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What is this metal?

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Refrigerator:

--- Quote from: JohnnyMalaria on May 05, 2021, 06:57:31 pm ---
--- Quote from: Refrigerator on May 05, 2021, 06:42:22 pm ---I put a piece of the metal on an old blade, gave it a bunch of heat with my butane burner and only when it got super hot did i see the slightest lick greenish/lime/cyan colour.
So it's between zinc and antimony.

--- End quote ---

Make sure you run the control experiment with just the old blade :)

--- End quote ---
I did after and the greenish flame is coming from the mystery metal.

I also torched the white crystals and they turned a quite ugly yellow, some barely green-ish flame could be seen when burning the stuff.
I found some sodium hydroxide so i mixed up some in a test tube and it seems to react with the metal, so it seems that the mystery metal might in fact be zinc.

Refrigerator:

--- Quote from: drussell on May 05, 2021, 07:16:58 pm ---
--- Quote from: JohnnyMalaria on May 05, 2021, 06:57:31 pm ---
--- Quote from: Refrigerator on May 05, 2021, 06:42:22 pm ---I put a piece of the metal on an old blade, gave it a bunch of heat with my butane burner and only when it got super hot did i see the slightest lick greenish/lime/cyan colour.
So it's between zinc and antimony.

--- End quote ---

Make sure you run the control experiment with just the old blade :)
--- End quote ---

Haha, I was just thinking the same thing. :)

The look and SG of antimony and zinc are pretty close (what, 6.75 vs. 7?), but my personal guess is zinc.   :popcorn:

--- End quote ---
Yeah internet said antimony does not react with dilute sulphuric acid so it has to be zinc.
Feels a bit unusual finding just a chunk like that laying around.

T3sl4co1l:
Suppose it could be a sheared/broken chunk of zinc anode.  Think those usually have a bit of aluminum in them for strength or something, but maybe it happened to be pure.  Solidification shouldn't be too directional or slow, they're just cast in steel molds I would guess.  Maybe if it's a fragment of a much larger piece, it would do. *shrug*

Anyway, if zinc be the base then, have fun, you can melt that with a bit of aluminum and even less copper to make zamak I guess? :P  Make a smaller anode?  Do some electroplating?  (Needs some additives besides just the salt and acid.)

Tim

Refrigerator:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on May 05, 2021, 08:06:25 pm ---Suppose it could be a sheared/broken chunk of zinc anode.  Think those usually have a bit of aluminum in them for strength or something, but maybe it happened to be pure.  Solidification shouldn't be too directional or slow, they're just cast in steel molds I would guess.  Maybe if it's a fragment of a much larger piece, it would do. *shrug*

Anyway, if zinc be the base then, have fun, you can melt that with a bit of aluminum and even less copper to make zamak I guess? :P  Make a smaller anode?  Do some electroplating?  (Needs some additives besides just the salt and acid.)

Tim

--- End quote ---
I remember taking old batteries apart for the zinc but i can't remember what i needed the zinc for.
Anyways i might eventually find a use for it i think electroplating might be interesting, also tin and zinc alloy can be used for aluminum soldering.

JohnnyMalaria:
Find some unwanted copper, a can of Coke and make a battery :)

https://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/echem/batteries/batteries.html

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