Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Reaction of elemental potassium with sodium hydroxide

Triflic Acid - 18-5-2021 at 15:46

The nurdrage way of making sodium is a bit too long for my liking. So I was wondering if the method for making potassium, which is done in only 3 hours, would work for sodium. Basically, if a flask were set up with equal amounts of both KOH and NaOH and then run. Would any potassium formed immediately react with the NaOH to give Na and KOH?

clearly_not_atara - 18-5-2021 at 15:56

I don't think this can be answered except by experiment. You may also produce NaK, which is pyrophoric, so caveat lector!

Triflic Acid - 18-5-2021 at 18:02

Oh shit, didn’t think of NaK. Might want to use an excess of NaOH then