Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Make soda beta-albumin ceramics ?

BromicAcid - 15-12-2003 at 11:16

I was looking for a simple way to make Na2O.11Al2O3 I only need a thin film of it for use as a diaphram. I've had some expericence with making alumina crucibles using aluminum oxide paste putting into mold, allowing to dry for a couple days at ambient temperature then firing. But I was wondering if there was any trick to incorperate the soda ash. Any specific examples or speculation would be wonderful.

The beta-albumin with sodium added is permeable to sodium atoms and is used to divide a compartment of sodium from say sodium nitrate to facilitate electrolysis.

This compound is also known as Undecaaluminium sodium heptadecaoxide, the CAS number is 12005-48-0.

[Edited on 12/15/2003 by BromicAcid]

chemoleo - 15-12-2003 at 11:52

Are you sure it's Albumin?
Albumin also happens to be an ubiquitous protein in serum. I would be surpised if the two things got the same name!

BromicAcid - 15-12-2003 at 12:46

Quote:

Albumin also happens to be an ubiquitous protein in serum. I would be surpised if the two things got the same name!
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, I was just copying down what it said in the abstract.
Quote:

Thus, the 2 arms of the U-tube being sepd. by a sym. posititioned plug of Na B-albumin [12005-48-0] e.g., Na2O.11Al2O3.
If I search for Na2O.11Al2O3 with the term albumin I do get hits for the ceramic composition but it is strange. I would think that it would be designated as soda alum ceramic or something of that nature. The other term Undecaaluminium sodium heptadecaoxide came from searching the CAS number, all I got was that name which is a bit of a tounge twister but I am not used to ceramic compositions.

chemoleo - 15-12-2003 at 14:42

Hmm, you could try to heat stoichiometric amounts of Al(OH)3 and NaOH, by heating I mean bringing it to 800 deg C or more.
Alternativley, you could use Al2O3 of course, but it may not form the double salt due to the unreactive nature of Al2O3.
Just think of how these double salts are formed in nature: heat and pressure!
Anyway, I would give it a shot. I guess you know how to obtain the Al(OH)3 :)

unionised - 15-12-2003 at 16:06

There is a sodium aluminate that used to be thought to be another crystal form of alumina (so called beta alumina) then someone spotted the Na.

Organikum - 17-12-2003 at 05:47

plain soda-lime glass is said to work as membrane - I read it in a serious glassblowing handbook lately - cheap lightbulbs could work, also I dont know how to attach the electrode on the inside and how high (rather high I guess) the voltage is which is needed to get this running).
Potassium nitrate is said to work also as some other compounds which I forgot.....

Alembic - 17-12-2003 at 06:01

Have you looked at Nasicon ceramics? (Nasicon = Na Super Ionic CONductor) They are superior to beta alumina in many respects and are also easier to prepare. Look up US patent 4,166,159 for an example.

BromicAcid - 17-12-2003 at 06:49

Quote:

plain soda-lime glass is said to work as membrane

I've used soda-lime glass but it isn't too happy under the conditons used as in the temperature. I've never used a light bulb though. Soda lime glass is qute resistant to conduction and takes remarkable overvoltage for the reaction to proceed at a reasonable rate. I just wanted to see if there was something better I could try.

Thank you Alembic for the info on Nasicon ceramics, I'll look right into it.