Website!

After many hours of programing, taking professional pictures, and more programing, the website is finished to an extent I can show you without shame! The URL issss

http://www.atomicemporium.com

I guess from here on, we wish the name Scientific Screwing Around goodbye. I hope you all approve of the new name, Atomic Emporium!

Thank you all for reading this blog, please check out the website, and sign the guestbook!

~Ben

News

Dear readers, it has come to interest that the blog-type setup going on here isn't as good as it could be, and tends to make it extremely difficult to add new samples to a previously-discussed element. I may switch to a website, and actual self-owned website, where I can add individual samples to any given element at any given time without re-posting the entire elemental information. When I am done making this decision or making the website itself, I will post links, but until then I will be quite busy and may not get to posting anything for awhile. Thanks to a birthday come and gone, I got a beautiful set of one-gram (Quite small) pure metal bullion for several elements I don't have, and I am prominently displaying them in my collection now. These include Tin, Titanium, Tantalum, a much better sample of Molybdenum, Copper, Niobium, and a few others. Another note is my camera seems to be out of order, but I'll soon have a new one and can get back to photographing my samples.

Thanks again,

~Ben

Bromine

Bromine is unusual looking, as it is a dark orange-brown liquid, one of only two elements liquid at room temperature (the other being Mercury) It is a halogen, being very very reactive and corrosive, and also will sublime or vaporize into a thick orange smoke which will severely irritate lungs and eyes.

Bromine's atomic symbol is Br, and is atomic number 35. It has two stable isotopes, Br-79 being slightly more common than Br-81, and has no natural radioactivity.

Bromine was originally discovered in a mixture including seaweed ashes, and was thought to be a compound of Chlorine and Iodine. The name comes from the word "Brome" which basically means a foul stench or oder.

Commercially, pure Bromine is very rarely used except in rare chemical processes, and in manufacture of fire resistant compounds which use Bromine's unique chemistry to fight the chemical processes going on in fires. Some bromine compounds are used in gasoline additives.

Bromine is, surprisingly, not a difficult element to chemically isolate, and can be done with pool supply chemicals. How I did it was I dissolved Sodium Bromide (NaBr) and Calcium Hypochlorite (Ca(Clo2)2) in water, then added Hydrochloric acid (HCl) which freed Chlorine gas from the Calcium Hypochlorite, which then released Bromine by separating the NaBr into NaCl (Salt) and pure Br. Once I did this, I had a solution of Bromine in water, which was pure enough to make the choking fumes bromine is most well known for. To purify it further, I heated the bromine water to evaporate the Bromine, then re-condensed the Bromine vapor by cooling it down in an ice bath. In all I got lots of Bromine water, but not much pure Bromine. I managed to ampoule the pure bromine I'd made, and I made a bigger ampoule of the Bromine water (Which is much safer than pure Bromine, and looks basically the same)

This is my ampoule of Bromine-Water, not pure Bromine but enough Bromine to see the orange color.

This is a microscopic view of my pure bromine ampoule, as you can see it is much MUCH darker than the Bromine-water above, and also flows much more freely than water would.

Another method of getting Bromine is electrolysis, which is breaking up chemical compounds with electricity. I simply got a solution of Sodium Bromide (NaBr) in water (H2O) and electrolyzed, Bromine started to form on one of the electrodes(Seen above) However my electrodes started corroding pretty badly, and I didn't get enough Bromine to manage another ampoule, I barely got enough to take this picture.

Thank you for reading

~Ben

News

Lately I've been into chemical isolation of elements, meaning taking compounds with an element I want and working out a way to get it alone. I've done this with Bromine and Iodine recently, and I know how to go about it with Chlorine and a number of others.

In other elemental news, I found I have some Pewter, which is >85% tin, and I've been working on a way to get an Argon discharge lamp.

Through great luck at a flea market, I managed to get a "silent" light switch, which contains the rare liquid metal Mercury. Most these switches have small glass vials containing the Mercury, but while disassembling the switch, I accidentally cracked this vial. I immediately took my project outside to avoid risk of Mercury vapor, which is very harmful to breath, and carefully poured the Mercury into one of my sample vials, which I then sealed up and don't plan on opening soon. Mercury is one of the most interesting elements, because it looks just like any other metal, but sloshes around the vial when you tilt it, and is quite heavy, so it's nothing like having a vial of water, so I'll likely do a post on this in the next week or so.

I may buy a small set of metal bullion, which I generally avoid doing, because pure metals are boring, I want to see them being used for something, but in this case the metals are very very rarely seen in anything other than 1-10% in an alloy, so it would be nice to just have one piece of it. However funding is keeping that at bay for now.

I have also been trying to get my hands on a burned out sodium-vapor lamp, which besides containing the obvious Sodium vapor (An element quite difficult to get) the leads through the glass must be made of a Niobium-Zirconium alloy, which are two more quite unusual metals. If you have one or know where you can get one please speak up!

I will also be doing a post on the infamous Uranium, well known radioactive fuel most people think is so harmful.

Another note, I was considering turning this whole deal into more of a website, because I could then organize my samples and add new ones easily, instead of only doing new posts for specific elements.. The blog you read now would stay intact to tell of what samples I've attained in the last week or so, but would instead link to a page about it instead of doing an entire post on one element alone. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for reading

~Ben

Oh and hey, my 16th birthday is in 5 days :P

Thorium

Thorium in pure form is a rather normal looking silver metal, and can be rolled and stamped just like aluminum or steel. However Thorium is radioactive, and most likely you'll run into it in the form of Thorium Dioxide, a grey powder, which is used because it can withstand extremely high heat.

Thorium's atomic name is Th, and is atomic number 90, the most common isotope is Th-232 (With a half life of over 14 billion years) which occurs naturally, almost as commonly as Uranium (which is actually quite common, relatively speaking).

Thorium is commonly found mixed in with Uranium ores, but is not currently used for much commercially, so there is lots of Thorium in the world as a by-product of Uranium purifying. Because of this abundance, some scientists have recently thought up a way to use it as a nuclear fuel, possibly replacing Uranium in this respect, but few nuclear power plants actually employ Thorium today.

