I have accidentally contaminated 100g of iodine with a few microliters of water. How do I remove this water?
I had one idea, but don't want to even try if it will have no effect, or negative effect. My idea would be to put iodine in a 500mL jar and put a
container with silica gel inside it. Close the jar and store it in a cold place. The coldness would be necessary to avoid the iodine from evaporating
too much, but it could also prevent the water from evaporating. I am afraid that iodine itself will permeate the silica gel, maybe even better than
water, render the surface hydrophobic and hence making it not absorb water anymore.
What are your thoughts?
Dan Vizine - 12-1-2015 at 15:43
What makes you think that 100 g of iodine didn't already contain a few microliters of water? Virtually everything does unless extreme precautions are
taken. Take anhydrous solvents for example, strictly speaking, even they aren't anhydrous.
It's merely a question of how much water is still there. Metacelsus - 12-1-2015 at 17:27
You could try concentrated sulfuric acid as a drying agent.Molecular Manipulations - 12-1-2015 at 17:50
One microliter = 0.0000010000L. I would do nothing.
But if you meant a lot more than that, I would use a desiccator for a small amount of water (1 gram/100 grams I2) and if more, I'd mix with
a little conc. sulfuric acid, sublimate and recondense.
I just sublimated and recondensed some iodine yesterday, it's really simple.Hawkguy - 12-1-2015 at 18:13
Dude just heat it in a beaker with the top covered by a cool watch glass/ round bottom with ice. The damp Iodine will be deposited on the cool
surface, a lot drier. Just repeat that a few times. Mailinmypocket - 12-1-2015 at 18:32
Place your iodine under cc sulfuric acid. Heat on a hot plate or flame until the iodine melts under the sulfuric acid and becomes a pool of liquid.
Let the set up cool down so the iodine can harden. Remove the iodine "puck" from the acid and rinse quickly with very cold water. Pat dry with paper
towels. You can crush up the puck of iodine and it is quite dry as is, otherwise you can sublime it onto the bottom of a round bottom flask with ice
water in it, placed on top of the beaker used to heat/sublime the I2. DrMario - 12-1-2015 at 23:38
Thanks, those are viable methods and I'll consider them.
Any comments on the method I described?maleic - 13-1-2015 at 01:25
I think there has nothing else, just go for the experiment ! woelen - 13-1-2015 at 02:52
I would not do anything with it which physically mixes the iodine with other chemicals. E.g. the mixing with H2SO4 probably adds more contamination
than you have now. The I2 indeed does melt and forms a layer under the H2SO4, but are you sure that no H2SO4 is trapped inside the iodine? Maybe the
acid dissolves a little in the iodine, or maybe some small bubbles of acid become trapped in the iodine and do not make it to the surface, before the
iodine solidifies. If you do the trick with H2SO4, then you have to resublime the iodine.
The only thing which you could try is putting the iodine on a small glass dish and put this dish, together with some desiccator in a closed vial for a
day or so, hoping that it absorbs the water. If this does not work, then I would simply accept that there is a small amount of water in the iodine.
Having water-contamination is not as bad as having e.g. contamination with H2SO4.morganbw - 13-1-2015 at 03:23
I think there has nothing else, just go for the experiment !