Electromelting process for salts [Archive] - The Explosives and Weapons Forum

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vurr

March 26th, 2003, 06:35 AM

for those,who do not have special apparatus...
needed:
<ol type="1"> power source: ..100V.. ..5A.. AC(melting only)or DC(+electrolysis)</li> heat resistant pot (or smth.to melt in)</li> 2 metal/carbon electrodes,cables</li> heat isolating material:sand,glass wool,(increases effectivness)</li> some potassium or sodium hydrohide granules
</li>[/list=a]and in one breath:
put hydroxide granules on top of the salt,moisten them slightly,and apply electricity(to granules!) without shortening electrodes...
tested:
sodium cyanate to cyanide (AC),~50grams,some minutes
sodium chloride to sodium (DC)

vulture

March 26th, 2003, 01:00 PM

I'm sorry but I don't see the point of your post here.

It seems that you are referring to a way of strongly heating salts, but on the other hand you talk about electrolysis products (sodium)?

It is normal that high amperage electrolyses produces alot of heat, because the molten salt has a high resistance compared to metals.
In fact, electrolysis of sodiumchloride on industrial scale uses the heat produced by the current flow to keep the salt molten.

vurr

March 27th, 2003, 03:05 AM

idea is:if you DO NOT own a special hi-cost apparatus for melting salts , you DO have a alternative,how to start heating of salts from low temperature.
you can apply voltage to salts,but they do not conduct and so they do not melt.
but moistened(!) hydroxide pellets do conduct electricity ,and so good,that this can be used for initiating of melting non-conductive salts.

AC current is for simple heating,allowing for example to convert cyanate to cyanide and carbonate mixture .
or,if you need electrolysis,use DC...

metafractal

March 27th, 2003, 04:41 AM

Vulture, I think what hes trying to say is that his design is a two in one- it melts the salts thereby allowing electrolisys to be performed upon them to isolate radicals or metals which would otherwise be unobtainable. Vurr, if you want us to take this seriously, please be more descriptive in your posts. Preferably include diagrams and a source for your information.
It is also worth noting in something like this, that the industrial processes often add small amounts of various other salts to the products to reduce their melting temperature. KCl(IIRC), for example, is added to NaCl when producing sodium metal.

vurr

March 27th, 2003, 09:09 AM

It's one in one.
It's for those,NOT having industrial ovens,but still want to melt something at home.

Goal is :getting a initial molten zone in cold,solid salt with current and hydroxide pellet(zone is ~1/10 part of a cm3.and it emits visible red light.). Then that molten zone will increase by size,invoking solid salt without hydroxide(tens of cm3 ).
info source:unexpected results in home experiments.
diagrams:6 amp fuse + 1 kilowatt variable transformer + wires, nothing more.
What to melt or to electrolyse, is secondary.
And maybe it should be in "chemistry related" forum.

[ March 27, 2003, 08:46 AM: Message edited by: vurr ]