Thorium was widely used before the 1950's or so, sometimes it was used simply as a metal with no regard to it's radioactivity in an alloy with magnesium called Mag-Thor, which was used in some missiles for it's light weight and strength.

Another common use was in old gas lamp mantles, which where coated in Thorium dioxide to make them glow more intensely with the heat of a flame, but since the 1960's it's been replaced with Yttrium oxide. Yet another use was mixing it with glass, this glass was then used to make expensive high-grade camera lenses due to superior optical qualities of "Thoriated" glass, however it has not been used for this since well before 1980.

Today one of the only sources I could find was in an electrode for "TIG" welding, these electrodes consist of a rod of Tungsten about 7 inches long and 1/16th in diameter, and if you search for long enough, you can find Thoriated electrodes with up to 4% thorium content. I bought a few of these electrodes, and proceeded to try to dissolve the Tungsten to leave just the Thorium Dioxide, the result was a dirty green crumbly layer, probably not very pure Thorium Dioxide.. But it is still radioactive, meaning in a way, my experiment worked. Both this green product and the original Thoriated-Tungsten electrodes are shown below (The dime is just for scale, dimes have 0% Thorium content.)

This concludes my Thorium post, thanks for reading.

~Ben

Helium

Helium is a colorless noble gas, and is the second lightest element. It is generally very common in the universe, because of nuclear fission of Hydrogen in stars results in it.

Helium's atomic symbol is He, atomic number is 2, and most common isotope is He-4 having 2 neutrons, but He-3 does exist as a decay product of H-3 (Heavy Hydrogen, "Tritium"). It is found right after Hydrogen and before Lithium in the periodic table, and is very very light. It is also a noble gas, so is very non-reactive and forms almost no compounds.

Helium is very well known for being lighter than air, and is quite commonly found in stores to fill balloons with. You can even purchase your own small tank for parties and such. Being a noble gas, it is very nonreactive, and if released into the air it will simply float away to the outermost levels of earth's atmosphere, then just sit there without reacting to anything.

Commercially, Helium is gotten by super-chilling air until the different gases liquify out, once most of the more common gases like nitrogen, oxygen, etc. are gone, most of what remains are various noble gases, including Helium.

Helium doesn't have many scientific uses because it is inert and no chemicals will bond with it, but because it is inert, it can be used to protect reactive metals from the oxygen in the air.

One interesting aspect is that since it is so much lighter than air, sound waves travel very fast through it, and as a result sound higher pitched. This effect can be seen if you fill your lungs with helium, then try to talk, it will result in a higher and probably hilarious voice (However breathing any gas can be hazardous, even inert gases, because you might not get enough Oxygen. Don't breath to much helium without taking some comfortable breaths of air in between)

My Helium ampoules (sealed glass tubes, see above) are self-made and not very high quality, but good enough for me. I made them by sealing one end of a glass tube, filling it with water, then, while submerged in water, bubbling helium up into it, then melting the tube shut just above the water. The water is to keep air out, but as a consequence the final product probably is around 5% water vapor, making it impure. Once again, close enough for my purposes. I made two from a helium balloon I commandeered(stole) from a political campaign booth at a fair.

This is all I have to say about Helium for now, tell me if I've left anything out.

Thanks,

~Ben

Radium

Radium in pure form is a radioactive metal with a slight blue glow, but it is very very rare to see it in pure metal form, or in any amount bigger than "Tiny".

Radium has the atomic name "Ra", atomic number 88, and the most common isotope is Ra-226. It's at the bottom of the Alkali-Earth metals, and is chemically similar to Barium.

It was discovered in 1898, when radioactivity wasn't very well known, by Marie Curie, found mixed in with a Uranium ore known as Pitchblende, once the Uranium was removed from this ore, the by-products, which where mostly Barium with traces of Radium, where still radioactive.

In the 1930s or so, radioactivity was considered a big deal, Radium was a popular word, and was quite commonly discussed by the general public. It was used in countless useless applications because it was thought to be healthy at the time, at one point you could buy Radium drinking water, Radium hand lotion, and a number of other bogus products.. Some of which really did contain Radium.

One actually useful application of Radium was discovered in the fact that the radioactivity of Radium(And Radium compounds, such as Radium Chloride) would react with the chemical compound Zinc Sulfide, and produce visible light, similar to "glow in the dark" items, but would last 20 some years without recharging in sunlight.

A company known as the the United States Radium Company(among other companies in various countries) manufactured a paint containing these chemicals, and it was used on wrist watches, switches, dials, anything that needed to be signified in the dark. Many military meters and gauges used Radium paint. However, in the 1960s, girls employed to hand-paint these items began to contract bone cancer from the exposure and light consumption of Radium (They used their mouths to re-shape their paint brushes), which lead to a lawsuit against the company, and a world-wide end to Radium paints.

I, however, was lucky enough to buy a broken watch from the 1920-40s off of Ebay containing this very paint. The risks of Radium to the wearers of these watches is much less than to the painters, and many where worn 24 hours a day with no side effects, but still, I won't be wearing mine.

I'm not sure how old this watch is or where it came from, but it is swiss made, and I think before 1960. On the left is the glow AFTER being charged with ultraviolet light, the Zinc-Sulfide in the Radium paint won't glow from radiation after about 20 years because it breaks up crystals vital for the glow, and it doesn't glow for very long under ultraviolet, just long enough to show what it might've looked like years ago when it was still good.

That's my post on Radium, thanks for reading!

~Ben

Xenon

Xenon (zee-non) is a very rare Noble Gas, and is most well known for the fact that it discharges very bright clean white light. Because of this it is most commonly used in strobe lights or flash bulbs.

Xenon's atomic name is Xe (Which is a reason I really like it, it has one of the most awesome names) atomic number is 54, and most common isotope is Xe-132 with 78 neutrons, however every isotope from Xe-124 to Xe-136 (With the exclusion of isotope 125, 127, 133, 135 which are synthetic and short-lived) is found naturally.

