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Caesium: Caesium Chloride Reduced by Calcium in a Y-Tube under Vacuum (Thorpe 1912)
Calcium takes the chlorine from caesium chloride at about 400 °C under vacuum. The caesium boils off and condenses in the upright limb of a Y-shaped glass tube.
Result: silvery-white, soft caesium, sp. gr. 1.88, melting at 26-27 °C. It oxidises quickly in air and sets fire to the hydrogen it frees from water.
Source: Thorpe, Dictionary of Applied Chemistry vol. 1 (1912), p. 597. Not given: how the tube is heated, how the metal is kept. Picture drawn by Youblob.
Advanced
1 day
Instructions
1
1
Charge the Y-tube
Charge the Y-tube
Weigh 3 g of calcium in small pieces and 12 g of caesium chloride and put them in a wide Y-tube held upside down, with the charge in one of the lower limbs.
Materials for this step:
Caesium Chloride12 gTools needed:
Calcium
Precision Digital Scale — 0.01g
Y-Tube2
2
Pump out
Pump out
Connect the upright limb to a Sprengel (mercury) vacuum pump and exhaust the tube.
Tools needed:
Vacuum PumpY-Tube3
3
Heat to about 400 °C
Heat to about 400 °C
Heat the charged limb. Reduction sets in at about 400 °C and the caesium boils off and condenses in the upright tube. Ours: a burner flame under the charged limb; goggles.
Tools needed:
Bunsen Burner
Safety Goggles4
4
Keep the metal from air
Keep the metal from air
Ours: let the tube cool and seal the caesium off in its limb. It melts at 26-27 °C and takes fire in air and in water.
Tools needed:
Y-TubeBunsen BurnerMaterials
1- 12 gPlaceholder
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