[Zenon]

does anyone know good ebay vendors that sell elemental iodine and where to get it for cheap?

[charleypete1957]

I have this same problem.  I ordered 250g of elemental iodine on eBay from a Chinese vendor called bfenggu22.  Since the expected delivery date was way past any money-back guarantee limits, when the stuff never came, I was just stuck.  The vendor led me on and on and on, and finally when I started asking for a refund he did the same thing again, one delay after another.  Now I'm out my money and still no iodine.  eBay policies are not much help either.  There's no remedy in a situation like this.  The reason I stuck it out like I did was because eBay said to talk with the vendor first.  Well by that time it was way too late, no help from the vendor, no help from eBay. In the community discussion several people said that many of those Chinese sellers will string you along knowing that eBay won't ding them because it's past the time frame for any of that.  So just beware of bfenggu22.  And iodine has gone up to almost twice what it was in January.  Even the iodide salts have all gone way up.  Good luck!

[RisingEastStar17]

I personally would not recommend purchasing pure iodine as it is a restricted chemical is many countries. Also, actual legal usage of the chemical is limited so it would be suspicious if a large quantity was to be purchased. However, it is possible to purchase potassium iodide (KI), hydrochloric acid (HCl) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Dissolve all potassium iodide in the concentrated HCl until everything is reacted, then add hydrogen peroxide to isolate hydroiodic acid (HI). This can then be heated to roughly 300 degrees C, of which hydrogen gas and iodine will drop out, but there are very few practical chemistry uses for elemental iodine. Hydrogen iodide is more preferred.