Sodium Chlorate Grain Size

[Arkangel]

Hmmmm :mad:

I've just bought 6Kg of Sodium Chlorate weedkiller for a little project I have underway, aand used a seive to seperate the chlorate from the chloride. Out of the 6kg I got slightly less than 1Kg of what I wanted - ARSE! I was always a bit suspicious of the amount I got with this method, but this time it's even worse and I wonder if they've got wise and reduced the grain size to make it harder. Anyone else noticed this?

(And yes I know I can seperate them from solution or convert to KClO3 if I wanted - I just like sieving for it's simplicity)

[nbk2000]

I'm surprised they haven't gotten around to grinding it all into fine powder by now.

[Wild Catmage]

When sieving mine, I noticed that I got about 1/3 of the total amount of weedkiller sieved. Thankfully whilst on holdiay in France I found some pure chlorate in a supermarket.

Comparing the prices, it costs about £5 for a 1kg tub of 52% pure sodium chlorate in the UK, of which only 1/3 can be extracted by sieving. In France is costs 21 euros (about £13) for 5kg of 99% pure sodium chlorate.

[Sonny Jim]

I know you don't want to convert to KClO3, but why don't you go ahead with the conversion anyway using the proportions that you would assuming there was as much chlorate present as there is meant to be. From the amount of KClO3 produced, you could see for certain whether or not you're being ripped off, or if the grain size has simply changed.