Being a noble gas there are almost no naturally occurring compounds, and is most commonly obtained from air, which contains a minute percentage of it. It is very unusual, an interesting fact is that on average there's less Xenon in air than there is Gold in sea water.

It is quite heavy for a gas, a balloon filled with Xenon will fall to the ground faster than a solid low-density styrofoam ball.

As mentioned above, it's most common uses are in strobe lamps, which are gas-discharge lights similar to Neon signs. Similar to Neon displaying a red color, Xenon displays a bright pure white, so is used in camera flashes or for high-power projector or spot light bulbs. All of my samples are in the form of lamps mentioned above.

These are my samples, all are (loosely speaking) light bulbs.

Top right sample: This is the Xenon flash bulb from your typical camera flash, easily found in disposable cameras for about $6. Normally I wouldn't take it off of the circuit board, because the circuit board can be used to light it up, but in this case it was from and older camera flash that no longer worked.

Bottom sample: This is a much larger flash bulb, probably used in a strobe light. I was very lucky to pick up 3 of these basically for free at a special flea market in Boston. They are basically exactly the same as the smaller one, just a different shape. You might also notice the third wire in the middle, this is a "trigger" wire, because it is very hard to get and arc to start in the Xenon, a high voltage (but low amps) charge is applied to the middle and one of the edges, this "starts" the arc, which than continues from a larger more powerful capacitor(This all happens in a fraction of a second) They make some bulbs even larger than these for airport lights and such.

Top left sample: This is a very rare lamp, given to me by my dad. It is in fact a projector bulb filled with Xenon, and it is unusual because it does not "flash", it actually stays lit up, which is difficult because the Xenon tends to get very hot quite fast. I am very lucky to have one of these, most are used by movie theaters and are returned to the company that makes them for "repairs". Quite difficult to get your hands on, and expensive to get new. This one may not work, I have no power supply to test it.

This concludes my post on Xenon, my favorite noble gas. Thanks for reading!

~Ben

Computer problems

Alas, the true enemy of any blogger, semi computer failure.. Some problems are coming up, I could continue, but I'd really rather wait until I know I'll be able to save my work.

I continue my science and element collecting though, and there will be lots to come!

Thanks for patience,

~Ben

Platinum

Platinum is a dull silver metal, most well known for it's resistance to corrosion. It is known as a "Noble metal", similar to the Noble Gases, because it does not react much with anything.

Atomic name is Pt, atomic number is 78 (Right before Gold, which is similar in many respects) and atomic weight is 195. It's electron configuration is 2, 8, 18, 32, 17, 1.

Platinum is most times used for it's resistance to corrosion, and has long been used for jewelry and certain scientific components that require something that will not corrode or rust away after much use. Fuel cells, which mix Hydrogen and Oxygen into water and create electricity as a byproduct, are known to be expensive because the metal that touches these two gases must not corrode in the presents of pure oxygen, so most times, is Platinum.

Some very old light bulbs used Platinum wire to seal through glass, because it bonded well to glass and expanded the same amount as the glass, but this method isn't used due to the price of Platinum. As I write this the price of one ounce(an ounce is about the weight of 6 US nickel coins) of Platinum is over $1,500 , higher than the price of Gold per ounce which is currently just below $1,200.

This is my Platinum sample. The wire is actually Platinum-plated Nickel, as this much pure platinum might cost over $50. These two wires, if un-coiled, are about 6 inches long, and the whole foot of Platinum-plated Nickel wire cost me about $10. I used these in a fuel cell project, because as mentioned above, Platinum works far better than most other metals in this application. There is probably less than 2 mg (milligrams, 1/1000th of a gram, a US nickel weighs 5 grams) of platinum in this whole picture, but hey, I can say I own a few million atoms of it.

Thanks,

~Ben

News: I got a Geiger Counter in the mail today, which is a device to sense radioactivity. It is a kit, and I can't assemble it without a bit of help, but once I get it going I'll do a post on radioactive Thorium.

Aluminum

Aluminum is a very common metal, and has a light dull grey color. It is fairly easy to melt and cast, and scrap is easily available in many forms.

Atomic name is Al, number is 13, weight is 26.981, and it sits in the "poor metal" section of the periodic table. Most common Isotope is Aluminum-27 with 14 neutrons, but traces of Aluminum-26 have been found and are very slightly radioactive.

Aluminum is one of my favorite metals, as it doesn't easily corrode due to a protective oxide layer which forms quite fast, but doesn't flake off like rust on Iron, keeping the Aluminum under the surface safe from corrosion. It's melting point is only 1220 F, which can easily be made by a wood or charcoal fire if you keep good airflow.

Aluminum is generally very common construction material, being fairly cheap, far lighter than steel, but still good strength. It's used in many airplanes or helicopters for these traits. It is also an extremely good electrical conductor, 2/3rds as good as copper, but 1/3rd as heavy, making one of it's most common uses electrical power lines.

Almost all structural Aluminum is alloyed with small amounts of most commonly Copper and Zinc, to make it less prone to cracking. The most common alloy is known as "6061" Aluminum, and can have up to 1% of Silicon, Iron, Copper, Manganese, Magnesium, Chromium, Zinc, and Titanium, but most times contains less than 5% other metals.

Here are my samples

Sample 1: These are all items I cast myself, from right to left: A water-cast blob, made by pouring liquid metal in water, a "medallion", made just for the fun of it, and the result of pouring aluminum into a hole in loose soil. The large lump is what I had left over, so I poured it all into a cooking pan.

Sample 2: This is a small heat sink from something electronic. Aluminum conducts heat very well, similar to electricity, so by putting aluminum vanes on a hot object, the heat is carried out the vanes and dissipated into the air. Used quite commonly in computers, because the processor chips get hot.

Sample 3: This is an aluminum plate, I don't know what it was for, but my dad got a pile of them as scrap from a former job (Same job as the copper slab)
Sample 4: One of the easiest samples, Aluminum foil (Sometimes called Tin foil, but it's been made out of aluminum for quite some time now)

Sample 5: Soda can, another easy one to get, however it doesn't really show what the surface of aluminum looks like, because there's a label on the outside and a thin plastic coating on the inside.

