Making a synthetic tar/pitch material for a robot

[Magnus Wootton]

I'm interested in making some shock absorbant material to make a robot from.
I've got the main idea down, you just keep inject chlorine ions into refluxing glycerine and it eventually becomes glycerine poly chloride, taking about a week.

I have things I need to iron out about it.

a) if I do it inside of a solvent, I'm afraid the solvent will thermally decompose, so I'm thinking I only add once its relatively thick, then I decompose the solvent less. And I use an alkane like hexane or an alkene like xylene so it doesnt react to the alcohol or the acid.

b) I'm releasing hydrogen into my chlorine vessel, from an electrode, and I'm wondering if I put a spark gap in it, itll turn it into hydrogen chloride so I dont build up hydrogen pressure, but it has oxygen and water with it, so its going to also generate water, and thats going to build up in the system.

SO you can see i'm having fun, I just wish I could talk to someone about it.

 

[Borek]

you just keep inject chlorine ions

From your description you are planning on using not ions, but just chlorine generated by the kitchen salt electrolysis. Chlorine is nasty, are you sure you know how/are prepared to deal with it?

To avoid any reactions of chlorine with hydrogen (they can potentially go kaboom) use AC and separate cathode and anode volumes to not allow mixing of the gases. Hydrogen itself can explode if mixed with oxygen, whether it is really a problem depends on the amounts produced and speed at which the gas is produced (you have to avoid building up amounts, so good ventilation is a must, just like with chlorine).

In general it is not something that I would suggest as the first experiment to someone inexperienced. Are you sure the product will have properties better than some ready and much safer to use rubber/silicone materials?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Hydrogen itself can explode if mixed with oxygen, whether it is really a problem depends on the amounts produced and speed at which the gas is produced

And the speed at which you can run.

 

[Magnus Wootton]

Its hard to see from my bad pictures what's going on.

But, I've got a safer setup.

So what I'm going to do is get a high voltage high frequency power supply, and then get a dry salt brick and then ionize the chlorine out of it, in an air tight container. (like a milo tin.)

cause I need the chlorine perfectly anhydrous, and without much impurity, and this just pipes to the glycerine, I should be able to see the chlorine in there to know if its coming out of the brick or not. the brick is supposed to be turning into sodium metal! by im not sure to what degree this happens, but im sure chlorine comes out regardless.

then its just adding the dry chloride ions to the glycerine, then you get synthetic tar from it.

its just is to just keep converting water into acid, and the glycerine solidifies.

Its not better than silicone or anything out there, its just possibly stronger than the last thing I made, which was glycerine citrate, and its really cheap! cause u get sea salt $1 a kg!!!

Maybe its passable as a building material, and costs me less if I make it myself!

 

[Borek]

But, I've got a safer setup.

Quite the opposite.

So what I'm going to do is get a high voltage high frequency power supply, and then get a dry salt brick and then ionize the chlorine out of it, in an air tight container. (like a milo tin.)

Now you are just in the realms of fantasy. You are not going to "ionize chlorine out of a solid" unless perhaps in a MV range (or even higher). There are reasons why all industrial and lab procedures work with liquids (solutions, or, sometimes, molten salts). Even then, you don't want chlorine ions, but chlorine gas. I tried to push you into the right direction, but you prefer to stay in a fairies world. Please don't go this way, otherwise you are going to kill yourself.

Topic locked, apparently there is no way to make it safe, as you don't listen to what you are being told.