So, I had this dream last night where I melted down approximately 20ml (didn't weigh it) of "Rooto 100% household lye" in a pyrex beaker and ran 12VDC through it using copper electrodes for about 5 min. About two seconds into it, (in my dream) I noticed evolution of color from both the electrodes. From one electrode, there was a lot of this bright red stuff coming out and from the other there was this blue-ish stuff in smaller quantity. It looked really cool.

When the electrodes were removed, the red quickly overwhelmed the blue stuff making the entire molten mass a shade of red. When it cooled, water was added and gas evolved. Whether it was Hydrogen, I don't know. I didn't have a lighter in my dream at that time. I then tried to wash the rest of the red mass out with a stream of water only to learn that the red mass was very solid and poorly (if at all) soluble in water.

So, if I were to have this dream again, (assuming the world of my dreams is a scientifically accurate place) what could I do differently to best make metallic sodium? Also, what was the red stuff? Copper salts are ususally green, IIRC. Could it have been some Iron related impurity in the Lye? There was a lot of it.

I think stateofhack posted something about an actual molten NaOH electrolysis from over at SM, go search over there.

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=9797

:) enjoy