This is another sample of Aluminum, a good example of structural aluminum, a 30 foot antenna tower my dad owns. My dad has lots of interesting stuff, doesn't he?

All in all, Aluminum is quite a useful metal, and not hard to get a sample of. I have many more samples than this, some are quite large though, so I left them out.

Thanks again for reading!

~Ben

Coming soon: Lead, Thorium, Radium.

Experiment: Electrolysis

Electrolysis is a process of using electric current (Generated by any means) to artificially separate elements in a compound. The pure elements (Or new compounds in some cases) can therefor be purified where no chemical reaction can yield them.

One of the most basic electrolysis experiments is electrolyzing water. Water is Hydrogen Oxide, or H2O (Meaning two Hydrogen, one Oxygen). The most basic way to do this experiment is take a 9-volt battery (The small square kind), hook a paper clip on each lead (But don't let them touch!), then submerge both leads in water. Bubbles will form on both paper clips, but one should have twice as many bubbles, as water is "H2O" there is twice as much Hydrogen than Oxygen. If you change the setup a little bit, you can easily make these electrodes go into a container, and store your precious Hydrogen and Oxygen!

This is my setup. It's hard to see because it's in a clear bowl sitting on carpet, sorry about that, but I have insulated wire (coated in plastic) with a small portion of the insulation (plastic) stripped off at the end, because bubbles will only form on the conductive metal part. After making sure my two glass vials where FULL of water, I stuck the wires into them as to catch every tiny bubble of Hydrogen and Oxygen.

I fill the vials with water because one Hydrogen starts forming, I don't want there to be any air mixed in, as air has Nitrogen and Oxygen and it would be impure, but because water is a liquid and not a gas, it is easily pushed out by the Hydrogen. Make sure you put the cap on the vials BEFORE taking them out of the water! You don't want any air mixed with your newly isolated elements.

So this is a very basic process for "Isolating" (purifying) the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen, and can quite easily be done at home. I intend to make a much better system for this though, and maybe sell pure Hydrogen or Oxygen samples later, if anyone wants them that is.

This is not my post on either Hydrogen or Oxygen, because I'm still collecting more interesting samples for them, and want to wait until I have the best array possible. I can get a sample of Hydrogen that's radioactive, and is sealed in a glass vial with chemicals that glow because of the radioactivity! However I can't afford that just yet... So it will be a while.

Thanks for reading!

~Ben

News

Sorry for not doing an element recently, but I am looking at lots of interesting samples to buy! I have a few on their way, but I'll try to do another one tomorrow, maybe Lead or Aluminum.

I also received my shipment of sample vials, they are very nice. Since I bought bulk, I could sell a few off, but most likely I will wait until I have extra samples to sell with them. Comment if interested.

There they are, all cute and small. I also bought some larger ones for larger samples, but they aren't quite as.. Adorable. As I have these, I can now store several gas samples I haven't been able to in the past, such as electrolyzed Hydrogen and Oxygen, along with a few others.. But I'm waiting on Hydrogen until I have some special Isotopes to show off, which will be worth it I guarantee.

I will also be buying some glass tubing and hopefully learn to blow glass, this will open up invaluable possibilities such as melted-shut glass tubes (called ampoules) I can store reactive elements in permanently, along with gas-discharge lights (See Neon post for info on those) for different gases, possibly even more advanced vacuum-electric devices.

Stay tuned, and remember donations will bring more exciting samples!

~Ben

Americium

NOTE: Americium is a radioactive element. Please do not "play" with radioactivity unless you are very well informed to what you are dealing with, and always keep in mind there is ALWAYS some risk.

Americium (am-er-ee-see-um) is a fairly normal looking silver-grey metal, I have no experience working with it as the only piece I can get is a tiny piece of foil, and melting or sanding would prove quite hazardous. The name, oddly, came from a former element named Europium after the continent of Europe, the discoverer decided it worthy to name it after the Americas because of this.

Americium's atomic symbol is Am, number is 95, and the most common isotope is Am-241, having 146 neutrons, and a half life of about 450 years. It appears in the Actinoid section of the periodic table, directly after Plutonium, which is quite a dangerous bomb-making element.

Being an Actinoid metal (Most of which are radioactive or synthetic), it is quite unusual, and I believe completely synthetic, meaning never occurs in nature. It is rare in the fact that it is very commonly used in nearly every house in America, crimped into a steel bead, in all common smoke detectors.

For safety sake, I'm not going to tell you specifically how to get it out, but I will say the entire smoke detector I used was only $4.50, so it must not be to expensive to make today.

Americium emits Alpha particles and low energy Gamma rays(See Radioactivity), Alpha particles are quite weak and can't penetrate even a thin piece of paper, and the Gamma rays are so low power that they do no harm for only short term exposure. Smoke detectors have shielding which makes them completely safe, but if you somehow got a piece of this inside you (In the form of sanding dust, which is why I never sand or grind my radioactive samples) it would probably do some damage just because the exposure time could be your whole life if it got stuck in your system.

I don't know the process for manufacturing Americium, and I don't know of any uses besides smoke detectors, or general "check sources" (set radiation levels for testing or calibrating radioactivity sensing devices). I have seen it used in a nifty device called a Spinthariscope, which shows radioactive decay by using any radiation source (Commonly Americium) and a chemical or compound that lights up in contact with radiation, releasing small flashes of green light whenever an Alpha particle hits it.

This is my Americium, crimped into a steel bead. It's hard to see, but there is a slight indent in the top of the steel bead, at the bottom of this indent is a very tiny piece of Americium foil, held firmly in place by steel that has been crimped around the edges. I wouldn't try to remove it from this steel bead, as it is safely stored, and fine for any experiments I might want to do with it. I might get a better picture if I have time.

Thanks for reading!

~Ben

Neon

Neon is a colorless, odorless gas that is very well known for it's bright orange luminescence. All of my samples are in unusual light bulbs.

Neon is a Noble Gas that's atomic symbol is Ne, and atomic number is 10. It's most common Isotope is Neon-20 (abbreviated Ne20), which has 10 Protons and 10 Neutrons, however there are small percentages of Ne21 and Ne22. The electron configuration of the Neon atom is simply 2, 8.

