Newton's Flaming Laser Sword
Sodium Metal Without Exotic Chemicals
Created: Jul 26, 2018 Updated: Sep 6, 2021 active experimental chemistry 1 minute read Zotero Ref
Making sodium metal without using exotic chemicals, solvents, or apparatus.

Intro

The idea here is to make sodium using deep eutectic solvents to catalyze the reaction between magnesium and sodium hydroxide (chloride?) or electrolyze a sodium salt. No tertiary alcohol catalysts or exotic solvents required.

  • Choline chloride:zinc chloride seems to be a suitable DES
    • both have to be purchased online
  • solubilities are not that great, but that may not be a problem if you are going with the Mg/NaOH route
  • Mostly based on the research from (Bagh 2014)
  • DES’s have the advantage of reusability and low vapor pressure
  • Might face the same problems that NurdRage was having in his sodium production due to water contamination

Work Log

TODO

  • [ ] Need constant current power supply

Bibliography

Bagh, Fatemeh Saadat Ghareh. 2014. “Ionic Liquids and Deep Eutectic Solvents and Their Potential Use in Production of Sodium.” PhD thesis, Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya.