Calcium carbide

[jsatan]

I've been making Calcium oxide in my mini furance in my backyard.

well most of what I make is calcium oxide, due to bad rock.

 

I was reading about calcium carbide.

I've read that if you heat calcium carbonate/oxide with carbon it will make cacium carbide.

But I'm not sure what temps this requires.

Any ideas?

 

Also what temps does it require to turn barium carbonate into barium peroxide?

Its just I'm moving in a week and I dont think my mum would be happy with me making a furnace in dround in the yard.

So I'm trying ot get these chems made while I still can.

 

And is there a good way of purifying calcium oxide?

As I've got bad rock, I dont mind magnesium oxide, but I'm not sure what the other rocks are. or maybe I never heated them to a high enough temp.

But I figured a way to know which is which by touch, as the calcium oxide rocks are softer.

[Halash]

be careful with calcium carbide... it releases a poisonous explosive gas acetylene.

[jsatan]

be careful with calcium carbide... it releases a poisonous explosive gas acetylene.

 

Thast the main reason I want to make some,

Its not that bad if it doesnt get wet.

[akcapr]

for some reason my spanish classroom smells liek it

[jdurg]

Acetylene is FAR from poisonous.

[jsatan]

Acetylene is FAR from poisonous.

I was thinking that, I mean its used day in day out by gas welders.

but its always good to be nice,

[latentheat]

Calcium carbide is really fun stuff to play with. One time I told my mother to hold a piece of it and she had wet hands, she wanted to kill me

[Halash]

my mom won't let me order it... she thinks i will get put on a terrorist list.........

and she doesn't want me to blow myself up............ stupid parents i know what i am doin. i study the hell outa these compounds

[jsatan]

lol. omg how silly. if they think you are going to blow anything up with a little tube of calcium carbide then maybe she should stop using the oven or the heating.

I mean nothing nasty towards your mum, but that's the biggest thing I hate about this silly terrorest law shi!t.

 

Using calcium carbide doesnt help you hijack planes.

Tell your mum to read some information on it, an informed person is a good person.

But it seems the U.S.As freedom is getting smaller and smaller by the day.

 

Maybe they should ban aluminium and sodium hydroixde, hay that makes hydrogen much more explosive.

[rthmjohn]

I imagine most parents should be concerned for their childrens' well-being when handling possibly life-threatening compounds; I know mine are. But I agree that your mom shouldn't worry about you blowing anything up with acetylene. Maybe you should tell her that miners used it in their helmet lights to prove how not unsafe it is

[YT2095]

you`ll not have any joy making the stuff in any furnace we`re likely to make, I`ve tried it myself numerous times and failed. you NEED an Arc furnace, and it must be as oxygen fee as possible, I used Calcium oxide and carbon as a fine powder in all these trials and non worked, I even tried using a MOT arc hoping that the carbon would be conductive enough to Start the reaction, it didn`t, I had to start it manualy by touching the electrodes and pulling the arc apart, there was Some reaction, and a different material was produced, but it wasn`t carbide, I expect it was probably some type of impure carbonate.

 

Good luck with it (I`ve a feeling you`ll need it!)

[jsatan]

lol. I've alread read enough on the net to now know that its too hard for me to do,

But I've ordered some off ebay.

[YT2095]

cool, maybe you might want to get some ideas or plans for a carbide light, apparently they used to use them many years ago, and from what I can understand, it was like a tin can with a lid that screws on, insode would be a quantity of carbide, then you`de add a few drops of water to it and screw the lid on, the gas would escape through a small hole and then you`de light it, making a type of Gas Candle that`s actualy quite bright (more so than a regular parafin lantern).

 

I don`t have to tell you to keep it dry, but it would be a good idea to get some packets of silica gell and keep it in the same container just to make sure

[jsatan]

cool' date=' maybe you might want to get some ideas or plans for a carbide light, apparently they used to use them many years ago, and from what I can understand, it was like a tin can with a lid that screws on, insode would be a quantity of carbide, then you`de add a few drops of water to it and screw the lid on, the gas would escape through a small hole and then you`de light it, making a type of Gas Candle that`s actualy quite bright (more so than a regular parafin lantern).

 

I don`t have to tell you to keep it dry, but it would be a good idea to get some packets of silica gell and keep it in the same container just to make sure [/quote']

Yeah I was reading about it.

Must be safe if they put it on their heads, lol.

I dont know if its cheap or not (But Thats how it goes) I'm getting 1KG for £8.

Its just to add to my chems, Its about time started to really get a good general collection, even if some of them are for one type of fun.

 

But making a lamp and using it would be great fun.

 

Yeah the light they used was just like you said but it had the water inside in a different part of the light, the water dripped down into the carbide, its was on a tap.

I'll get pack it nice and tight and add some gel.

[YT2095]

*BUMP*

 

here is such a Lamp:

 

 

these are Amazing lamps! the heat they give off not only from the flame but the reaction chamber itself is incredible, far too hot to touch.

and will burn well over 3.5 hours on 4 Carbide "rocks" (about 50 grams).

[YT2095]

Wow, if you ever get a hold of one of these lamps, add a gram of Calcium metal to the reactor compartment, the flame goes a Brilliant White!

 

plain carbide is reasonably wide spread in the spectrum also, but the addition of a little Ca metal give Hydrogen gas as well, shifts it more towards the White and away from the slight yellow that`s present. it`s not quite Mg Ribbon white, but not far off.

 

it`s actually Blindingly bright even in a fully sunlight room!

 

 

edited to add: just a word of Caution, Don`t overdo it on the Ca metal, you only want a few % more Hydrogen in the mix with the acetylene!

I have no idea and therefore cannot state What may result if too much hydrogen is introduced, I expect it probably wouldn`t be Good, and certainly outside the design specs of the apparatus.

[insane_alien]

probably react in the chamber to produce a bid of ethene and ethane, not dangerous(they will behave the same as acetylene in that they'll produce a flame in the right bits and won't in the wrong bits) but they will degrade the lamps performance.

[YT2095]

by what mechanism?

what reaction path are you thinking of?

[insane_alien]

simple hydrogenation.

 

you have acetylene(C2H2) and hydrogen(H2) mix them and add a little heat and the hydrogen will add on changing the tripple bond to a double bond or a double bond to a single bond.

[YT2095]

how much is "a little heat" though?

and what pressures are involved?

 

I can`t see it happening in the reaction chamber itself at just above standard pressure and a little under 100c.

 

in the Flame sure, but then it`s too late anyway and can`t degrade the lamp in anyway.

[Fuzzwood]

Indeed, this type of hydrogenation is usually accomplished by some kind of catalyst (activated palladium on a carbon carrier). Palladium holds the hydrogen on its surface, after which an alkene/alkyne is able to react with it.

[ars3n]

More than 1000oC and has to be in inert atmosphere.

 

BaO reverts to BaO2 requires heating to about 600oC (check the value again). When the temperature gets too high (ca. 800oC, I think), BaO2 reverts back to BaO.

[John Cuthber]

Calcium carbide is paerfectly capapble of removing any water from silica gell. Adding the gell would increase the amount of water present (since it's never perfectly dry) and thus increase the wastage of the carbide.

It's more important to store it in a sealed container, adding a "drying" agent like silica won't help.

[YT2095]

agreed, it`s best kept in the metal can it originally comes in, and if like me you have a couple of cans, just wrap then plastic bags and stick them in a box.

just store the stuff like they would have done 50+ years ago will work just as well, no need to do anything fancy with it.

[ars3n]

Ditto the two postings above, although from my experience even when it's kept in a dry, well sealed container, it still slowly crumbles into calcium oxide over time.