The Vespiary
The Hive => Chemistry Discourse => Topic started by: TheHobbit on June 29, 2003, 09:23:00 AM
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Well, wasn't paying attention and swim ran short on NaOH. After the Al/Hg reaction swim found out that he only has enough lye to make a 20% NaOH (150g) solution instead of the needed 35%. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that swim's only local source for lye is closed today. Will swim be ok to use the 20% NaOH solution or should swim wait until he can get more.
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Yeah its good to use as little NaOH as possible. Just enough for the pH of the solution to be around 11. Thats probably enough what you have, just slowly drip in the NaOH solution until the pH is 11.
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If you still have large particles of aluminum foil after the reduction, remove them by filtering -or- use more NaOH to eat away at the Al.
Good luck!~
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Ok, thanks. I knew it dissolved the Al but didn't know if it was needed to extract the Hg. That was all I was worried about. I will just check the pH and see if it gets to 11.
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After amalgamation Hg can be seen as little silver pellets at the bottom of the sol. These will not dissolve in a basic or acidic solution, you need to extract the solution with your non-polar after basification, then you have no worries about the Hg contaminating your product! :)