soluble in bases to yield gallates. |
Gallium nitrate has been used to treat hypercalcemia
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12776254
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Camroc37
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| Quote: Originally posted by Tdep | I did some gallium chemistry once. I was making some gallium trioxide for a gallium thermite, because I liked throwing my money away (now I just spend
it on food, it's miserable).
Anyway, the gallium metal very slowly dissolved in concentrated HCl, and precipitated white Ga(OH)3 with NaOH solution. Adding just a slight excess of
the NaOH caused it to redissolve, forming sodium gallinate (that's the right word yeah?). I then heated the gallium hydroxide to form the oxide. The
thermite failed but forget about that bit.
But importantly, if you don't have all the information in front of you, experiment a little! Treat gallium like a less reactive aluminium. It's going
to be amphoteric, not going to form pretty complexes and won't be particularly colourful at all, hardly straying from white or clear. See what you can
create.
Oh and have fun |
I added a bit of gallium in with HCl and let it sit, but nothing happened. Guess it wasn't in long enough or the Gallium compound produced is white.
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Camroc37
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| Quote: Originally posted by fluorescence | I just translate a small passage from Gmelin's Gallium. By the way whenever you want to know
something about an element and it's compounds look into the Gmelin Books. It's full of elemental
chemistry.
So basically it says here:
- 50% HF will produce Galliumfluoride
- Diluted HCl (1n) won't react very fast at cold temperatures, however at elevated temperatures it should start with a vigorous reaction
- Nitric Acid will react at about 50°C producing Nitrous Oxides (highly concentrated)
- Con. Nitric Acid will cause passivation
- It dissolves very slowly in Sulphuric Acid
- It will react with a potassium hydroxide solution
- There is also some reaction with Ammonia but the temperatures are too high to do that at home
- If cooled you can react it with dry Chlorine to form the Chloride, but be careful, at elevated temperatures it will ignite as it is very exothermic.
Oh and them amount of chlorine is important. It says here that a slow stream of Chlorine will produce Gallium(II)Chloride and a strong stream
Gallium(III)chloride (didn't know that even existed)
- Here is something interesting. If you add Bromine to the metal you'll get the Bromide however this must be done at (-35°C) . If you do that close
to 0°C it will ignite and will 'react like an alkali metal in water' to quote the author. What you can do however is to make a solution of Bromine in
Potassium Bromide solution. It will react at room temperature to form Gallium(III)Bromide.
- You can heat it with Iodine but that is quite dangerous, too and it will produce layers that don't react so it has to be shaken while heating it and
it might catch fire. So I wouldn't do that with iodine.
Yeah that's basically it. But no guarantee that it will react that way or won't explode at some point.
Most of the reactions seem to be quite exothermic. So be careful !
The Book is from 1936 and some passages quoted from 18xx so there might be different products formed if you analyze it with modern technology who
knows.
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Cool, I have never heard ANY Gallium chemistry! I am in chem class at school so I may have access to a lab if I get good grades and sweet talk my
chemistry teacher. I think I will buy her whatever her favorite element is- cheesy, but may work. I will try all of the above listed at some point
likely, when I have the means to do so. You mean I have to dry Cl gas and use that, right? Thanks
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Camroc37
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"In strongly acidic conditions, the gallium ion, Ga3+ is formed. In strongly basic conditions, Ga(OH)4− is formed." -Wiki
So what exactly is the math behind the amounts of NaOH needed to precipitate Gallium Hydroxide? Is it soluble? If not, then You could filter it off.
If it is soluble, the math matters a lot more...
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Tdep
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It is insoluble, as all hydroxides but the alkali hydroxides are, but the maths does matter because if you add an excess of sodium hydroxide your
precipitate will disappear and form the soluble Ga(OH)4- ion (the correct term is gallate not gallinate I believe). If you can't be bothered doing the
maths (you should but) you can just add sodium hydroxide and HCl drop wise until you reach a point where there's maximum precipitate. With an
expensive metal like gallium, do the maths.
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fluorescence
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Yeah I'm sorry I have the Book on Gallium as an Ebook and it's full of it's chemistry.
There is even a Gmelin on Astatine where all of it's salts and chemistry is predicted.
But it's in German. So unless you don't want me to translate you a certain passage,
like you needed information on a compound you won't be able to read it.
But there is a lot on the chemistry of Gallium.
So here is the english table of contents to the book if you are looking for something
specific:
https://app.box.com/s/wvl1lq255azyewlbgtjao62fqvipjk8u
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j_sum1
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Cool book, fluoro.
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fluorescence
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My University has the complete collection its a wall full of books.
