Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Arsenic sublimator

urenthesage - 27-9-2016 at 11:37

I have a small collection of orpiment pieces that dont fit in my mineral collection. I was wondering if anyone would be able to design a vessel that can be bottom heated to an appropriate temperature yet have a surface for it to condense on. Or am I chasing cars at trying to take the sulfur off of the arsenic?

elementcollector1 - 27-9-2016 at 12:42

Quote: Originally posted by urenthesage  
I have a small collection of orpiment pieces that dont fit in my mineral collection. I was wondering if anyone would be able to design a vessel that can be bottom heated to an appropriate temperature yet have a surface for it to condense on. Or am I chasing cars at trying to take the sulfur off of the arsenic?


I worked with skutterudite, which was significantly safer up until the point of sublimation. All you have to do is get a pipe of some sort, probably copper, place your arsenic-containing compound and a suitable reducing agent (charcoal would probably be good) inside, weld it shut, and heat one end. The temperature gradient will be enough for arsenic to condense on the other end of the tube.

A quick note: When I say weld it shut, I do mean weld it shut. Rolling the copper pipe over four times and hitting the end with a hammer as hard as I could wasn't nearly enough to stop a leak of arsenic gas on my first try, and I'm not dumb enough to try for a second attempt.