Waffles - 11-6-2007 at 01:22
Admit it. You've always wanted to see the oft-retold prank in action.
Well here it is, thanks to the resourceful Mr. Ivan Timokhin!
The spoon: http://www.periodictable.ru/031Ga/slides/Ga4.jpg
The prank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaJ_Yxj9bG8
JohnWW - 11-6-2007 at 11:49
A rather expensive prank, though - gallium is a rare and costly metal.
hinz - 11-6-2007 at 12:52
The idea is great.
But it would be much funnier to do this with a chemophobic person. If this person drinks the tea without realising that the spoon melts, you can pull
the half molten spoon out of the cup and say that you have accidentally made the tea with some kind of acid 
PainKilla - 11-6-2007 at 12:56
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tvR1khXKnI&mode=related&...
That is a very interesting video as well; I wonder if it possible to use that as a source of nascent hydrogen, for the reduction of various
substrates? I've not seen any literature on it, though I suppose it's not really anything special. Still, a near ambient temperature hydrogen source
can be quite useful.
woelen - 11-6-2007 at 13:06
The latter is a waste of expensive gallium. Hydrogen can easily be made from aluminium and dilute HCl (with the help of a pinch of a copper(II) salt),
or from zinc and an acid, or from Mg and an acid. No need to use gallium or one of its alloys for that purpose.
garage chemist - 11-6-2007 at 13:20
An aluminium/gallium alloy of just the right proportions is said to react with water as violently as sodium.
Not that I would know those proportions...
It is a waste of gallium anyway.
How did you make the gallium spoon, waffler? Mold made from a real spoon?
Waffles - 11-6-2007 at 15:14
The prank isn't a waste, though! You let the tea cool, the gallium solidifies, and you recast the spoon.
I did not cast the spoons, they are not mine- Ivan apparently made a rubber mold and vacuum molding to squeeze all the details out.
Vexing - 22-6-2007 at 04:50
The aluminum gallium alloy isn't a waste either, the gallium can be recycled easily. The way it works is the gallium prevents the formation of an
oxidation layer on the aluminum.
YT2095 - 22-6-2007 at 04:59
quite true, I have a small in-Lab H2 generator that does exactly that, a small "Coil" of Ga at the bottom of the cylinder just under half fill with
ordinary water and then throw in a few beer can ring pulls.
10-20 seconds later H2 gas is plentiful.
and you get your Gallium back, you just need to change the watter every now and then.
guy - 22-6-2007 at 16:22
Can you use Gallium be used to activate Al as Hg does?
dedalus - 24-6-2007 at 12:50
I had a few grams of Ga once. Made it by electrolysis of a solution of Ga2O3 in KOH.
It's low to melt in your hand...slow to harden, too. It's not like Hg at all it's more like liquid Al.
It leaves these gray marks on your skin, also a kind of nasty "metallic" odor on you.
JohnWW - 25-6-2007 at 21:42
Here is a book with some information on gallium chemistry, although it may be (mostly) in Russian:
http://rushim.ru/books/neorganika/chimia-Ga-In-Tl.djvu
Aluminium, entering the body through food cooked in aluminium vessels, has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease. I wonder if gallium has the same
effect; if so, it would be much more dangerous to handle due to its oxide layer being destroyed on melting and being unable to re-form.
(BTW Never mind a gallium spoon, or even an aluminium one; what you need is the proverbial silver spoon!).
Engager - 1-7-2007 at 03:18
Here is a picture with gallium metall and other members of it's group from my collection. Now in hot summer at my room conditions gallium was melted,
but on picture it is solid cube, about 25 gramms. In the middle is metallic indium whitch i've made by electrolisys of In2(SO4)3/H2SO4 solution. On
the right is metallic thallium 18 gramms, stored under water to prevent oxidation.
franklyn - 1-7-2007 at 04:51
The alloys used to solder fire sprinklers also have very low melting points.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/b1c89aa138b84010vgnvcm100...
A related post _
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=6198&a...
.