Strange Gallium Reaction

[mrman2252]

I recently purchased 100 grams of gallium and used some to destroy an aluminum can, I then foolishly took the remaining gallium that had been in contact with the aluminum and added it back to my uncontaminated gallium supply, I found the next day that the gallium had taken on a foamy puffy texture and looked very dirty grey. I was able to squeeze this new mixture between my fingers to cause pure gallium to drip out, leaving a filmy thick substance on my finger which I determined was un-savable. I have managed to recover about 30 grams of the gallium by doing this and then pulling the gallium into a syringe and shaking/tapping the syringe to separate the strange new substance (what I am assuming is a gallium-aluminum alloy) The dirty stuff seems to float on top of the pure gallium, allowing me to squirt some pure gallium back into my container. Now I am no scientist and am only guessing as to what might be going on here, but at any rate I was hoping someone could give me some information on what has happened here and how I can better recover the gallium from the remaining foamy substance I have left. If its any help the foamy substance does harden like the gallium but seems more rocky and crystallized. No matter what I do the gallium that I save has some blackish film floating on some areas and I have no idea what his is. anyways, thanks for any information you can provide

 

 

[Sorsor_7]

Yeah, probably the aluminum-gallium alloy. Sorry you lost some gallium, i know how expensive it is