[jdurg]

Just curious to see how many people out there are like me.    If you collect elements, post about them here in this thread and include a picture if you can.  My pictures are well known on this site, so I won't tie up this thread with them, but I thought this would be a good way to see who's in the same 'field' and a good place to exchange information about acquiring elements and whatnot.  (And perhaps trading off some extras).  We could also use this thread to describe how to safely make, purify, and store some of your elements.  So join in the discussion!  

[limpet chicken]

I am starting my element collection too, its going slowly as I am a lazy bastard, and not that rich, but its slowly taking shape

My friend SWIM is starting another collection, attempting to collect and ampoule a sample of the entire contents of A.Shulgin's books TIHKAL and PIHKAL

[jdurg]

What's REALLY fun is taking an ampoule of bromine and putting it in the freezer.    You can see the vapor slowly condensing back into liquid as it gets colder, and the red-orange gas in the ampoule slowly fades away.  You also see the liquid crystalizing into a yellow-brown solid as the freezing process continues, and soon the entire ampoule is clear and 'empty' except for a solid yellow-brown mass.  Then you take the ampoule out of the freezer and let it warm up.  Soon the yellow-brown mass starts sweating liquid bromine and a bit of vapor comes off of it.  It's REALLY neat to see, and if I get a chance I'll use my digital camera to record a video of the process.

[HNO3]

I'm an element collector. I currently have nine in beautiful home-made ampoules.

[Mendelejev]

I am starting an element collection but I don't find lots of information on the internet. Maybe you could help me. I found some element-sellers on E-bay but that's all.

Thanx

[jdurg]

Take a look in the links section here on our website.  There's an area where I've put in some links to some element dealers I've purchased from.  Dave Hamric is a great source of elements, and much of my collection is from him.  Emovendo on E-Bay is also a good source of elements as well.  In Europe, Juergen Bauer is known for being able to provide some nice samples, and while the prices seem a bit high, that could probably be due to the very weak US Dollar for us USA people.  

I am currently in discussions with a new seller I've found out in Germany who can provide red amorphous selenium, ampouled alkali metals with their unoxidized shine, diluted fluorine gas in a pure quartz ampoule, and some other pretty neat samples.  (Like a fresh, unoxidized 7 gram sample of arsenic sealed in an ampoule).  I've placed on order already and when it arrives I'll let everyone here know if it's worth it.  

[299792458]

Yes I am    take a look at my website (but at the moment it's still constructing).
http://www.periodictable.ru/index_en.html

[woelen]

That's a nice collection. Are all these samples your own?
I really loved to see the quarz tube with liquid chlorine. That would be very cool for me. I also collect elements (see http://chem.homescience.net/compounds/index2.html ).

Could you provide me with the source/company of the liquid chlorine sample? That's one, which I definitely would like to add to my collection.

[pantone159]

The liquid Cl is cool, but I'd personally definitely want it encased in acrylic like the second sample.

The reason, is that the vapor pressure of Cl will vary over a large range for a relatively small range of temperatures.  My recollection is, that the pressure can easily range from 6 atm to 8 atm, for modest temperature changes.  If you have the Cl in just an ampule, the repeated pressure changes could result in material fatigue in the ampule material.

I don't know how severe a problem this really is, but I definitely wouldn't want the thing to 'spontaneously' fail due to material fatigue.  That would be exciting, though.

[299792458]

Thanks for a compliment:)!
Definitely foreign people interest in my table more than people in Russia .
Yes, all samples belong to me (well,  it difficultly to say for example about liquid nitrogen and oxygen which have evaporated long time ago ). Ampoule with chlorine I have made by myself. And if someone is interested in them, I can make more for exchange or sale (certainly casted in acryle).
Here some information about thise ampoules: calculated burst pressure - 250 bar. Amount of chlorine - 30-50 mg. After sealing, I heat up all ampoules in boiling water to be assured in their durability. I have heated  one of ampoules up to the critical conditions (145 C, 76 bar) it has not explode.
Here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/34865837/chlorine__heat_up.mpg.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/34866210/chlorine_cooling_down.mpg.html

It is possible to see a videoclip of this process.
One of ampoules you can see on Theodore's site :

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Elements/017/index.s7.html#sample8

Also i can make small amount of Li and Tl samples (like on my site, with oxide/nitride-free surface) for exchange.
And one piece of rhenium I selling now on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120034711314&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

I am sorry in advance , but for the moment my written English  is not very good.
I not so often visit this forum, but you can easily contact me via email: timokhin {} aci.unizh.ch  (currently I do my PhD in Swizerland).

