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Asked by james4pluto to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 13 Jun 2012.
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Sarah Martin answered on 13 Jun 2012:
Hi james4pluto! We looked at Sodium at school. How about you?
A girl in our school picked up a lump of sodium off the teacher’s desk in chemistry lab, wandered outside, and when it started burning her hand, she tried to flush it down the loo and exploded the toiled! She was fine, but in lots of trouble!Here’s a great video about alkali metals that Will posted earlier – enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCk0lYB_8c0
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Amy Birch answered on 13 Jun 2012:
HI james4pluto! You really had me thinking about this!
I don’t use any metals in their pure form, but I do use sodium hydroxide a lot in the lab. I use it when I need to make paraformaldehyde to fix brains and other tissue, and when I need to neutralise acidic solutions. -
Will Reynolds answered on 13 Jun 2012:
Hi James. The most reactive alkali metal I have used in its elemental form is potassium but I have used other forms of Cesium when it is mixed with other things like cesium chloride, cesium hydroxide and cesium carbonate, which are all much less reactive but still cool to use! Thanks for your question.
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Karen Reed answered on 15 Jun 2012:
I’ve never worked with any alkali metals – have only learnt what they are this week on here 🙂
Comments
tatytity commented on :
gold
Artem commented on :
I never worked with metallic Caesium, but I did have a tiny bit of Rubidium in my possession once and it is amazingly reactive – it ignited in the air when liberated from inert gas confinement.
Do not, under any circumstances, play with alkali metals unless you have proper training and supervision. They are very tricky.