ART
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
CRAFT
CULTURE & HISTORY
ENTERTAINMENT
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD & DRINKS
REVERSE ENGINEERING
SCIENCES
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
WEARABLES
Samarium: Oxide Reduced with Graphite at 1700 °C in Vacuum and Distilled Twice (Downing, Gorski and Koerner, US 3,104,970)
Samarium holds on to oxygen too hard for ordinary smelting. Heated with graphite in a hard vacuum it boils off as samarium carbide vapour; a second distillation of that carbide, caught on a tantalum plate, gives the metal itself.
Result: samarium metal, 99.7 % pure.
Source: J. H. Downing, H. L. Gorski and E. L. Koerner, US 3,104,970 (1963), Example I. Work at 1700 °C under vacuum. Picture drawn by Youblob.
Advanced
1 day
Instructions
1
1
Mix and pellet
Mix and pellet
Mix intimately 79 parts by weight of 99.9 % samarium oxide with 21 parts of powdered graphite (12.7 % more carbon than the oxygen needs), with no particle larger than about 50 microns. Press into pellets 0.75 in across; pellets let the gases and vapour escape.
Materials for this step:
Samarium Oxide1 79 parts by weightTools needed:
Graphite Powder
Hydraulic Press2
2
Reduce and distil to carbide
Reduce and distil to carbide
Heat the pellets in a vacuum induction furnace to 1700 °C under 0.5 micron or less and hold three hours. Samarium carbide condenses on a graphite condenser (carbon resists the carbon monoxide given off). Only a little oxide and carbon stay behind; they can go back into the next charge.
Tools needed:
Graphite Crucible
Induction Furnace
Vacuum Pump
Graphite Condenser3
3
Distil the metal onto tantalum
Distil the metal onto tantalum
Heat the carbide from the first condenser to 1700 °C under 0.05 micron and hold two hours. Samarium metal condenses on a tantalum condenser: 99.7 % samarium, 0.05 % carbon, 0.10 % oxygen.
Tools needed:
Graphite CrucibleInduction FurnaceVacuum Pump
Tantalum CondenserMaterials
1- 1 79 parts by weightPlaceholder
Tools Required
7- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- 1 vendor sell this, none ship to you yetPlaceholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
This blueprint makes
Related Blueprints
These blueprints share knowledge with this one — techniques, materials, or principles that connect them in the learning graph.
CC0 Public Domain
This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.
Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.