[299792458]

I also have single crystal of molybdenum and tungsten (one piece of each, similar to those on my site) which i'd like to exchange for sometning similar (or maybe to sale).
Surely I can mage sodium and potassium with clean surface, but it seems a bit boring for me (but if somebody like to get them, i think I can make some).

[St Jebus]

I am trying to make some chemicals as well as get some useful compounds for various other experiments.
I don't have many pure elements, but its the best I can do without a job and a credit card. Its amazing what you can obtain from an old broken laptop computer, a fried battery charger, and the supermarket.

I have pure sodium, manganese, alumninum, iron, and copper. I have a bunch of other stuff but its not completely pure as far as I know. I have zinc, tin, lead, gold, silver, carbon, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, and calcium.
I also have some simple compounds I made, such as copper chloride, cobalt chloride, iron sulfate, copper sulfate, sodium chlorate, sodium perchlorate, and a lot of other things you can make from food or easily get from a grocery store/hardware store.
Most of the non-hazardous things are simply kept in little plastic containers.

I don't have enough material to do experiments, so I'm making a collection. So far it fills the top of my bookshelf.

And don't worry - I have safety data sheets for every chemical I have or want to get, and all the chemicals are stored safely. Unfortunately, some of the elements were difficult to obtain and a few times my procedures didn't go so well. Since some of my methods were unsafe I will not tell others what I did.

When I can get stuff off the internet, I will be able to collect things you can't make easily or at all without buying online.

[woelen]

St. Jebus, what you are doing actually is great. Making things from all kinds of common stuff around you is something which deserves respect. You must have done quite some experimenting, otherwise you would not have all these chems.

Please do not hesitate too much about sharing your experience. If you write things, which are potentially dangerous, then of course you need to tell the dangers and warn people, but still I see no reason why you should not share things with us. As long as it is real well-thought chemistry and not the abvious kewl-stuff I think that a forum like this only benefits from sharing such info.

[EccentricHeather]

I have been an off-and-on chemistry hobbyist for years, and I have always wanted an element collection, but since I collect lots of stuff I haven't gotten serious about it until recently.  A search led me to this thread.

Here is what I have so far, along with where I got it.

Mercury, Sulfur, and Sodium - from the local chemical shop.
Copper - from a science gift shop and in coin form.
Strontium, Indium, Manganese, Iron, Antimony, Nickel (also in coin form), and Bismuth - a friend gave me these; they came from some discarded chemicals.
Silver, Zinc, Aluminum, Platinum, and Gold - in coin form.  I plan on eventually getting these in other forms.

I have recently done some searching on the web, and it looks like a lot is available, but some are rather difficult.  So far, I have been unable to locate lithium (I'm surprised at this - I would think that it would be everywhere), rubidium, cesium, barium, phosphorus (red or black - I don't want white!), arsenic, fluorine, chlorine, and bromine from sources that will sell to individuals in the United States.  (Of course, most of the radioactive elements are impossible to obtain.  Uranium ore will have to cover many of them.)  Some of these (especially the halogens) are quite dangerous and I would only want them in tiny quantities in tightly sealed containers.  I know how to make chlorine and bromine, but I'm not really sure that I want to take the risk; I would rather buy them.  Bromine is infamous for its ability to escape from containers anyway, and I don't want it floating around in the air.  Maybe I should satisfy myself with compounds for the dangerous halogens.

Probably next on my list will be the rare earths.  They are reasonably easy to find and not too expensive, and they aren't terribly dangerous.  Many eBay sellers have them, and United Nuclear has a rare earth sample set.

So has anyone here found samples of the difficult ones (or others like them that I may have forgotten to mention)?

I'll have to look around this site and see what else is here.  Getting into this element collection is rekindling my interest in chemistry.  Perhaps it is time to start playing with chemicals again.

Heather

[pantone159]

Try Dave Hamric.  http://www.elementsales.com/
He can't ship alkali metals, but can send you samples of most of the rest.

Phosphorus is problematic for 'Drug War' reasons, it is listed on the USA List I table of precursors.  (Iodine is supposedly about to join it.)  I think the alkali metals may be seen as 'suspicious' for similar reasons, but aren't officially listed.  Fluorine is extremely problematic to handle, personally I am content with some cool CaF2 octahedral crystals as my F sample.