Being a Noble Gas, Neon is very non-reactive, due to the fact that all of the Noble Gases have a "comfortable" number of electrons, and almost never require any or have any extra. This makes there not many uses for Neon, because there are no natural compounds, Neon only ever occurs in it's pure form. Some scientists have managed to make very basic compounds with other Noble Gases, but not for Neon.

The most well known, and I believe most common use for Neon gas is in lighting, as low-pressure Neon will glow bright orange when high voltage is applied. You've probably seen Neon signs, although not all Neon signs have Neon gas, only a redish-orange color (Which you might've noticed is one of the most common colors in Neon signs) Neon signs consist of long tubes full of low-pressure Neon, with an electrode(Metal bar connected to a wire that goes through the glass) at either end. When high voltage is applied to the electrodes, electrons arc through the Neon gas from one electrode to the other, which Ionizes the Neon atoms causing them to release light.

This "Arc" is similar to a spark you might get from scuffing on carpet with socks on, but since the Neon is under a vacuum (very low pressure), the arc gets more "fuzzy" and not such a sharp streak of light as seen in normal air, which makes it a more pleasing light source. The vacuum also lowers the voltage required to make the Neon ionize.

Neon is not the only gas that lights up like this, almost any gas under a vacuum will light up similar to Neon. Normal air under a vacuum (Which is 78% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen, and small percentages of others) will light up a blue-purple color, but Neon is much brighter, which is why it's more commonly used.

An interesting note about Neon, and most of the Noble Gases, is that since they do not form compounds, they are most commonly found in very small percentages in normal Air. The process to purify Neon from the air is to cool the air down so cold, that the gases in it start to turn to liquids(Every element will go from solid to liquid to gas as you heat it up, since Neon is naturally a gas, cooling it puts it back to liquid stage, similar to cooling steam to get water). Since every gas turns to liquid at a different temperature, they simply cool it down slowly, and sort out the different gases as they liquify. This process can yield Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide, Neon, Argon, and a number of other gases, in very pure form.

Here are some Neon bulbs I managed to photograph:

This is an old bulb manufactured by General Electric, it is the same shape and size as a regular light bulb and even screws into a regular socket, but instead of a thin Tungsten filament, it has two Electrodes (The two half circles) and is filled with low pressure Neon. The high voltage from normal house wiring is enough to make it arc through the Neon, causing the familiar orange glow like in Neon signs. These bulbs are quite rare today, and I'm lucky to have access to them.

This is a small Neon "indicator" bulb, it's barely 1/4 inch in diameter. It's called an indicator bulb because it was used in houses to indicate things in the dark, and it's Neon because there was too high voltage for normal light bulbs. Illuminated light switches very commonly have a bulb exactly like these in them, you can tell if it's Neon if it's orange (Like below) and if it seems to flicker slightly.

It's not turned on as you can see, but you can clearly see the two electrodes inside the bulb. They are not touching, because when the light is turned on, electrons must arc through Neon gas (contained in the bulb) to complete the circuit, and this arc causes the Neon to light up. See below for it turned on!

These two bulbs are indicator bulbs like above, and are also very small, about the size of a bulb from those strings of Christmas lights. Only the orange one is Neon, and you can see, it has the same kind of electrodes inside as above. The glass bulb is once again filled with low pressure Neon gas. Since DC (Direct current) electricity is being used, only one of the electrodes lights up.

The blue bulb is actually very similar inside, but it has a different gas mixture which creates Ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the human eye. In order for it to glow visibly, the inside of the glass bulb is coated with special compounds, that turn Ultraviolet light into normal visible light, called "phosphors" (Not to be confused with the element "Phosphorous"). This coating is why the bulb appears opaque, not clear like the Neon one. These phosphors are used because the bulb can be made to glow almost any color, unlike Neon, which is always orange. I've seen green, blue, white, and yellow with phosphors though.

This concludes my post on Neon, thanks for reading!

~Ben

P.S. If you enjoy this blog and want to help me make it better, the best thing you can do is tell your friends and family about it, or donate a few dollars towards my sample budget!

Radioactivity

Here I'll teach you the basics of radioactivity, which comes in handy for a good number of the elements I might collect.

In all simplicity, a radioactive atom(which is just a small particle of an element) is an atom who's core (Protons+Neutrons) is unstable, and, given a certain time, will decay into an atom of a different element. synthetic (man-made)Isotopes, or atoms with different numbers of Neutrons than normal, are quite often radioactive and depending on what kind of atom they are they will decay either one element forward in the periodic table, or one element back.

The decay of these elements is in the form of either Alpha particles, Beta particles, or Gamma rays. Further description below:

Alpha particles are basically Helium cores, being two protons and two neutrons, but with no electrons. Alpha particles are generally the least dangerous, as they can barely penetrate a few inches of air, and are easily blocked by even a thin piece of paper.

Beta particles are free electrons, but in a different form than normal electrical voltage. They can be slightly more hazardous than Alpha particles, and penetrate air easily, only being stopped by a sheet of metal.

Gamma rays are high energy Photons, the same stuff normal light is made out of, but they are invisible and of much higher energy. These tend to bet he most harmful type of radiation, because they can penetrate even semi-thick metal, but are easily blocked by a thick layer of a heavier metal, such as Lead. Because of this Lead jars or boxes are often used to contain radioactive items, and Lead bricks are used to construct radiation-proof walls where needed.

A very basic radioactive molecule is Tritium, which is a name for Hydrogen-3 (Or Hydrogen with 1 proton, 2 neutrons) has an atomic number (number of Protons) of 1, and will decay into Helium-3(2 protons, 1 neutron), which is a unusual, but not radioactive, isotope of Helium. Helium's atomic number is 2.

This decay isn't linear, meaning it doesn't decay at a set rate of some number of atoms per year, but binary, meaning that by the time half of the material is decayed, it will decay half as fast. Example 1 gram (or any measurement of weight, pound, ounce, doesn't matter) of Hydrogen-3 will take 12.43 years to decay into .5 grams of Hydrogen-3, and .5 grams of Helium-3(This time for half to decay is called it's "Half life". I will reference this later). However if you wait another 12.43 years, you won't have no Tritium at all, but you'll have half the tritium you had 12.43years ago, or .25 grams.

