Author Topic: What is bird shot sodium?  (Read 4427 times)

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Veerle

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What is bird shot sodium?
« on: November 10, 2002, 05:04:00 PM »
Bees, can some of you tell me what exactly bird shot sodium is?  Is it just another name for granular sodium?  And how is it delivered when one buys it, sodium is kind of reactive ... Is it stored in a mineral oil or something or isn't this necessary?  And is it expensive / watched?

Hope they don't shoot birds with sodium ...  ;)

Rhodium

  • Guest
It is granular sodium, most often listed in chem ...
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2002, 05:56:00 PM »
It is granular sodium, most often listed in chem catalogs as "Sodium (shots), 100g in mineral oil."

It isn't more watched than regular sodium, but it might cost a little extra as it isn't as common.

Veerle

  • Guest
NaH
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2002, 04:29:00 AM »
An alternative in the Dieckmann condensation for bird shot sodium in xylene would be NaH in benzene.  The yield for NaH in benzene is better ... but benzene is rather dangerous to work with (at least for the hobby chemist without a fumehood) & I guess benzene would be more difficult to obtain than xylene.

Would NaH also be suspicious?  Mabey bird shot sodium would be the better alternative (if one makes abstraction of the yields).

And, would it be OK to just mix the mineral oil suspension in the xylene or does one have to pick the sodium granules out of the mineral oil solution with a pincet?

EDIT: found also a vague description about the Dieckmann condensation with NaH in toluene.  The yield (80 %) however is lower than with NaH in benzene (90+ %).  However, this is better than the reaction with bird shot sodium.  So, NaH in toluene seems to be preferable for those without a fumehood.  If NaH isn't too suspicious ...

Can someone please look up what the price of say 25 g NaH would be?

Thx

Rhodium

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Register for free at http://www.sial.
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2002, 06:32:00 AM »
Register for free at

http://www.sial.com

and you can search for prices and physical properties on several thousands of chemicals (no, they won't track you just because you are viewing prices).