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IrC
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If your purpose was obtaining Hafnium I am unsure why you chose the electrodes. Seems a tiny hard to separate quantity and if you are going to try
chemical separation methods you have the other metal as impurities to deal with. A few years back I bought a 10.2 gm piece on fleabay for about 30
bucks including shipping. A couple offers right now are in the $1.50 to $3 /gm range depending upon what you wish to spend. Some turnings are also
available although I do not think the deal is nearly as good.
Took this pic and re-sized it from the 148 gm link, this is similar to mine (but larger obviously), indicating what the pure metal should look like
(in this form).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hafnium-Metal-99-9-148g-pure-metall-...
If too high for your budget this one is $32.45 shipped:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hafnium-Metal-Sponge-High-Purity-99-...
Sponge form, but if chemical reactions are your goal it seems this would be easier to work with than a large solid chunk. Maybe I am missing your
original intent when choosing to buy the electrodes. I used to shop around for exotic elements from Hamric and Emovendo but it's been a few years so I
don't know if either seller is still in business. Others are however, but you have to carefully shop as I see a wide range of per gm prices right now.
Since we know these fleabay links will expire I add for later readers of this post: Hafnium Metal 99,9% 148g pure $204.50 shipped; seller onyxmetall.
Hafnium Metal, Sponge, High Purity, 99.9%, 10 grams $32.45 shipped, seller billythec. Both are good sellers whom I trust.
The pic for the sponge form:
If you are in the states buying from Poland is not a worry, the time is not that bad really, usually 10 to 12 days or less. In fact I have purchased
from probably every country in the EU, from Russia, Ukraine, China, Turkey, etc. and the only country I avoid is England. No prejudice in my opinion
here, merely personal experience. In several purchases from England 6 weeks is fast and no I cannot explain why. It just is, every single time. Maybe
one of the European members can explain that one all I can say is it just is.
Sorry I have nothing useful to add pertaining to your question in this thread, sitting here looking at my chunk wondering the same thing. For 9 years
now. That link about the Hafnium controversy and Stimulated emission has me interested however. Since the 80's I have been trying to build a gamma ray
laser in vain.
I spent a lot of money on N50 magnets hoping the free electron gamma laser was possible for the lone experimenter. You just cannot get strong enough
magnets close enough together to achieve these frequencies. If you think about it high fields means larger magnets (even with N50), meaning close
spacing not so easy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-electron_laser
Given the close spacing and high fields needed in the Undulator using materials obtainable by the non billionaire, one also needs extreme velocity
compensating for spacing to reach gamma frequencies. It would take someone a lot smarter than me to do it on my budget. What percentage of natural Hf
is the 178m2Hf isomer? I missed it or it was not explained in the link PeeWee2000 posted above. In any case finally I have something new to experiment
with in my collection of elements. Hf, Ta and Ho I have and are all mentioned concerning this subject on the nuclear isomer page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_isomer
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" Richard Feynman
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LanthanumK
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The plasma cutter electrode I got from a welding shop had a plated copper exterior with a tiny rod of hafnium in the center of the tip. I did not see
any electrodes that were made entirely of pure hafnium.
hibernating...
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elementcollector1
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Quote: Originally posted by LanthanumK  | | The plasma cutter electrode I got from a welding shop had a plated copper exterior with a tiny rod of hafnium in the center of the tip. I did not see
any electrodes that were made entirely of pure hafnium. |
Mine was composed of a copper cone-shaped exterior, and separate from this was a sort of cylindrical, silvery interior. It appears to be meant to be
placed inside the copper part and attached to the torch.
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
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violet sin
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Ya that's the trend I saw when looking around. In my links on the first page in this thread, I had an excerp from one of the manufactures saying that
their tip insert version were better than the solid versions. But it clearly said that there were solid hafnium electrodes, at least at one time. I
still haven't been able to find any that were solid now. But the cheap Chinese versions on eBay don't look like inserts. At least most were one piece
of metal. I did see one seller that had what looked like pressed tips. Ie. a small pellet crimped to stainless seteel case.
The smaller portion has a crimp in the photo. But other brands from eBay the smaller inside electrode looked to be one piece. Maybe crimped also,
can't see the images too well on the iTouch. But regardless known technology is solid hafnium, water cooled copper with hafnium inserts and some
incorporating silver as part of the tip. Just have to nail down which brands and at what times the electrodes were solid hafnium. A welding
instructor at a college may be the perfect person to ask. They are constantly updated on current technology to keep the students on track. Perhaps on
of you all who is attending such a college could ask. I have limited time these days, my kid is coming in less than two months now. Still gotta
finish painting the baby room 
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elementcollector1
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The ones on the bottom of the picture are exactly what I'm working with.