Half lives of elements can range from microseconds for Synthetic elements (Like Lawrencium) to hundreds of millions of years for very lightly radioactive elements (Like Bismuth, which isn't considered radioactive it's radiation level is so low)

Technetium, atomic number 43, which is a Transition Metal, has no stable Isotopes, meaning every form is radioactive. Some Isotopes are short on Neutrons, example Technetium-96,(42 protons, 54 neutrons) so they decay back from atomic number 43 (Technetium) to atomic number 42 (Molybdenum). But some have too many Neutrons, example Technetium-98, so decay up a number to atomic number 44 (Ruthenium).

Notice all Isotopes of technetium decay, but stable elements such as Gold (Atomic number 79), who's common Isotope is Gold-197(79 protons, 117 neutrons), also have isotopes with more or less neutrons that decay up or down one element (Gold-196 decays into Platinum, Gold-198 decays into Mercury)

Some Isotopes of elements are extremely radioactive, so even their decay product (What they decay into) is radioactive, and in turn, decays even further. Some elements have long chains of different elements they decay into, example Radium-222 decays into Radon-222, which decays into Polonium-218, which in turn decays into a stable isotope of Lead.

You can also create synthetic elements by artificially adding neutrons to an atom. In theory, you could take something like Mercury, and add enough neutrons for it to slowly decay into Gold, but the price of this process is far greater than the profit from the Gold produced.

Please notice that I am not a specialist on radioactivity, I only learn enough to understand how my elements work, and to keep my curiosity at bay. There is alot I haven't explained here, I suggest if you want to find out more, simply search "radioactivity" and you should find lots of pages explaining in much greater detail.

Thanks again for reading!

~Ben

Molybdenum

Molybdenum is a metal quite similar to lead in physical properties, it is heavy, and has a greasy feel to it's surface. It has the 6th highest melting point of any element at about 4,800 degrees F. It's name comes from ancient greek for Lead, because it's ores (naturally found compounds) where confused with lead ores when first discovered.

Molybdenum's atomic number is 42, and atomic weight is 95.94 consisting of a mix of Isotopes from Molybdenum-94 to Molybdenum-97 (The number at the end is the "Isotopic number", and means the atomic weight of that specific Isotope, Molybdenum-94, having 42 protons, would have 52 neutrons, for a total of 94) It's electron layers go 2, 8, 18, 13, 1.

Molybdenum is almost never (or extremely rarely) found as a native metal, meaning it is always in a compound in nature, not pure form. It has a wide range of uses, most being either heat resistance or alloying for strength, Molybdenum can be alloyed with steel to make armor grade steel for military vehicles, and is also used as support wires for some incandescent light bulbs for it's high heat resistance, and this is one of the easiest ways to get a small sample(see images below).

This is a burnt-out incandescent lamp. The two thickest wires are a copper alloy, but the thin wire on the right side is Molybdenum. The spiral-shaped pieces are fragments of the burnt-out filament, which are Tungsten. Before you break the bulb, let me say that some larger bulbs have no support wires, meaning no Molybdenum. Look in and see if it has supports like I described. I've seen some light bulbs with 4 or 5 support wires, but also lots with none at all.

Broken bulb. You can see the wire structure more clearly here, the thinner, taller wire with a loop at the end is the Molybdenum. Please be careful breaking glass! The safest method I've found is to put the bulb in a zip-lock plastic bag, then drop 2-3 feet onto concrete or stone(Not wood floor! It might scratch it). If it doesn't break, drop it slightly higher until it does. Make sure you clean up any glass fragments! It is a nightmare to get them out of your toes.

This is all the molybdenum I could get out of it, and since the bulb was burnt out, the Molybdenum was brittle and cracked. Not much of a sample, but enough to say you have some!

These small spirally pieces are fragments of the filament, and are Tungsten, not Molybdenum. You might want to save these too as Tungsten is an element, but you can get much nicer pieces from un-used lightbulbs.

This concludes my post on Molybdenum, thanks for reading!

~Ben

The Periodic Table Itself!

I noticed I hadn't shown you what the actual periodic table looks like yet, however most of you have probably seen it. I whipped up this version of it with the groups very well signified, and only Atomic Number and Atomic Symbol, because I'll explain more when I get to that element.

So this is it.. It's a bit small here, but hopefully you can read all the atomic symbols (letters)

Let me start by explaining how it works. The atomic number(shown upper left corner of each square) starts at 1 in the upper left corner (Hydrogen), and goes down as you go to the right, going to a new line when it runs out of room. The elements are organized so that elements with similar traits are above and below each other. A radiation hazard symbol is shown in the upper-right corner of radioactive elements.

Now I'll explain the groups.

The Pink group is just Hydrogen, because Hydrogen is very unique, and since it's the first, it gets it's own special group. It can be classified as a Non-Metal as well.

The Red group is the Alkali Metals, Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Caesium(Or Cesium, either spelling is excepted), and Francium. All of the Alkali Metals are very reactive, and most will catch fire or explode when submerged in water, due to forming Hydroxides (Example: KOH, being one Potassium, Oxygen, and Hydrogen. Since water is H2O, or two H and one O, there is an extra Hydrogen) and Hydrogen from the water, which catches fire from the heat produced. They get more reactive as they go down, Lithium will simply burn in water, Caesium will explode. Because of this high reactivity, they are stored submerged in Mineral Oil, which is much less reactive than Water. Francium is highly radioactive will decay almost entirely in a matter of hours.

The Turquoise group is the Alkali Earth metals, Beryllium, Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium, Barium, and Radium. They are similar to the Alkali metals in their reactivity with water, but much less violent, non of them are reactive enough to make the extra Hydrogen catch fire. Radium is very radioactive, and was quite famously used in very old glow-in-the-dark paint, but banned because of workers who used the paint becoming quite sick. I hope to get a sample of this paint for a later post, but I will store it quite carefully.

