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Battery MnO2 contaminants


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Posted
Ok I got myself quite a number of used 9v batteries. I am going to extract MnO2 from them. What other impurities does it contain besides NH4Cl?
Posted
Potassium hydroxide! It would not be good to open these. I recommend eBay, its 10$ for 1 pound of MnO2.
Posted
It depends on the brand I suppose. There will be Potassium hydroxide as has already been mentioned. There will probably also be some carbon in there, potentially some zinc or zinc oxide. There used to be mercury in there in small amounts.
Posted
So a simple water-wash should get it quite pure. And in my country credit cards are not popular, so I don't have a paypal account, we use debit.
Posted

A water washing won't get the carbon out.

 

There is a standard cleaning method. You may want to do it to a small portion of the extracted mix in order to see how much crap is in there.

 

Wash with water to remove KOH, and such. React the remaining mixture with HCl. This will dissolve the MnO2 by forming MnCl4. Beware as this step does generate some chlorine gas from oxidation by MnO2. Filter out any carbon or other remenants. Add NaOH or KOH to precipitate the hydroxide. Filter and wash several times with water. Heat the hydroxide to decompose back into the oxide.

Posted
Tell me, why do you want to extract it from battery's when you can buy it for around $4 a kilo?
Posted
Some places aren't as lax about chemicals than the US, I'm guessing that's why he needs to extract it.
Posted
Also just for the fun of it. I mean sure, if I really needed something I could go buy just about anything I wanted, for a price of course. It's more fun to synth what I need. It makes the final product that much more rewarding. There is of course a point when the novelty of making everything yourself becomes tedious. I wouldn't be starting from elements for some complex organic molecule of course.
Posted

I want to extract this because

1. I have the batteries

2. MnO2 from my supplier is expensive(analytical)

3. We Europeans aren't as spoiled as you Americans, that we have cheap online suppliers for everything.(Not meant to be offensive, we don't want any "My continent is better than your's" arguments, do we?

4. It's fun

 

Anyway I discovered, that there are hard pressed brittle moist lumps instead the usual crap. Does it contain MnO2? My test with H2O2 proved, it catalyses decomposition, but surprisingly slow for 50% H2O2, it slowly fizzed instead of bursting in steam and O2. Could it be some other compound that reacts with H2O2?

Posted

h0lx, i am a european to ;)

And pyro is very illegal here :(

Posted
I want to extract this because

1. I have the batteries

2. MnO2 from my supplier is expensive(analytical)

3. We Europeans aren't as spoiled as you Americans, that we have cheap online suppliers for everything.(Not meant to be offensive, we don't want any "My continent is better than your's" arguments, do we?

4. It's fun

 

Anyway I discovered, that there are hard pressed brittle moist lumps instead the usual crap. Does it contain MnO2? My test with H2O2 proved, it catalyses decomposition, but surprisingly slow for 50% H2O2, it slowly fizzed instead of bursting in steam and O2. Could it be some other compound that reacts with H2O2?

Well Ph does have an influence on what H2O2 will do (oxidize or reduce). Prehaps the ph was close to neutral?

Posted
pH wouldn't have that great of an effect. KOH can also decompose H2O2, as could the zinc oxide or zinc chloride as well I suspect. I still say try dissolving some in HCl. Manganese chloride is pink.
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