11-10-02 17:04
No 378522
Bees, can some of you tell me what exactly bird shot sodium is? Is it just another name for granular sodium? And how is it delivered when one buys it, sodium is kind of reactive ... Is it stored in a mineral oil or something or isn't this necessary? And is it expensive / watched?
Hope they don't shoot birds with sodium ...
(Chief Bee)
11-10-02 17:56
No 378536
It is granular sodium, most often listed in chem catalogs as "Sodium (shots), 100g in mineral oil."
It isn't more watched than regular sodium, but it might cost a little extra as it isn't as common.
(Stranger)
11-11-02 04:29
No 378675
An alternative in the Dieckmann condensation for bird shot sodium in xylene would be NaH in benzene. The yield for NaH in benzene is better ... but benzene is rather dangerous to work with (at least for the hobby chemist without a fumehood) & I guess benzene would be more difficult to obtain than xylene.
Would NaH also be suspicious? Mabey bird shot sodium would be the better alternative (if one makes abstraction of the yields).
And, would it be OK to just mix the mineral oil suspension in the xylene or does one have to pick the sodium granules out of the mineral oil solution with a pincet?
EDIT: found also a vague description about the Dieckmann condensation with NaH in toluene. The yield (80 %) however is lower than with NaH in benzene (90+ %). However, this is better than the reaction with bird shot sodium. So, NaH in toluene seems to be preferable for those without a fumehood. If NaH isn't too suspicious ...
Can someone please look up what the price of say 25 g NaH would be?
Thx
(Chief Bee)
11-11-02 06:32
No 378691
Register for free at http://www.sial.com and you can search for prices and physical properties on several thousands of chemicals (no, they won't track you just because you are viewing prices).