Medieval scientists who comprehended alchemy, from its very inception, sought to learn the secret of creating the philosopher's stone, an artifact capable of transforming any metal into real gold. We spent so much time searching, tested so many technologies, but the technology was not discovered. But alchemy was able to advance science with its research, and also give rise to such a modern scientific discipline as chemistry. Instead of its great-grandmother alchemy, chemistry today offers us the chance to follow an equally attractive path of enrichment. Today we will look at the chemical technology that allows the extraction of aluminum from clay.
Technology
The key to achieving a comfortable and prosperous life was literally under your feet all this time. Today we will talk about the so-called bauxite clay. This is a very common raw material. It contains a significant percentage of aluminum, which, for complete happiness, can only be obtained from bauxite using the technology described here. This material can be found in many places. For example, it hides under a layer of soil in various pits, along the banks of rivers, lakes and generally near bodies of water.
To tell the truth, you won’t be satisfied with raw materials alone, of course. More space will be required. The ideal option, of course, would be the area of the factory premises in order to immediately gain the ability to produce a large-scale turnover of the extracted goods, but in the beginning an ordinary garage will do. We will achieve the results we need using electric current.
Required Components
Here's a list of things:
- graphite powder
- metal barrel
- welding machine
- concrete mixer
- bauxite clay
Today, the above, with the exception of bauxite, can easily be found among hardware markets and building materials stores. So let's move on from idle theorizing to the practice of this technology. True, to start you need to find a place where you will get the required raw materials. Drive a car there that can transport loads weighing half a ton. This is exactly the amount of bauxite to be collected. There is no point in taking less than five centners. When stacking bauxite, consider your strength. Now take what you have collected.
Extraction process
1. As soon as you bring the bauxite, you will need to dry it. You can spread newspapers and lay out the collected early raw materials. After that, take the most ordinary hair dryer. Use it to dry. Of course, it is much preferable to use some serious drying unit for this purpose. When the weather is sunny, drying can be done outside. However, it is worth remembering that you need to make sure that the dried clay does not dry to anything. To do this, the surface can be sprinkled with flour or sand, depending on what you have at hand.
Materials for casting molds
With the open pouring method, the simplest material that is always at hand is often used, this is silica. First, the earth is laid with layer-by-layer compaction. A casting model is placed between the layers, which, after careful compaction, leaves an imprint in the silica. This mold is carefully removed and aluminum is poured in its place.
Some craftsmen use river sand with the addition of liquid glass when preparing the base of the mold. A mixture of cement and brake fluid is also sometimes used.
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Plaster molds
When making a model of a complex shape, gypsum is often used, which can mainly be used for a one-time casting process. When casting aluminum into a plaster mold, paraffin or foam plastic is used as models.
The wax model of the product is filled with plaster and, after drying it at high temperature, it is melted and drained through a special hole.
If the model is made from foam plastic, it is filled with gypsum mixture and left in it until the mold completely hardens. Hot aluminum melt is poured directly onto the foam. Due to the high temperature of the metal, the foam melts and evaporates, and its place is taken by an aluminum melt, taking the shape specified by the foam.
When using polystyrene foam as a model, work must be carried out in an open space or the room must be well ventilated, since the combustion products of polystyrene foam are harmful to humans.
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Typical mistakes and tips for proper casting
- When working with plaster, you should avoid common mistakes. Despite the fact that plaster molds are a convenient way to cast the desired configurations of parts, this material is very sensitive to moisture. During normal air drying, it remains part of the gypsum. This is detrimental to the quality of the aluminum casting, as it can cause the formation of small shells and bubbles. Therefore, plaster molds need to dry for several days.
- The metal must be hot enough before pouring to fill the entire mold before it begins to harden. Therefore, after reaching the melting temperature, taking into account the rapid cooling of aluminum, there is no need to delay pouring it into the mold.
- It is not recommended to immerse the resulting casting in cold water to speed up the hardening process. This can disrupt the internal structure of the metal and lead to cracks.
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PS That's it, you can start casting at home!
Result
Don't rush to take the metal from the barrel! He is now very hot from the contact welding machine. It’s worth going to rest and letting the metal cool. Usually three hours is more than enough for a heated metal barrel to cool down. Half a ton of raw material usually yields a quarter ton of aluminum. The metal obtained from bauxite, of course, is unlikely to be as pure as it is obtained at special ore purification plants. As a result, we will end up with a certain mixture in which the share of aluminum will be from 80% to approximately 90%. Such purity is enough to take what you receive to the nearest point where they accept non-ferrous metals and get money for it. True, of course, no one will pay the full price there, but even under this condition, it’s possible to earn about a hundred thousand rubles in a month.
The technology of chemistry that was literally on the surface is now known. In general, think about it. Are you ready to take the risk or is the usual boring everyday routine of official employment more pleasant for you than the new prospect that has opened up? Decide.
