Chemistry Alchemist - 29-11-2011 at 04:56
I cut up an old floppy disc (the flexible disc inside) and added it to a small bit of HCl... i read somewhere that its Sm, but on the MSDS of
Samarium(II) Chloride it says its a pale yellow to white... this is a deep yellow... does anyone know what this could be? The Floppy disc has also
gone from a non transparent disc to a bit transparent...
![DSC01669.JPG - 90kB](https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/files.php?pid=228715&aid=16657)
As u can see in the picture the disc is now transparent... so what ever was in the disc has been leached out into solution...
ScienceSquirrel - 29-11-2011 at 05:06
As far as I know the material is iron III oxide based which would account for the yellow colour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disc#Structure
Arthur Dent - 29-11-2011 at 05:10
It's pretty safe to assume that it will be mostly ferric chloride, since floppies use a similar iron oxide coating on a flexible plastic media like
4-track cassettes, VHS/BETA cartridges and open reel tape.
If there is Samarium in this stuff, it will probably be in minute quantities, but I doubt it, because the magnetic properties of Samarium and Cobalt
together make them more appropriate for actual magnets.
You are more likely to find some Chromium Oxide, that was used many years ago to improve the magnetic properties of recording media, but that was
mostly audio cassettes.
Robert
Chemistry Alchemist - 29-11-2011 at 05:15
Where would u most likly find Samarium Magnets being in use? the link below shows a picture of what 2 uses samarium has....
http://www.jce.divched.org/JCESoft/CCA/CCA4/STILLS64/S_elt/S...
ScienceSquirrel - 29-11-2011 at 05:20
Seek and ye shall find!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarium#Applications
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197...