Justonium

Sodium metal is very useful for making sodium amide, which can then be used to make azides. Lead azide is one of the most practical primary explosives. Also, the reason people love throwing sodium metal into water so much is because it's fascinating that something will actually react with water, which is normally considered somewhat inert, so vigorously that it explodes. =) When I thew a bunch of sodium beads into water on my driveway, i got lots of cheers from my audience lol.

It's the electrode. It's getting oxidized instead of the chloride ions in the solution. To oxidize these, you will need a non reactive electrode. Try graphite. Also, as you're cell runs, chlorine production will soon stop, as the solution becomes more basic. You will then be making hypochlorite ions instead. To prevent this, you need to separate the solutions by the anode and by the cathode. You can complete the circuit easily enough with a salt bridge--a sliced hotdog or a cloth soaked in electrolyte will work OK.

OK. I've done some experiments and have determined that the chemical equation for synthesizing sodium by reducing from its hydroxide using magnesium is: 2Mg + 2NaOH --> 2MgO + 2Na + H2 This reaction is very interesting, because a more electropositive element is being reduced by a LESS electropositive element. It happens because the magnesium is reducing both the sodium and the hydrogen in sodium hydroxide, making it exothermic. It is also dependent on the fact that the lattice energy of sodium oxide is less than that of magnesium oxide. This is because sodium ions have a smaller charge than magnesium ions, decreasing the lattice energy and making this reaction possible. If sodium oxide were more stable, the reduction would stop after hydrogen. If you still don't understand this reaction, let's break it up to better represent what is going on. Mg + 2NaOH --> MgO + Na2O Mg + Na2O --> MgO + 2Na These 2 equations add to get the total equation shown above. If you're wondering what my source is, I looked enthalpies of all these compounds and puzzled with the possibilities on paper, and determined that equation, and then verified it by making half a gram of sodium using this method. All the predicted products were created. The hydrogen burns yellow as it comes off because of sodium ions present in it. The reaction was so hot that it heated my brand new crucible to nearly 1,100 degrees celcius (orange-yellow color) and cracked it in half. Better get a new crucible.

I understand that we have to be careful in this type of thread because everything we say is open for the public, and for stupid kids to try and blow themselves up, so I cannot go into any details, but I will say this: It is possible to synthesize moderately pure sodium using no electricity, and using only washing soda, pickling lime, magnesium pencil sharpeners, and rudimentary tools commonly found in the kitchen and the garage. It's not safe without proper safety equipment, but I'm just saying, it's not impossible to synthesize sodium in you're backyard if you know what to do. By the way, sodium bought from sites like United Nuclear is outrageously overpriced because of its dangers, so yeah, I'll just make my own. You can really tell that it's overpriced because it's way more expensive than lithium LOL.

It didn't all suddenly decompose spontaneously, there was a vigorous reaction taking place just above the ammonium nitrate, indicating a completely gaseous reaction.

Yes, I know about the danger of a thermal runaway with ammonium nitrate, and I was heating only .5g of the stuff. OK, I was heating some ammonium nitrate in a test tube over a Bunsen burner, and it was decomposing pretty vigorously, until all of the sudden, I heard a pop, and then a bunch of crackling inside of the test tube. When it popped, there was a flash of yellow light. What happened? This reaction looked remarkably like what happened when somebody on Youtube dropped a gummy bear into molten potassium perchlorate, but there was nothing else in the test tube to react with my ammonium nitrate. The only explanation I can possibly think of is that a spider fell into my test tube from the ceiling, and what is the probability of THAT? Yes the ammonium nitrate was very pure. If there is no other explanation, then I guess I have to say, that was one unlucky and very ill fortuned spider. I think I figured out what happened. I repeated this only I didn't take the test tube off the flame when it started going crazy, and maintained a yellow crackling glow above the ammonium nitrate. I believe that the high temperature I created allowed for a reaction between N2O and air, and I would never have thought of this, but I noticed a brown gas forming in the test tube, and smelled NO2. So N2O must react with oxygen! That is expected, but to go all the way to forming NO2? Wow. You'd think it would just make O2 and N2, and maybe it does, but some NO2 was formed as well. I guess the high temperature reaction between N2O and O2 promotes the formation of NO2, which is more stable at higher temperatures. OK, I now realize that oxygen from the air was not a major factor in this experiment, because gas was being pushed OUT of the test tube, and the crackling yellow pops were coming from deeper within the tube, close to the molten ammonium nitrate. So I really don't know what happened after all. NO2 was definitely made though, because I just know what that stuff looks and smells like. I mean I know the only possible result is that instead of ultimately getting just water and laughing gas, I've made NO2, and O2 as well. I read something about NO being formed unintentionally in laughing gas plants, but I don't know exactly what is going on. NO makes sense to react and then make NO2, but why would NO form if its enthalpy is so high compared to N2O?