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Camroc37
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| Quote: Originally posted by fluorescence | Yeah I'm sorry I have the Book on Gallium as an Ebook and it's full of it's chemistry.
There is even a Gmelin on Astatine where all of it's salts and chemistry is predicted.
But it's in German. So unless you don't want me to translate you a certain passage,
like you needed information on a compound you won't be able to read it.
But there is a lot on the chemistry of Gallium.
So here is the english table of contents to the book if you are looking for something
specific:
https://app.box.com/s/wvl1lq255azyewlbgtjao62fqvipjk8u |
Gallium (III) Oxide please, if you were offering a translation :/
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fluorescence
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Gallium(III)Oxide:
'Gallium(III)Oxide is produced by heating Gallium metal in an uncovered porcelain crucible above a free flame.
In a calorimetric bomb under a high oxygen pressure.
By burning Gallium in a custom built grate (dunno the word here, where you roast stuff on ) in special furnaces
Gallium(III)Oxide can be made in any porosity ( it says that way it would be really pure ).'
But I guess you need a special furnace and other stuff for it.
'It can be made by heating Galliumhydroxide.
A solution of Gallium in HNO3, that was heated to dryness can be heated further to make Gallium(III)Oxide'
-> I guess that would be the easiest way to heat Galliumnitrate till the oxide is formed.
' Ammonium-Gallium Sulfate, I guess this is how it's called will form the oxide when heated high enough.
And by heating either Gallium Sulfate, Gallium Oxalate or basic Gallium Acetate. '
That's the passage about how to make it. If you want any of the original papers where this information was taken from,
there is always a source behind every sentence I could give it, too if you liked to read the original literature first.
Oh and there is a small text under how to make it:
It says that there are two diferent types of modifications of Gallium(III)Oxide. Dunno if you need that information.
The rest ist basic stuff about the chemistry of Gallium(III)Oxide, but there is only one interesting line in the physical information box:
' If heated to 735°C in a HHO-Flame, it will show a strong blue luminescence.'
And 'If you have elctrical discharges through a pipe that has some Ga(III)Oxide in it, you will see a blue to purple
glow. If you add 0.1 - 2 % Chromium(III)Oxide, it will change to really bright red fluorecence. '
Oh and for your preparation it says here that heating it to 1300°C won't destroy it so I guess you can just
heat as high as you can get to make sure everything turned into the oxide.
If you need anything else, let me know.
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Camroc37
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| Quote: Originally posted by fluorescence | Gallium(III)Oxide:
'Gallium(III)Oxide is produced by heating Gallium metal in an uncovered porcelain crucible above a free flame.
In a calorimetric bomb under a high oxygen pressure.
By burning Gallium in a custom built grate (dunno the word here, where you roast stuff on ) in special furnaces
Gallium(III)Oxide can be made in any porosity ( it says that way it would be really pure ).'
But I guess you need a special furnace and other stuff for it.
'It can be made by heating Galliumhydroxide.
A solution of Gallium in HNO3, that was heated to dryness can be heated further to make Gallium(III)Oxide'
-> I guess that would be the easiest way to heat Galliumnitrate till the oxide is formed.
' Ammonium-Gallium Sulfate, I guess this is how it's called will form the oxide when heated high enough.
And by heating either Gallium Sulfate, Gallium Oxalate or basic Gallium Acetate. '
That's the passage about how to make it. If you want any of the original papers where this information was taken from,
there is always a source behind every sentence I could give it, too if you liked to read the original literature first.
Oh and there is a small text under how to make it:
It says that there are two diferent types of modifications of Gallium(III)Oxide. Dunno if you need that information.
The rest ist basic stuff about the chemistry of Gallium(III)Oxide, but there is only one interesting line in the physical information box:
' If heated to 735°C in a HHO-Flame, it will show a strong blue luminescence.'
And 'If you have elctrical discharges through a pipe that has some Ga(III)Oxide in it, you will see a blue to purple
glow. If you add 0.1 - 2 % Chromium(III)Oxide, it will change to really bright red fluorecence. '
Oh and for your preparation it says here that heating it to 1300°C won't destroy it so I guess you can just
heat as high as you can get to make sure everything turned into the oxide.
If you need anything else, let me know.
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Thanks, I will try heating the Gallium Nitrate. I assume a bunsen burner would work since you said it can be heated further for the oxide.
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fluorescence
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Think so. Wikipedia says that the Nitrate will decompose at around 200C and the Oxide will melt around 1900C
so heating it with a burner for a certain time will convert it into the Oxide (beta-form).
[Edited on 29-8-2015 by fluorescence]
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