A method for producing aluminum from clays, bauxite, etc.
AUTHOR'S CERTIFICATE FOR THE INVENTION of ISA, bauxite, etc., a method for obtaining aluminum from the author's certificate A. 1928 (Vayav. Khanin id.a, declared on June 6, 28605). But on December 31, 1932, the issuance of an author's certificate was published. The invention concerns methods of semi-incorrect the production of aluminum from clay, bauxite, etc., by precipitation of aluminum by electrolytomization of solutions of its salts, According to the previous one.
In the proposed method, solutions of salts of precipitated metals in liquids that are not decomposed by these metals at the time of their isolation (for example, glycerin, acetone, etc.) are used as an electrolyte. The invention provides for the use of aluminum compounds as an electrolyte. minerals, unrefined from iron, as a solvent in substances that do not dissolve iron compounds (glycerin, alkaline solutions of aluminates, etc.). The drawing shows a vertical section of a bath used to obtain aluminum electrically. The decomposition of clay is carried out by decomposition. fermentation of aluminum silicate clay with sulfuric acid. To do this, crushed clay is doused with excess sulfuric acid. you, then water is added, the mixture is stirred and left alone. From. standing silica precipitates in the form of sand of high purity (suitable for the production of optical glass), the solution containing aluminum sulfate, iron sulfate and the remainder of free sulfuric acid is filtered and poured into tanks for purification of iron, which is carried out in one of four ways Option 1. The remainder of the sulfuric acid is neutralized by adding slaked lime and liver sulfur (sodium sulfide, potassium or ammonium) is added to the solution in the form of a weak aqueous solution, in an amount equivalent to the iron contained in the solution, determined for each load in the laboratory. Under these conditions, sulfurous alkalis react primarily with iron salts, precipitating iron sulfide and, as a result, do not have time to react with aluminum salts. Thus, with the addition of an equivalent amount of liver sulfur, all the iron contained in the solution is precipitated in the form of sulfur dioxide and is removed by settling filtering. Option 2. In a solution of iron and aluminum sulfate freed from free acid, liver sulfur is added in an amount arbitrarily greater than the equivalent of iron. In this case, the excess liver sulfur precipitates part of the alumina, which is again transferred into solution at the end of precipitation by the slow addition of dilute sulfuric or hydrochloric acid or a solution of sodium bisulfite, or other acids or salts, in weak solutions that dissolve alumina hydrate but have no effect or have a weak effect on iron sulfide, which is removed at the end of the reaction by settling and filtering. Rd u shV a r iant Z-ii Ammonia is added to the solution of aluminum and iron sulfate, precipitating iron oxides and alumina: A 1 g(I 04)z + 6 IN 40 N = 2 A 1(OH), +3( INDgIO.ge NAO 4+ 2 IN 4 OH = Ge (OH)g+ (IN)g I 04 ge (I 01), + b INON =2 Ge(OH)3+3(IN 4)g ROO The precipitate is separated by settling and by filtration or treated with a hot solution of caustic patrus (or potassium), which dissolves alumina: A 1 (OH)z + DIa OH = A 1 (Ia 0)z + 3 Ng 0n in which case the iron remains in the sediment, A 1 g (AO)z. + b Ca (OH)g = 3 Ca 3O+ A 1 g 3 Ca O+ b Hg 0 ge I 04 + Ca(OH)g = CaYa 04 + ge(OH)g Heg (RAO3 + 3 Ca(OH) g = 3 Ca RAO + 2 1.f (OH)3, The filtered precipitate of all the listed substances is treated with a solution of soda or Glauber's salt: A 1 g O 3 Ca O + 3 Iag CO3 or 3 Iag RAO = 2 A 1 (Ia 0) h+ 3 Ca CO3 or 3 Ca I 01; From the resulting solution of sodium aluminate, alumina is precipitated by the action of carbon dioxide, causing the formation of -soda, or by the natural decomposition of alumina and caustic soda (caused by the addition of freshly precipitated alumina). In the first case, soda, by the action of lime, is converted also into caustic soda, which again goes to dissolve the alumina. The first filtrate (ammonium sulfate solution), by treatment with slaked lime, decomposes into gypsum and ammonia, while the resulting iron and gypsum remain in the sediment with lime carbonate, and the sodium aluminate solution is drained and decomposed by the action of carbon dioxide on the soda solution and alumina, and the salt solution is again used to process the calcium aluminate. The first two options result in a purified solution of aluminum sulfate, from which alumina can be obtained, for example, by evaporation and calcination of the sulfate salt or precipitation with ammonia, as indicated in the description of option 3. The last two options immediately yield clay, which can be processed into pure alumina for the precipitation of oxides. The first part of this process can also be used to obtain alumina from a solution of aluminum sulfate purified with sulfurous alkalis. In this case, pure alumina is precipitated with ammonia and separated by filtration; ammonia is regenerated by lime, etc. Option 4, A solution of aluminum and iron sulfate is mixed with milk of lime, which precipitates iron hydrates, gypsum and calcium aluminate, niium salts or directly used to obtain aluminum. For direct production of others pure aluminum salts, sulfuric acid for processing clay can be replaced with another acid; for example, to directly