how do you seal both ends because you would have to heat them to make the glass go soft so you can seal the ends but surly some elements will react with the heat in an explosive way sending glass every where so it isnt really safe unless there is another way of doing it, i dont know how you do it this is just my guess

 

It doesnt work with every element.

oh right just what i thought but saying that how do suppliers of elements get elements that would react with heat into a vial and seal them up

vials and caps?

oh right just what i thought but saying that how do suppliers of elements get elements that would react with heat into a vial and seal them up

in an inert atmosphere, a bit like how they seal up Vacuum tubes, for instance the "Getter" inside a vacuum tube is often Barium, seen as a shiny mirror like spot inside the tube, that spot turns white almost instantly if the vacuum is broken and the air enters and oxidises it.

 

no element will react to just Heat, it may melt and change state, but no reaction will occur

"Lead metal is completely harmless and non-toxic if you're not ingesting the metal."

 

I meant that if you carry it around with your bare hands and all that, you might want to consider plating or coating it with something, as you said. I think the government containers are lead with steel coating.

what about hydrogen i am pretty sure that would react with heat

If there's no oxygen, I can't see a reason why hydrogen would react. :|

ok but if you seal it you are going to trap some oxygen unless you put argon in the vial but then its not pure hydrogen so how could you get a pure sample gas like hydrogen with out it blowing up when it is getting sealed up, sorry if this sounds irritating but i am just curious as to how they and you do it

You could put the hydrogen inside through a metal pipe that just fits inside the ampoule (with a tiny hole on the side), then if you melt the glass a bit when you pull it out, it closes itself. Or, you could make it like <===>-- (where <==> is the ampoule and the -- part is an extension of glass tubing) and melt the glass tubing when you've put some hydrogen there. Either way, elements that are gases in room temp. are the hardest ones to store (unless you store them as liquids ).

ok but if you seal it you are going to trap some oxygen unless you put argon in the vial but then its not pure hydrogen so how could you get a pure sample gas like hydrogen with out it blowing up when it is getting sealed up, sorry if this sounds irritating but i am just curious as to how they and you do it

 

Very carefully. I assume that it would require more money/equipment than I have. And probably a large amount of pure hydrogen.

how much is 100g of Antimony worth and 100g of Bismuth worth because there is some on ebay for £4 each

I find that to be a very reasonable price. I bought a bismuth crystal weighing about 119g for 29€ yesterday, though in ingot form bismuth is way cheaper (also bought myself some gallium and argon, krypton, xenon and neon inside small lightbulbs).

dont you just hate the euros, the whole point to it is useless sorry to go off subject but i hate the euros

boris, you should fluorinate some of your antimony.

what! why would i want to do that

"dont you just hate the euros, the whole point to it is useless sorry to go off subject but i hate the euros"

 

Well, I don't know if I miss our old currency too much (Finnish marks, about 6 marks = 1 euro). Euros suck in this aspect: I see a thing that costs 10 euros. I immediately think of the same thing, costing 10 MARKS, which is 6 times less. "Oh great, a burger for ten marks. I'll buy it." :< Luckily I'm not in Italy; My mom's friend was in Italy, and told that at the time they changed to euros, a 0,5l drink cost like 10€! Probably because their old currency was so small, and euros are large compared to them.

 

"boris, you should fluorinate some of your antimony."

 

Don't listen to the mad man! He's trying to have you make antimony pentafluoride and dissolve your arm off.

i know what he was on about i carnt say i found it amusing, and im glad our currency has'nt changed yet, hope it never will that means we can still get good deals in europe

what! why would i want to do that

Don't listen to the mad man! He's trying to have you make antimony pentafluoride and dissolve your arm off.

actually i was coercing him to make pentafluoroantimonic acid:)

hehe

 

NEVER DO IT

why would that make pentafluoroantimonic acid

Oh yes, of course it's the acid that dissolves. Silly me. HF:SbF5, if I'm correct?

 

By the way, I remembered a good page for European element collectors:

 

http://www.elemente.at.cx/

 

The page is in German, but you'll probably understand enough. At least I did, and I've never studied the language. The prices are reasonable, and that's the only page I've ever seen to have such a marvellous variety of elements. Some of the 1-82 range elements are missing, though, but smack me in the face if you've ever seen curium for sale before.

they dont have ceasium thats a shame, but they do have merucury at 140 euros for 140g thats £96.81p im not sure if that is good value

why would that make pentafluoroantimonic acid

it wouldnt until you added hydrogen fluoride

http://www.seltenerden.de - over 20g of 99.98% cesium for 279€, if that's what you're after. That's the page where I bought my noble gases, gallium and bismuth from.

haha! i love germany.

check this out (from the site above):

http://stadt.heim.at/newyork/132276/Fr.htm

thats even worse gilded i can get 140g for £96 at 99.9999% or 20g for £190 i think the £96 is much better value