I'd like some portions of sodium (or potassium) metal, only, rather than being in one big chunk the size of a small brick or very large, meaty fist, hermetically sealed first covered in oil then vacuum-evacuated within an inner plastic liner, heat-sealed inside, which itself is heat-sealed in a thick plastic outer liner bag inflated with some sort of inert gas.
That way, I could use it portion-wise more easily. Na and K metal are usually kept under oil (this is somewhat of an unusual way for it to come, in double-layers of plastic liners, inert gas, and the only wet bit being a thin layer of mineral oil over the sodium metal itself), although it does keep really well, very little oxidation in storage, I've had the sodium for over a year and a half, maybe two years now, give or take a half year, and its no worse oxidized than it was when I first got it, still bright and shiny, not as shiny as a freshly cut through piece of Na that has JUST been sliced into with a knife
but that would be asking an awful lot short of melting it in a vacuum chamber after purging it with argon, evacuating, then purging again, before melting the metal under vacuum, or melting it under 1,4-dioxane.
I really want a new vacuum pump. That way I could seal my alkali metals up like that myself, it's kept far better than keeping it under oil. Stores better for longer.
I can make mt own alkali metals though, by performing a thermite-like reaction using the alkali metal hydroxide and magnesium dust in a crucible, capped and covered once the magnesium fuse burns down far enough to begin igniting the mixture, otherwise the alkali metal would be vaporized off in the heat of the reaction, which like thermites in general, burns bloody hot, a slag of alkali metal finely dispersed in magnesium oxide slag. One then uses concentrated sulfuric acid to dehydrate unmixed ethylene glycol antifreeze and distill off some dioxane, then boil up the powdered metal/MgO slag rocks under refluxing dioxane, which for whatever reasons, surface tension perhaps, as well as being an ether, unreactive to alkali metals; the alkali metal melts out of the slag and separates out in nice shiny lumps. All from magnesium dust, a strip of magnesium wire or ribbon to light it, a crucible etc. to contain the reaction in, sulfuric bog cleaner and antifreee.
Really need that new vacuum pump for storage though. And for sealing things in glass ampoules under vacuum, so they can be stored permanently without exposure to water or air. And some really big amps, say, 100ml useful capacity, for keeping aggressive reagents like chromyl chloride, air-sensitive stuff like dimethyl/diethylzinc (either of those two burst into flame on contact with air almost instantly), and alkali metals to preserve them in perfect condition indefinitely.
Oh and I need some copper (II) chloride, although I have a little bit, enough to try it out on a multi-gram scale of substrate, for a nanotechnology based reduction system, using copper (O) nanoparticles and sodium borohydride.
Some ammonium formate might not go amiss either. I can make it of course, but still, a few kg of ready made ammonium formate would avoid the long, tedious drying process, because it undergoes rearrangement to formamide (itself useful) if it gets too hot. and when formamide overheats it produces hydrogen cyanide in decomposition.
Got a few things I need to test.
