I was reminded of this reaction by a comment lugh made on the vast difference in the quality of Schott borosilicate glass versus Bomex (and the wisdom of having ice baths and wet towels on hand).
Long ago at university a large batch of sodium ethoxide was made in a 5-liter flask with stacked condensers and pressure-equalizing dropping funnel. For various reasons, not necessarily good ones, Fieser & Fieser's inverse method of adding the ethanol to the sodium was utilized. 125 grams of clean sodium (oxide cut off under dry xylene then blotted) was placed in the flask and reagent anhydrous ethanol (denatured with methanol, sodium methoxide contaminant acceptable) added to the sodium. The method was very fast and worked well, the addition of the alcohol serving to control the reaction until all the alcohol was in and some cooling was needed to prevent a runaway. The reaction was immersed in a large ice water bath at the ready just in case and finished up nicely.
When immersing a refluxing reaction containing metallic sodium into ice water, when the outside of the sodium chunks are turning molten from the heat of the reaction and the sodium is floating from all the hydrogen being given off, even the best of glassware is none too good!
The only guarantee with cheap glass is that it's guaranteed to break at the worst possible moment.
A couple gram piece of sodium was placed on a lawn and sprayed from a distance with a hose. A really big bang was expected, a really big boom resulted. Watering of the lawn was continued, paying particular attention to the tiny "smoke signals" resulting from very small scattered pieces of sodium reacting with the wet grass.
Long ago at university a large batch of sodium ethoxide was made in a 5-liter flask with stacked condensers and pressure-equalizing dropping funnel. For various reasons, not necessarily good ones, Fieser & Fieser's inverse method of adding the ethanol to the sodium was utilized. 125 grams of clean sodium (oxide cut off under dry xylene then blotted) was placed in the flask and reagent anhydrous ethanol (denatured with methanol, sodium methoxide contaminant acceptable) added to the sodium. The method was very fast and worked well, the addition of the alcohol serving to control the reaction until all the alcohol was in and some cooling was needed to prevent a runaway. The reaction was immersed in a large ice water bath at the ready just in case and finished up nicely.
When immersing a refluxing reaction containing metallic sodium into ice water, when the outside of the sodium chunks are turning molten from the heat of the reaction and the sodium is floating from all the hydrogen being given off, even the best of glassware is none too good!
The only guarantee with cheap glass is that it's guaranteed to break at the worst possible moment.
A couple gram piece of sodium was placed on a lawn and sprayed from a distance with a hose. A really big bang was expected, a really big boom resulted. Watering of the lawn was continued, paying particular attention to the tiny "smoke signals" resulting from very small scattered pieces of sodium reacting with the wet grass.