Radiator sealant??

[Kdogg]

I have about seven tubes of this stuff. Its aluminum powder & some sort of glue I believe. Now for obvious reasons it cannot be water soluble. But what about Acetone? I would like to try to remove it & ball mill it. Also how exactly is aluminum powder made? I know its not just a bunch of people taking files to giant chunks of aluminum. Is it some sort of electrosis?

[FadeToBlackened]

I believe ball milling is usually used for making Al powder, though care is required because once exposed to oxygen, Al will form a protective layer of Al2O3. If it forms this layer really fast, you get fire. Or so Ive heard

[vulture]

Yep, Al is obtained by electrolysis.
When balmilling Al you should take care when opening your ballmill cause metalpowders can get pyrophoric after balmilling which means they can ignite spontaneously. This can take some time, it's possible that it ignites after 5min or longer under fresh air exposure.

If your radiator sealant looks really grey and acts more like a solid then a liquid, you probably won't have to remove the glue if you're going to use it for some long burning composition like a flare i think.
Try if it's flammable.

[SATANIC]

If it is produced originally, then why not make it that way?

What materials would you use, and what sort of return would you expect, using say, a 12 volt, 4 amp battery charger?

[thinking back to year 12 chem]

I have no idea. i suppose, if it's possible, you could electrolyse some form a simple solution. the solution would be easy to make, say HCl or H2SO4 or even caustic soda, and aluminium cans.

once it's electrolysed out, it would already be quite small, hence not much ballmilling needed.

also, i think you just have to add oil to the Al before you start to ball mill. This coats the Al, so without contact with the air, it can't get the POL - Protective Oxide Layer.

I am still looking for some decent chem texts, the ones we used in school were great, but $50 bucks a pop AUSD each. (2 in the set) someday.....

[A-BOMB]

Oy! now you just take that charger some thick welders gloves and two AL rods now attach the charger to the rods and rub the ends together in a tub of oil (silicone or olive) as it will not allow oxidation, simple really.

[nbk2000]

It's not as easy as you guys think it is....

[DBSP]

Like NBK said it's not so simple. The electrolys is carried out in large tanks with the walls and bottom is covered with carbon. In that tank they heat Al2O3 with some cryolite, I dont remenber the exact composition but it's added to lower the melting point of the Al2O3.
Then they insert 2 carbon rods, catode-anode, into the melted Al2O3 and a high (V) current is turned on. The pure aluminium falls out and is extracted from a hole in the bottom.
I know this because I did a chemestry work on this last term. This is an industrial process and it would be very difficult to carry out at home since it recuires very high temperatures.

[VX]

I thought that the lining of the container itself acted as the cathode, and the electrodes inserted into the mix were all anodes?

[vulture]

Because I said it was electrolysis, i didn't mean you could do it in a cup of tea!

To get back on topic, separating could be done by dissolving the glue in a proper solvent.
What kind of glue is it? Does it behave more like a gel, silicon, or more like paper glue?

[DBSP]

I have some radiator sealant, it's old but I think it might stil be the same. It's not a gel or something like that (atleast mine's not) it's more of a low density powder, you can se it's Al in it but there's some white flakes in it as well I think it's some kindd of dry "glue" that starts acting like like a glue first when it's wet.

[BrAiNFeVeR]

I've seen the radiator sealant glue too, but when I tested it, I noticed it burnt (the glue / solvent) with the kind of flame you would expect from a solvent, dark yellow flame / black smoke. I never saw any signs of Al bunring along
So,

a) There is not enough Al in it to be actually usable (at a reasonable price)

b)The Al is just coarse enough so it won't burn along with the solvent, someone try letting someburn out completely, and then see if there is any Al-powder between the charred remains ...

But if it is that coarse, I doubt it will be usable in pyro comps.
Good luck in experimenting for all those who do not have a source of Al-powder ...

[Bitter]

I believe that aluminium powder is manufactured by melting pure aluminium and then 'blasting' a steady tricle of it into a chamber using a jet of compressed, inert gas, thus turning the liquid into a fine powder, just as an aerosol turns the liquid in the can into a fine mist when it comes out of the nozzle. This powder is then collected at the bottom and seived into various sizes.

At least that's how I think it's produced (industrially).