obtain aluminum chloride from clay, the latter can be treated with hydrochloric acid and the resulting solution can be purified from iron impurities with sulfur alkalis. In addition to clay, bauxite and other aluminum-containing minerals can be processed using the same method, although clay is the most advantageous for processing using the proposed method , since it does not require crushing, quickly dissolves in acids and is not associated with a specific deposit, like bauxite and other minerals. From a solution of aluminum salt, aluminum can be obtained by wet electrolysis using the proposed method. This method of electrolysis is based on the phenomenon that the most electronegative metals can be isolated in completely pure form from non-aqueous solutions, that is, solutions of decomposing salts in liquids that do not interact with free cations at the time of isolation, such as glycerol, glycol and other monohydric alcohols, acetone and other similar ketones, acetic acid and other amyls. To bring the electrolysis conditions of such solutions as close as possible to the conditions of aqueous electrolysis, they are heated in a van. This achieves an increase in the solubility of salts and, therefore, an easier solution. maintaining high concentrations of solutions, reducing the viscosity of solvents such as glycerin, and increasing electrical conductivity, resulting both from an increase in salt concentration and directly from an increase in temperature. Metals are obtained from solutions of their compounds using this method (electrolysis with insoluble anodes) in a bath with a porous partition, whereby, in the case of the release of anions interacting with the solvent, only the cathode space is filled with a solution of the decomposing salt in the appropriate solvent; the anode is filled with an aqueous solution of the product released at the anode, to which, to increase electrical conductivity, neutral salts or acids can be added. Electrolysis is carried out in a bath, schematically shown in the drawing. The current is supplied to the cathode 4, representing an aluminum or copper sheet, and to lead, carbon or magnetite anode 5. The cathode and anode 2 spaces are separated by a porous partition 3, with the catholyte being a solution of decomposing aluminum salt in the indicated solvents, and the anolyte being water mixed with some neutral salts, or another liquid that is not decomposed by free anions. Continuous saturation with salts, heating and mixing of the catholyte is achieved by circulating the solution through pipes b and 9 through a heated large tank, at the bottom of which there is always an excess of alu. mini salt. The sulfuric acid, chlorine or any other anode product formed on the surface of the anode 5 is removed through pipes 8, located so that they capture the layers of liquid closest to the anode, i.e., the most concentrated anolyte solution is removed, to maintain a constant level in the anode space 2, water is continuously supplied through pipe 7. Aluminum cathodes, upon reaching a certain thickness, are melted, while copper cathodes, correspondingly oxidized on the surface, allow easy removal of the aluminum layer. Thus, this method makes it possible to directly obtain sheet aluminum. A solution of aluminum sulfate, alumina (dissolved in alkali solutions in glycerin), aluminum chloride, the double salt of aluminum cyanide and potassium, obtained by dissolving alumina in a solution of potassium cyanide, aluminate is subjected to electrolysis calcium, obtained directly by leaching with glycerin the precipitate of gypsum, iron oxides and aluminate. By using a suitable solvent for electrolysis, the process of purifying aluminum compounds from iron can be eliminated. To do this, the said solvent must dissolve certain aluminum salts, but not dissolve the same iron salts. For example, for aluminum and iron sulfate such solvents are amyl acetate, glycerin, for aluminum and iron oxide - an alkaline solution of sodium aluminate in glycerin, etc. When using such solvents, the production of aluminum is greatly simplified, since the process consists of only two operations; treating clay with acid, draining the solution and evaporating it or precipitating impure alumina and dissolving the resulting salt in an appropriate solvent and alektrolysis of the solution, Subject of the invention.1. A method for producing aluminum from clays, bauxite, etc. by precipitating aluminum from solutions of aluminum salts by electrolysis, characterized in that solutions of salts of precipitated metals in liquids that are not decomposed by these metals at the time of their isolation, for example, glycerin or acetone, etc., are used as an electrolyte. etc., moreover, in the case of the release of anions interacting with the electrolyte during electrolysis from an insoluble solution. washable anodes, the bath is separated by a porous partition and in quality. As an anolyte, a solution of the anodic product in water or another liquid that is not decomposed by free anions is used, and as a catholyte, a solution of aluminum salt in the specified solvents is used.2. An electrolytic method for producing aluminum according to paragraph 1, characterized in that aluminum compounds uncontaminated with iron are used as an electrolyte, and substances that do not dissolve iron compounds, such as glycerin, alkaline solutions of aluminates, etc., are used as a solvent. Look
