Hi,

My goal is to make sodium metal throught he electrolysis of molten sodium. I plan to use a sodium chloride/ calcium chloride mix to lower the melting point. Or would sodium hydroxide be easier? I was going to build and use a Down's cell or something like it

(info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs_Cell)

over a waste oil powered furnace to keep the salt molten. Is there an easier way to construct a cell? I heard about using an iron crucible as one electrode and a rod as the other but if any of the chlorine gas comes in contact with the sodium I'll have an explosion right? Also, would it be easier to make sodium through the thermal reduction of sodium carbonate with carbon. My furnace can melt steel so it should be hot enough right? Also if I do manage to get a tube of sodium can I heat it to a melted state and pour it into some mineral oil without blowing my hands off?

-Thanks

You're better off using the hydroxide. It has a lower melting point and no several hundred degree chlorine gas to deal with. Thermal reduction of carbonate with carbon sounds sketchy. I suspect you won't make anything, but If it does work, the sodium will be vapor at those temperatures. Carbon is not a magic bullet for reduction. If you have a piece of sodium, please sink it in some dry mineral oil before you try to melt it. Doing it outside without inert atmosphere will give you a UV-rich, blindingly white fireball, which is cool, but not what you want, I suspect

 

On molten state electrochemical approaches:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=2103

 

Actual success with a castner cell:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=9797

Edited December 23, 200817 yr by UC

Thanks UC. If I do try to produce sodium I will use the Castner shell method. To bad I already built my furnace. I'm sure I can find other uses for it though.

Hey there's plenty of stuff you can do with a furnace that can melt steel. Do your own alloying, melt down aluminum cans into ingots. smelt your own metals. If you have a taste for the dangerous and can afford a quartz reaction vessel, it can probably be used to make sulfur trioxide en-masse from sodium bisulfate. If you don't know what to do with this material neat, you can always dissolve it in sulfuric acid and make your own oleum or dilute that and make clean, reagent grade sulfuric acid without spending a fortune. That is also discussed in the forum I linked. Cheers!

 

-UC

thanks, I will try melting aluminum and other metals