The Light Blue group are Lanthanoids, named after the first in the group, Lanthanum. They are also called "Rare-Earth" metals, because most of them are quite unusual. They have many uses, mostly in alloying very tiny amounts into Steel (Iron and Carbon) to increase it's strength, or other desired traits. In the common periodic table, this and the Actinoid(see below) group are detached and shown below the rest, because if included the periodic table would be uncomfortably wide.

The Dark Green group are Actinoids, named after the first in the group, Actinium. All of the actinoids are radioactive, example Uranium and Plutonium, both are used in nuclear power plants and bombs. This makes them rather hard to collect, but some of them do have more common uses, like Uranium is used to color glass a bright green color.

The Light Green group are Transition Metals, this group contains most common metals we know, such as Iron, Copper, Silver, Gold, Zinc, and many more. Few of them are Radioactive, but there are some such as Technetium, which is very radioactive and is never found in nature because it decays quite quickly. There are many easy to find Transition Metals, so I will definitely have posts on them coming up.

The Light Blue group are Poor Metals, being named after the fact that most of them do not conduct electricity very well, and some are brittle and will crack rather than bend. Well known elements in this group contain Aluminum, Lead, and Tin.

The Yellow group are Semi-Metals, being named for some metallic properties, but some not. Most are shiny like metals, but brittle like non-metals. Most conduct electricity much better when heated, which makes them invaluable in making electronics and computers, example Silicon, computers would still be the size of a house if it wasn't for it!

The Dark Blue group are non-metals, including Carbon, Nitrogen (gas), Oxygen (gas), Phosphorous, and Sulfur. Most of them are very common in nature, almost everything organic is built on a frame of Carbon, and the air we breathe is about 78% Nitrogen.

The Orange group are Halogens, which are extremely reactive gases, liquids, and solids. A good example is Chlorine, which in pure form is a gas, but many compounds of Chlorine are used as bacteria killers in pools, and to bleach clothing. They are all considered toxic to touch or ingest, as they will react with elements in your body and destroy them.

The Purple group are the Noble Gases, which are all gases, and all VERY non-reactive. In nature they are found in pure form, because they will not form any compounds. The air we breath has very small percentages of almost all of these gases, and is the main source of them for most companies that purify them. They are also valuable in Gas-Discharge lights, because if put in a slight vacuum and an electrical charge put through them, they will give off light. Most of my samples of these gases are in unusual light bulbs I've collected.

That's all the groups, my next post might be a intro to Radioactivity, just to understand any radioactive samples I might have.

Thanks for reading!

~Ben

Copper

Copper is a redish shiny metal that is fairly soft, and will bend easily without shattering or cracking. It's melting point is quite high (about 2,000F) so I can only melt small beads of it with my blow torch.

It's atomic symbol is "Cu", atomic number is 29 and it's atomic weight is 63.546 (the atomic weight isn't an exact number because different isotopes(numbers of neutrons) are mixed, most commonly it has 34 Neutrons, but sometimes has 35. Both Isotopes are stable (non radioactive)) It's electron shells(layers) have 2, 8, 18, and 1 electrons in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th shell accordingly.

It sits in the Transition Metals section of the periodic table, right after Nickel and before Zinc. It conducts electricity very well, which is why it's used very commonly in circuit boards and wires. Below it on the periodic table are Silver, then Gold, which both show similar traits to copper being non-reactive(doesn't rust easily), soft, and very good conductors of electricity.

Copper also forms many oxides (rusts) and other salts (compounds) that range from green to blue color, and are so vivid they are sometimes used in dyes and paints(see bottom picture below). The green color of the Statue of Liberty is because of copper in it.

Copper is also used in Alloys, or mixes of metals, because it makes them stronger or better electrical conductors. Most Aluminum is made with a small amount of Copper in it to help it shatter or crack less. Another common alloy is Brass, being a mixture of Copper and Zinc, which is known for a gold color, and is also somewhat corrosion(rust) proof.

These are my copper samples. Top picture, Sample 1:

This is a solid copper ball used in copper-plating, I got it because my dad works for a company that has circuit boards made for them, so I got a tour of the company. These balls are placed in a stainless-steel cage then submerged in acid, and when electricity flows from the balls to whatever they're plating, copper atoms will flow with it resulting in the ball getting smaller and a thin layer of copper appearing on the object being plated. They had a big bucket full of these (at the time they where shinier) and I got to keep one just by asking!

Sample 2:(and picture 2)

This is a giant slab of copper about 1/4" thick, it is very very heavy and has a nice shine to it. I do not know what it was used for, my dad got it as scrap (even though it's worth over $30, might've been cheaper when it was thrown out) at a past job. It's the biggest single piece of copper I've ever held.

Sample 3:

This doesn't look like copper because it is plated in Nickel, but if you scrape it you can see it is solid copper. It was used in a big piece of radio equipment my dad took apart that used high voltage (Copper conducts well). There where 2 of them, but I broke one trying to melt it.

Sample 4:

These are just pieces of electrical wire, used in houses everywhere! I coiled them so they wouldn't be so hard to carry, the bigger one is about 2 feet long if un-coiled.

Sample 5:

This is what is called "Native Copper", because it was found in nature exactly how it is. Most times copper will be found in an "ore", which is just a compound or oxide, but it is sometimes found in pure form such as this.

Sample 6:

United States pennies! These are easily the most commonly seen form of copper, and makes a nice display for any collection like mine. However, pennies minted(made) AFTER 1982 are not pure copper, they have a core made of Zinc and a thin layer of Copper on the outside, because it is cheaper(If you grind or scrape the edges, you will soon see a silvery metal instead of copper). Pennies before this date (the top one in this pic is a 1950, quite rare) are pure copper though, and, oddly enough, worth more than 1 cent.

