Hematite
November 7th, 2008, 11:57 PM
This question is about how I can go about not detonating something.
For the past two months I've been trying to extract 20-30 mg of strontium from granite, and I've finally succeeded. How I did it isn't relevant here, but if anyone is interested I've posted a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1IVPv0-HJ0) of the process on YouTube.
The final product I'm after is CaCO3 containing about 30 ppm SrCO3, with the strontium coming from the granite. To get this I'm going to convert the Sr to a nitrate, dissolve it in a Ca nitrate solution, and precipitate the mixed carbonate by adding ammonium carbonate, forming Ca/SrCO3 and ammonium nitrate.
I can remove the carbonate by centrifuge, but some Sr and Ca will remain in solution. I would like 100% recovery of the Sr, so I was thinking of drying down the ammonium nitrate solution and heating the solid to above it's decomposition temperature, which should leave only Ca and Sr.
My questions are, how dangerous is this, and what is the safest way of doing it? I'll probably have about 120 grams of ammonium nitrate to get rid of, and plan to heat it in Teflon in a hood. Could it detonate spontaneously, or is that only a possibility in the presence of an oxidant?
Though I lurk here a lot, this is my first post. I realize that my goal with this project is more or less the opposite of what most people here are interested in, but I thought if anyone could give me a good answer, it would be you guys.
I've checked the archive. If I've missed the answer there, I apologize.
For the past two months I've been trying to extract 20-30 mg of strontium from granite, and I've finally succeeded. How I did it isn't relevant here, but if anyone is interested I've posted a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1IVPv0-HJ0) of the process on YouTube.
The final product I'm after is CaCO3 containing about 30 ppm SrCO3, with the strontium coming from the granite. To get this I'm going to convert the Sr to a nitrate, dissolve it in a Ca nitrate solution, and precipitate the mixed carbonate by adding ammonium carbonate, forming Ca/SrCO3 and ammonium nitrate.
I can remove the carbonate by centrifuge, but some Sr and Ca will remain in solution. I would like 100% recovery of the Sr, so I was thinking of drying down the ammonium nitrate solution and heating the solid to above it's decomposition temperature, which should leave only Ca and Sr.
My questions are, how dangerous is this, and what is the safest way of doing it? I'll probably have about 120 grams of ammonium nitrate to get rid of, and plan to heat it in Teflon in a hood. Could it detonate spontaneously, or is that only a possibility in the presence of an oxidant?
Though I lurk here a lot, this is my first post. I realize that my goal with this project is more or less the opposite of what most people here are interested in, but I thought if anyone could give me a good answer, it would be you guys.
I've checked the archive. If I've missed the answer there, I apologize.