The brand was Hobart, but I don't know when it was released.
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
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elementcollector1
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Update: I conducted a much more precise density measurement, and found the density to be approximately 8.5 g/mL. This does not concur with hafnium's
density of 13.3 g/mL, but is close to copper's 9.0 g/mL. What's curious is that despite this, whatever metal I'm working with is perfectly immune to
concentrated sulfuric acid and grocery store hydrogen peroxide, which is rather unlike copper.
EDIT: D'oh! Upon closer examination, there is a tiny rod inserted into the center of my other, unblemished electrode. I'm willing to bet that this is
the actual hafnium - but how to get to it? This thing is tiny - about a millimeter and a half diameter, and perhaps 1/4" length. Maybe I could
dissolve everything else? I'm still in the dark as to just what the silvery coating on the outside is - nickel? Chromium?
[Edited on 11-13-2013 by elementcollector1]
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
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deltaH
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I was thinking of Niobium and that lead me to the niobium containing alloy Inconel 718 and that lead me to think of a wide range of super corrosion
and heat resistant alloys, many have an SG of a little over 8.
I get the sneaky suspicion that whatever will succeed at dissolving your cladding metal will also succeed at dissolving your hafnium core 
[Edited on 13-11-2013 by deltaH]
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watson.fawkes
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File off the coating and the copper core should dissolve readily. You don't need to take off it all; just enough to get fresh acid
in and spent acid out. You could grind it off as well, if you can deal with the grinding dust (which is probably toxic in some way) and don't want to
save the filings.
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MrHomeScientist
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| Quote: Originally posted by IrC | | In fact I have purchased from probably every country in the EU, from Russia, Ukraine, China, Turkey, etc. and the only country I avoid is England. No
prejudice in my opinion here, merely personal experience. In several purchases from England 6 weeks is fast and no I cannot explain why. It just is,
every single time. Maybe one of the European members can explain that one all I can say is it just is. |
Funny that you should say that. I just ordered some elements from rgbco in England and they claimed it would be here in 7 business days. That was 1
month ago, and I still don't have my items.
To be fair, though, it looks like USPS's fault. When it arrived in the country it was stuck in New York for 8 days. Then, it went to the opposite end
of my state (passing my city in the process), and then went BACK to New York. It's currently made its way back to Florida and is at least in the right
end of the state, but still hasn't made it to me. I'm going to do everything in my power to avoid using USPS from now on.
One of their recent commercials was hilarious - "coming soon: delivery dates!" Oh, you mean that thing that every other postal carrier has been doing
for decades?
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IrC
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I could see it if chemicals, at least logically they would have a worry there. However I have only ordered chemicals of any kind outside the states
and even then seldom, for a reason (Iridium metal powder from Sweden at a great price - yes I was making IrC), it is almost always some electronic
part such as IC's or small laser components. Things which should not cause concern at least in my opinion. Yes it is I believe always an extended stay
at customs here. What I did not understand is why US customs was so worried about from whence we came yet IC's from China or a laser goggles from
Turkey sails through. That is what makes it seem so odd to me. I always believed England was closest to us of anyone. Oh well I'm also stuck trying to
understand why so much trouble getting Hf from another metal structure when it is 3 bucks/gm in a link I posted. 99.9% pure at that.
After thinking about my comment I should add to avoid misunderstanding I was not implying EC1 was better off logically to buy Hf pure. It occurs to me
the reason he chose these electrodes was possibly the fun and/or learning experience of the separation itself. I can see that. Like a quest for a
novel process.
[Edited on 11-13-2013 by IrC]
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" Richard Feynman
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MrHomeScientist
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Yeah that is very strange. My order was osmium and vanadium, both perfectly benign metals in the form they are in (arc-melted bead and crystals sealed
in an ampoule). So certainly the package shouldn't be marked hazardous.
And I agree with your last bit: sure, I could just go buy everything I ever wanted online (chemicals, elements, etc.), but most of the fun is in
creating or recovering these things yourself. That way when I pull an element off my shelf to show someone, there's a great backstory about how I
wrested it from its compounds via clever application of chemistry, rather than "I bought it." That's my view, anyway.
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blogfast25
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| Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist | | That way when I pull an element off my shelf to show someone, there's a great backstory about how I wrested it from its compounds via clever
application of chemistry, rather than "I bought it." That's my view, anyway. |
Totally second that.
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