RotoMetals Gallium Metal 99.99% Pure 100 Grams

DO NOT STORE IN GLASS. GALLIUM IS MESSY. (Further details in comments)Shipping take about a week, maybe a few days longer. It ships from China, so that’s the speed you’d expect. Faster shipping would cost a LOT. I will not take any starts off for this shipping.100g arrived as two tubes filled with 50g each (I haven’t weighed it but will later) the tubes have lids that are glued shut. Upon opening one lid broke away from the tube (due to cold I believe)It’s exactly what it says, about 100g of gallium metal. This stuff is fun to play with but BEWARE! GALLIUM IS MESSY. It has strong wetting properties and is very soft when liquid. It will turn your hands black and stick to your table. BE CAREFUL.Fun experiments: you can scratch aluminum and place a drop of gallium on top. The gallium will form an alloy with the aluminum that’s weak and the can will slowly crumble!I put some gallium in a solution of copper sulfate and have had metallic copper precipitating from the solution as the gallium replaces the copper.Soap and water is good for removing gallium from your hands, and I’ve found tissues rubbed on tables with a smooth surface can remove the gallium stain.I transferred my gallium into a 2L soda bottle preform. The gallium coated the inside of the container so that you can not see where the gallium is from the outside.Gallium expands as it cools just like water. Because of this, a glass container can shatter if gallium is allowed to cool inside. BE CAREFUL WHAT CONTAINER YOU CHOOSE.

The Gallium arrived exactly as pictured and quite some time before the estimated arrival date. I ended up sitting the tube next to the heater for a while to get it to melt enough to come out of the tube. I moulded it into little tiny buttons (with a silicone candy mould) and let the kids melt them. This is fascinating stuff. Does roll around in your hand like mercury, although this seems denser. Been 20 years since I rolled mercury around in my hand though. It will turn your hand black but it does wash off with soap and water.A word of caution... do not leave the closed tube in your pocket. I had the extra closed tube in my hoodie pocket, forgot about it and hubby put it in the wash. Of course he doesn't separate anything and it was a load of white towels and some lighter weight whites and an orange hoodie. Now, with the heat of the water the gallium melted and every piece of fabric was now coated with it. He proceeded to place these items in the dryer. Now it was deep in the fabric. I was able to get the gallium out by washing small loads in very hot water using non chlorine bleach. The greyness did come out and the fabric seemed to have lost all the gallium.

Came in the bottle shown in the photo. The metal was clean, free of slag and does what gallium should do. If you're looking for mercury style metal, you don't want gallium. It wets everything, it will not bead up like mercury does. This means it will stick to most surfaces and can leave residue behind. Use disposable gloves because it will leave a grey residue on your hands.Just about any nonstick surface will have the same issue. Dont use cookware glass because it has tiny cuts and marks that the gallium will find and stick into. It's best to work with it while its under water. A warm bowl of water will not only help keep it liquid longer, but makes the metal bead more, like mercury would.It is fun stuff to work with, and can provide hours of fun. Great for making little figures and objects especially if you already have molds. A soldering iron makes quick work of sculpting a finished solid project and removing sprues.YES it will melt in your hand NO its not super fast but YES it feels sooo cool!KEEP AWAY FROM ALUMINUM! If in contact with molten gallium, the aluminum will become VERY brittle. This is great for experiments and explaining to students how crystal structures and bonds can be altered, not so great for aluminum work surfaces, watches, electronics and vehicles. There is a reason you can's ship this stuff via air!

Fun stuff. But keep in mind that this metal really likes to stick to your hand when melted and getting it all the way off is pretty hard. I won't review this product any worse than I normally would for that, as that's just how gallium is. The reason for 4 stars is that it could be in a better container. I couldn't find Gallium anywhere else (and especially not at that great price!) so I went with this. The bottle that it comes in is extremely hard to work with.First of all, you can't just get it out of the container and start playing with it. It will get stuck in the neck. Even if they didn't package it to fill up the entire bottom, it will inevitably melt on its way to you and fill the bottom, causing it to be stuck below the bottle neck.Secondly, you can't melt it using traditional methods like a stove or fire because the container is plastic. You need to run it under hot water for a long time in order to get even a little bit out of the container. And you can't submerge it in hot water because the bottle isn't waterproof.Lastly, the container is basically useless once you get all of your gallium out, because you'll never want to go through that process again. I just really wish it was in a metal bottle with no bottle neck.But really in the end, this is just nitpicking. This is a great, high quality product and I would definitely buy from this company again and recommend them to anybody looking for a recommendation.

You get what you pay for. Its fun to play and make experimentation with the product.NOT FOR CHILDREN.

poor service and poor product

Exactly as advertised, great gift for a 13-year old to try to get them interested in science.

labels destroyed in hot water

Our 6 y o loves it, We too actually. Interesting material for little scientists.