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You can't centrifuge molten metal to separate the constituent elements in the same way you can't centrifuge salt water to get the salt out. However, you could
by wycx 11y ago
You can't centrifuge molten metal to separate the constituent elements in the same way you can't centrifuge salt water to get the salt out.
However, you could think of a mass spectrometer as working slightly along those lines: send charged ions though a curved magnet, and vary the magnetic field to steer the mass (i.e. the element) you are interested in to the detector.
The easiest way to determine the composition of a cymbal would be to use a handheld XRF analyser-that is a convenient method scrap metal yards use to identify alloys. If you are willing to trade time for precision & accuracy, you could use ICP-MS or ICP-OES or laboratory XRF.
- ectoplasm 11y agoIf you centrifuge salt water you'll get a concentration gradient and if it's saturated at the end you'll get salt crystals. Alloys aren't solutions, so it won't work, but you'll still get a gradient. You could iteratively refine by removing the unwanted half from two spins and combining the wanted halves for a third spin. I'm not sure this is practical...
- wycx 11y agoDo people actually do this? Can the accellerations you reach with laboratory centrifuges induce sufficient concentration gradients in salt solutions? Surely the salt begins dissolving as you stop accellerating?
- ectoplasm 11y agoNo, people don't do this in practice, and I haven't seen it done, but it could be done if you had the right equipment and a salty enough solution. Just decant the water at the end, salt doesn't dissolve immediately. I don't know how fast you'd have to go.