DCHAS-L Discussion List Archive
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:41:49 -0400
Reply-To: Mubetcel <mubetcel_moorefield**At_Symbol_Here**STERIS.COM>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: Mubetcel <mubetcel_moorefield**At_Symbol_Here**STERIS.COM>
Subject: Re: Tulsa Lab Incident
Comments: To: jnail**At_Symbol_Here**OKCU.EDU
John,
The method for decomposing sodium metal sound pretty dangerous if
conducted improperly. I was wondering if you could give some specifics o
f it,
especially what not to do and the amounts, speed and the order of adding
the
chemicals you mention for those of us who might consider using this metho
d.
I quote your word below:
"As a grad student, I cleaned out a lot of active metal + flammable solve
nt
still flasks and found that the best way to decompose the metal is to add
dichloromethane, 2-propanol and water. The dichloromethane blankets the
metal and prevents a fire from starting. The 2-propanol acts as a phase
transfer catalyst and the water decomposes the metal. I never had a fire
with
this technique."
Thank you very much in advance.
Mubetcel
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