ChemistryForever
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Old Potassium
It happens that at my school we have an extremely old potassium bottle ( I think it is over 30 years old if not even 50 ), about one kilogram of
potassium in it. It is so oxidized on the surface, that everything you can see on the bottle is just yellow. And yellow deposits at the bottom of the
bottle ( the bottle is transparent, so i can see through it ), i mean halfway to the bottom of the bottle, the potassium is like burried in oxides.
Every year, the teachers in my school do the lithium sodium potassium and water demonstration for the people who start doing chemistry. I've once cut
that potassium, and that peroxide/superoxide yellowish layer is about 1mm thick at least. The idea is that I found out that old potassium is very
dangerous, but still, every year this experiment happens and nobody had a problem. I told my teacher about the peroxides and she says she didn't know
that they might be explosive. I want to talk to my teacher to clean one day that potassium... what advice would you give me to do it safely ? I'm
talking about roughly a kilo of potassium chunks.
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fusso
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiorGia-VrY
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morganbw
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Take a few minutes and watch this video.
I am not saying this is the way to go but it is what I would do
if faced with personal potassium metal that I was concerned with.
Cleaning Old Potassium: NileRed
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fusso
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That's what I posted before you
[Edited on 190106 by fusso]
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TheMrbunGee
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here is a different video..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTHhRkLLYJ4
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morganbw
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Indeed you did, perhaps if I had refreshed the page before posting I would have seen that.
At any rate, he has the same suggestion from two different posters.
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lordcookies24
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nilered made a video about that
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j_sum1
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Is anyone else going, "Damn! A kg of potassium!"?
Anyway, what I like about Nilered here is that he does mention key differences between K and Na in his videos of those two metals.
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Dan Vizine
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You may find some interesting information in this excerpt from a document that I prepared last year.
Attachment: K Oxide Concerns.pdf (362kB)
This file has been downloaded 239 times
Edited to include references.
[Edited on 1/6/2019 by Dan Vizine]
Attachment: References.pdf (163kB)
This file has been downloaded 220 times
"All Your Children Are Poor Unfortunate Victims of Lies You Believe, a Plague Upon Your Ignorance that Keeps the Youth from the Truth They
Deserve"...F. Zappa
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unionised
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I think that, given the quantity and unknown status of the material, this might be the best approach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7mTCMvpEM
[Edited on 7-1-19 by unionised]
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fusso
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Why was Na used in wars?
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TheMrbunGee
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The added explosion sounds are awesome.. 
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unionised
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Hard to say.
It's used in lots of things- the manufacture of leaded petrol and synthetic rubber would both be important in wartime.
It's too early for it to have been a nuclear reactor coolant (thankfully).
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morganbw
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Quote: Originally posted by unionised  |
Hard to say.
It's used in lots of things- the manufacture of leaded petrol and synthetic rubber would both be important in wartime.
It's too early for it to have been a nuclear reactor coolant (thankfully). |
I am not so sure that it was too early for a nuclear reactor coolant. Lots and lots of stuff happened, was created, at Oak Ridge Tn, during and after
the war and even to this day.
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