[time-nuts] Heated crystal? & Rb tube corrosion (FE-5680A)

Steve . iteration69 at gmail.com
Thu Dec 1 11:04:22 UTC 2011


Attila,

Great pictures, by the way.

My experience with alkaline metal is limited to sodium, potassium and
lithium.  Mostly sodium, which after a long process is precipitated from
sodium hydroxide as a reagent. These are all contained in an oven under
very precise temperature and flow control, as the analytes which are passed
over change very specific attributes of a cell. These are the results which
are reported. Eventually the cell fails and the alkaline metal attacks the
cheaper mounting hardware(even though the oven maintains an argon
atmosphere).  If not caught in time it will work it's way down the
thermocouple, under the sheath and in to the support electronics. Rb is
claimed to be much more active than any of the metals i have experience
with so i assumed that corrosion was a preliminary sign of low life span.

For completeness, I maintain the instruments in an environmental analytical
laboratory. (Sulfur analyzers, CO2, CHN, Calorimeters, ion chromatograph,
inductive couple plasma mass specs, gas chromatography mass spec, organic
carbon analyzer.  etc,etc,etc.)

When i say alkalines i mean alkalies, ie, elements which belong to the
alkalinity group.  99.9999% or better purity, traceable grade.

Steve



On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 5:36 AM, Attila Kinali <attila at kinali.ch> wrote:

> On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 05:19:24 -0500
> "Steve ." <iteration69 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Looking at those pictures with a different mind set, I see now that the
> > washers are not corroded as I had suspected.  It's amazing how they
> > resemble badly corroded washers which are so typically found in ovens in
> > which alkalines have leaked.
>
> If you mean "alkaline batteries leaking" with "alkalines leaking",
> then the corrosion you see there is from something else than
> alkali metals. In alkaline batteries you have a potpury of different
> highly reactive stuff. What exactly corrodes what and how is something
> i cannot tell you, but it's definitly not elemental alkalimetals like
> you have in Rb cells.
>
>                        Attila Kinali
>
> --
> Why does it take years to find the answers to
> the questions one should have asked long ago?
>
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