I was investigating a few different routes: milling magnesium, borax, and sodium carbonate in a ball mill and various takes on electrosynthesis.
The thread is here.
Problem with milling is the extreme conditions. I put my own attempt at milling on hold, as I felt it presented a pretty substantial risk, and
probably more so because it was unreasonably loud to run during dry testing. I feel it might be possible to mitigate some of the risks by monitoring
reaction conditions (pressure inside vessel, heat, etc) and running under inert atmosphere, though I probably will try and find a way to reduce the
noise aspect first.
On electrochemical routes: most seem to be lacking promise of substantial results. Many papers I've come across reference incredibly small amounts of
borohydride being formed. Not nearly enough to warrant running the process and extracting. Furthermore, most seem also to indicate that the
borohydride concentration peaks pretty rapidly and then declines. Perhaps some sort of continuous extraction could help here, but I feel this would be
out of the reach of the amateur.
There have been some references I've come across which indicate issues with electrostatic repulsion at the cathode, preventing formation of the
borohydride. Some have attempted to mitigate this by using some form of pulsed voltage systems, wherein the voltage differential to produce the
borohydride is applied, then a reverse polarity is applied at a potential less than that to cause an electrochemical breakdown, followed followed by a
neutral or refectory period, all at some regular interval.
I've yet to have any luck with either, but my materials, methods, and analytical equipment are all pretty basic. |
