BrominatedSicariidae
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An Alternative to Sodium hypophosphite
Hello.
While I haven't been directly active on this forum, I have been stalking around—as per my usual routine whenever I signup to any forum;
nevertheless, I felt that it was time to ask a question on an experiment that I would like to replicate/study.
I really love the colors demonstrated in Woelen's Mo experiment, so I would really like to study its complexes, and maybe even figure a thing out or two—although the latter is highly
unlikely.
The problem, however, is that one of the chemicals he used was sodium hypophosphite, but I cannot obtain this for obvious reasons (stupid meth). Yet I
don't think that it should be that much of a problem as long as a "non-coordinating [reductor]" is used; unfortunately, I am unsure about
which ones would yield the best results; the very idea of a non-coordinating anion seems . . . a bit paradoxical, unless it actually means
weakly-interactive, which makes more sense.
Would perchlorate work as well? Or should I just experiment with Mo and see what happens?
Thanks,
Br2Sicariidae
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woelen
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With non-coordinating reductor I indeed meant weakly coordinating or non-coordinating in this specific instance. To my experience, hypophopsphite
forms only few complexes and is a nice reductor in many cases.
Where I live, hypophosphite is nothing special at all, it can be purchased like sulfites or thiosulfites. It is a fairly strong reductor, albeit a
sluggish one.
You could try experimenting with sulfite at low pH, but I think that it has stronger coordinating properties than the hypophosphite. It is a weaker
reductor than hypophosphite, but if it works, it works faster. A much stronger reductor is dithionite, S2O4(2-). You can buy the sodium salt, Na2S2O4.
This stuff is really strong and very fast acting, but it may be too strong and its reduction is not clean in all cases (e.g. due to formation of
sulphur and very smelly low-oxidation state sulphur compounds). But you can give it a try.
Perchlorate will not work of course, it is a strong oxidizer, but in dilute aqueous solution it is better to call it inert.
[Edited on 9-9-13 by woelen]
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BrominatedSicariidae
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I will remember that; in hindsight, thinking perchlorate would work was a pretty poor idea.
Yet, it does not matter. After discussing with my instructor about my experiment, she hastened to inform me that I am not allowed to use heavy metals,
such as Mo in the lab; nevertheless, thank you for your information.
I'm in this only to learn.
Thanks,
Br2Sicariidae
[Edited on 15-9-2013 by BrominatedSicariidae]
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