We've been trying to find I good way to make barium metal at home.
After a bit of research we came up with a few ideas:
1. Decomposing barium azide at 100-140 C
2. Reduction of barium oxide with aluminium at 1100 C
3. Possibly electrolysis of barium hydroxide.
Method 2 and 3 use readily available chemicals, but very high temperatures
were as the barium azide used in method 1 is very dangerous, not to mention hard to produce.
None of these methods seem overly appealing. Does anyone know of any easier feasible methods? if not which of the above would be the best way to go? j_sum1 - 30-4-2016 at 18:39
Good luck.
The problem with Ba is that it has such a strong affinity for oxygen. It will oxidise rapidly with even the minutest amount of O2 present. That
should not stop you trying (and you might be successful) but you could easily end up with something that looks like a small piece of crud rather than
anything you would want to display in an element collection.
I recall DanVizine going to great lengths to prepare a shiny sample of barium and the things he learned are insightful. Let me see if I can find the
thread for you.
I know it is slightly off topic but it will give you an appreciation for the metal and its properties.Daffodile - 30-4-2016 at 22:47
I made some Barium from Barium Oxalate, for you it might be worth a try.Ba(ClO3)2 - 30-4-2016 at 23:54
could you please elaborate on how you did this?
barium oxalate doesn't seem that hard to make.
thanks
[Edited on 1-5-2016 by Ba(ClO3)2]j_sum1 - 1-5-2016 at 01:48
I can only speculate. There is a nice route from iron oxalate to elemental iron. You simply roast it and prevent oxygen from entering your reaction
vessel. The only issue is that it is so finely divided that it is pyrophoric. I would assume that barium would be even worse. But I could of course
be wrong. It seems like an interesting idea. morsagh - 1-5-2016 at 02:15
Barium oxalate decomposes to barium oxide so it won´t work. blogfast25 - 1-5-2016 at 05:26
None of these methods seem overly appealing. Does anyone know of any easier feasible methods? if not which of the above would be the best way to go?
There's also the electrolysis of an aqueous solution of a barium salt, with a mercury cathode. The formed Ba dissolves into the mercury as an amalgam.
Distilling off the mercury then leaves behind the pure barium metal.
[Edited on 1-5-2016 by blogfast25]halogen - 1-5-2016 at 07:46
Barium cyanide electrolysis, molten.
[Edited on 1-5-2016 by halogen]XeonTheMGPony - 1-5-2016 at 08:40
in refrigeration in specialty oven welding a 95 Nitrogen 5% Hydrogen is used, the H2 actualy de-oxidizes the metal that is being oven brazed.
So distilling a mercury barium amalgam under a 95/5 nitrogen hydrogen atmosphere would do the job nicely.
I've never seen the gas mix provided publicly but you could make your own easy enough. Or under a hydrogen atmosphere under vacuumBromicAcid - 1-5-2016 at 09:37
IIRC, there are established procedures in older literature to make via electrolysis. They use a eutectic salt mixture to get under the melting point
of barium to collect as a solid on the cathode. I remember some of this being in the calcium thread since you know how some people like to lump the
alkali earths under a single preparatory method. I recommend doing some research there.Ba(ClO3)2 - 19-7-2016 at 14:55
We successfully made a small amount of calcium metal by electrolysis of a barium chloride, calcium chloride, strontium chloride and potassium chloride
(http://www.google.com/patents/US3226311). Addition of the other chlorides lowers the melting point of the mixture to around 600 C (and calcium is
pretty much the product). We were wondering if barium could be made in a similar way.
