Re: Disposing of sodium metal

In article <tGPDg.175$ha1.66@trndny03>, Tony <bjlapen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: mmzax@xxxxxxxx wrote:

:> During a clearout, I found an oil jar containing a lump of sodium,
:> about 300g. Any ideas on how to safely dispose of this?

: Standard Procedure is to disolve in alcohol, and make sodium methoxide
: or sodium ethoxide, as the case may be. Then add water, to get back
: the alcohol, and NaOH. Dilute and dump. I prefer to use a mixture
: of 50% alcohol + 50% water right at the start. The reaction
: proceedes smoothly, and does not take all day like it does when you
: use straight alcohol.

Actually, the standard procedure is to add it to n-butanol and stir until
no more reaction is observed. Then add isopropanol and stir until no more
reaction is observed. Then add n-propanol and stir until no more reaction
is observed. Then add ethanol and stir until no more reaction is observed.
Then add methanol and stir until no more reaction is observed. Then add
water and stir until no more reaction is observed. I admit that when I
have to dispose of sodium, I generally only use isopropanol, ethanol,
methanol, and water. The consequences of a fire are, IMO, bad enough
that it's worth taking some precautions, especially when disposing of a
quantity that large. (I'd probably cut the 300g into smaller chunks so that
the reaction proceeds more rapidly.)

-----
Richard Schultz schultr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
-----
"an optimist is a guy/ that has never had/ much experience"
.

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