Sample 7:

This is copper foil, used in arts and crafts. It's easily found in most arts and crafts stores, sold just for it's pleasing color. It can be cut easily with good scissors. Some older houses used copper for roof ridges in a similar form, at a demolition site I once saw a piece about 8" wide, 3 feet long, and much thicker than this, but I wasn't allowed to keep it. Today copper is to expensive for this use($3/pound)

This is Copper Acetate dissolved in water, a good example of the blue colors copper can make. I made this by taking White Vinegar, putting two pieces of Copper in it(not touching each other), then putting electricity(any electricity will do, I used a 6 volt lamp battery, but the more power the faster it will work) between them. If left long enough, the vinegar will turn blue, and this is what's left. You can boil the water off and get a very vivid, light blue-green powder, which is pure copper acetate (not dissolved). NOTE: I do not know if this is poisonous, but I highly suggest you do NOT eat/drink it or get it on your hands right before dinner.

This sums up my post on Copper, any questions or comments gladly accepted and hopefully answered! Feel free to point out anything important I've left out, and I'll try to fix it.

Promo

Some News

I just ordered 122 small glass vials to store my samples in, I won't be able to post gas elements until they get here, as I cannot store them. Because I ordered so many vials, they where relatively cheap per piece, but quite the price for the whole batch, and if anybody needs just one or two, I might consider resale.

I will also be putting a slideshow of a few of my favorite samples on Youtube soon, probably by tomorrow, just to show what's coming. Link will be posted

Also I've put a tab to the right that is my current list of interesting samples I'd like to purchase. Unfortunately, I can afford practically none of them as of now, but most are not necessary samples, merely interesting uses or Isotopes. If you really want to see me get them, you can donate through paypal at the bottom of the list, there is no minimum donation, and everything goes towards this blog.

All the best,

~Ben

Basics of Elements

In this post I will try to explain basically what makes elements unique, and some basic reactions they have with each other, it will help understand phrases I use later on. If you already have somewhat of a grasp on Atomic Physics, feel free to skip most of this.

To start, all of everything is composed of Atoms, which are the smallest possible particle of an element. Atoms consist of a core made of even smaller particles called Protons and Neutrons, and Electrons orbiting around this core. In general, a stable (not exploding or radioactive) Atom has one Electron for every Proton, and near the same number of Neutrons as Protons.

The number of Protons alone defines what element an Atom is, because Neutrons and Electrons can be added or subtracted*. The number of Protons is called the "Atomic number". The numbers of Protons and Neutrons combined is called the "Atomic Mass"(Electrons have practically no weight) , and defines how heavy one atom of the element is (However the weight you feel when picking up a bar of Iron is more defined by how close together the atoms are)

Every element also has an "Atomic Symbol" composed of one, two, or three letters, example H is hydrogen, Li is Lithium, Cu is copper. Only the first letter is capitalized to avoid confusing in formulas like "KHO", one Potassium (Symbol is K) one Hydrogen (H) one Oxygen (O), as opposed to KHo, which would be one Potassium and one Holmium (Ho)

I'll give you some examples of basic atoms:

Above is one of the most basic atoms, a Hydrogen atom. It has one Proton, (Atomic number of 1) no neutrons*, (Atomic mass of 1) and a single electron. Because the inner shell of electrons (The black circle) "wants" to have 2 electrons, hydrogen will bond with only one other atom, because of this normal hydrogen is actually 2 hydrogen atoms bonded together. If you add Oxygen and heat, the Hydrogen atoms will bond to the oxygen instead of each other(Oxygen will bond with 2 other atoms stably), forming water and an explosion! I'll do a longer post on Hydrogen later.

This is a slightly more advanced atom, Carbon. It's core is 6 Protons (Atomic number 6) and 6 Neutrons (Atomic mass 12), and it normally bonds with 4 other atoms. The electron shells (or layers) of this would be written 2, 4.

If you take 4 Hydrogen atoms (Which have one bond each) and 1 Carbon (With 4 bonds), the Hydrogen will surround the Carbon and form a Molecule(any group of atoms) known as Methane gas. If you replace one of the Hydrogens with another Carbon, the added Carbon will take 3 more Hydrogens to fill it's bonds, and form Ethane gas. You can keep adding carbons and making longer chains basically forever! (You might wonder why this comes in handy for element collecting, I use it because I can't always get a pure metal, sometimes I have to settle for a compound(any group of elements) containing it instead.)

*If you add or subtract Neutrons, you're creating a different form (these forms are called "Isotopes") of an element that is either heavier or lighter. You can add(or subtract) Neutrons to any element, and this sometimes makes them Radioactive, meaning they slowly decay into a different element. There are some elements that have NO stable Isotopes, meaning they are always radioactive, no matter how many Neutrons. More on Radioactivity later.

So this is the basics of atoms, there is LOTS more to learn about how they bond, but it doesn't come in handy to much for collecting in specific. If this kind of thing interests you, I highly suggest you research it and find out more! There is much more to learn than what I've listed here.

All for now,

~Ben

My Goal

What I intend to do is collect either a sample, a sample of a compound, or a relevant sample to every element on the periodic table, and tell you about one element every week at least! It is also a goal of mine not to buy any samples sold specifically to collectors like me, but to find them in what they are used for or how they are found in nature(For the more unusual(or very common) ones though, I may resort to buying a small sample for purity sake) I may also do side-projects you can do with these elements in between posts. Why you ask? Mostly for my own enjoyment, but also to share information I've learned myself, and help anyone else with the same fascination!

Assumably some elements are easy and found every day, such as Aluminum, Copper, Nickel if you're lucky. However some elements are extremely rare and basically unused in any common household item or process, such as Iridium, Osmium, Uranium, etc. I will try to alternate posting info on simple elements and rare ones, but still, it won't be easy.

However, I will disclaim that some processes I do to isolate elements are dangerous, and generally when dealing with any chemicals you don't know very well there is a high risk of poisoning or even explosions. I highly suggest you don't try anything I do unless you understand the process, or fully think it's worth the risks.

Also, I may find items containing rare elements or know where to find them, but if I cannot afford them, I cannot photograph them and therefor won't ad them to my collection. My budget currently isn't very high, but you can help by hitting the donate button to the right of these posts!

Thank you for reading, my next post will be on what defines elements and some basic chemistry to understand terms I'll use later. After that, I start on only elements and side notes!

~Ben