YouTube – Turning Dirt into Silicon and other things – Mars and Moon
Amateur Chemistry: Turning Dirt into Silicon at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo3O82dmPxA
I really liked this because of the cleaning steps. I would not have done it those ways, but happy to watch your methods and hear your comments. I would likely have looked online to buy clean sand already powdered, and avoid time, acid, water and mess. The point is to test the aluminum sulfur siliconDioxide thermite reaction. Then you have no test to be sure it is silicon or estimate purity. NMR and x-ray? I would have to remind myself. And the thermite likely works for smaller samples. I was interested to hear that H2S is flammable. Indeed and rather hazardous. So it makes an interesting project/demo. But, perhaps, not such a good clean way to make silicon.
I reviewed the processes and global aluminum industry last night. Perhaps electrolysis. How much heat would be needed to keep it molten, and then use current. They found that current keeps the alumina molten needed sodium aluminum flouride to lower the melting point. That is the Hall-Heroult process. And they are trying to change it to “carbonless”. Now they use carbon anodes and they want to find a better way. Do not restrict yourself from thinking at global industrial scale, and about solar system chemical and energy industries.
I am checking all the chemistry that might help for Mars and Moon.There is lots of oxygen in the oxides of the regolith and molten glass and metals make good starting materials for many things. I took my first chemistry class in high school in 1964 and most every year since I keep at it. But I mostly studied how to use electromagnetic methods, nuclear energy, radioactive energy, and industrial chemistry, transportation, and space applications. Plus international development, global knowledge, and the future of the Internet and human species. Moon has vacuum, lots of “dirt” and sunlight. Mars has lots of water, “dirt” and you can run nuclear and atomic generators flat out by keeping them away from camp. Let robots run them.
Filed as (YouTube – Turning Dirt into Silicon and other things – Mars and Moon)
Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation
