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Those sheets are a decent source for OTC phosphorus and WAY faster than matchbooks/boxes. Just soak in pure acetone, scrape all of the brownish red shit onto a clean Pyrex plate with a razor blade or other flat sharp object, and then do a final rinse in acetone to remove more adhesive residue. Pour off the dirty acetone and let your pile dry completely on the plate.
Next, get rid of the tiny paper bits you'll inevitably collect while scraping the striker material in the previous step. You can do this by soaking the dry powder in concentrated H2SO4 while gently applying heat to decompose any organic materials that are still present in your phosphorus. Make certain you use a glass vessel during this stage. It doesn't take long to break it all down, so when you're satisfied that it's clean you can remove it from the heat and let it cool before adding distilled H2O. Grab a glass funnel and stuff a Charmin plug in the neck so you can pour off the acid while filtering the red P out and give it a good rinse again with distilled water until all of the acid is gone. Finally, a quick acetone wash is done and the phosphorus is again collected on the Pyrex plate and left to dry completely.
The final step is to soak the powder in a small amount of a 20% sodium hydroxide solution. Just enough to cover the phosphorus by about an inch. Let it sit for about 30 or 45 minutes and then rinse with distilled water, filter it off again, and once it's fully clean and all the NaOH is rinsed away you can let it dry before one last acetone wash. After it dries this time, crush it into a very fine powder in a mortar and pestle and then store in an airtight container until ready to use.
The antimony and sand and ground up glass that's in the mixture won't harm the reaction but it does take up space. Just remember that you're most likely going to need more than the amount listed in whichever reaction you plan to perform, so be sure you've got at least 20% extra red P before you start mixing shit up. That way you can add more if the reaction doesn't proceed properly.
Next, get rid of the tiny paper bits you'll inevitably collect while scraping the striker material in the previous step. You can do this by soaking the dry powder in concentrated H2SO4 while gently applying heat to decompose any organic materials that are still present in your phosphorus. Make certain you use a glass vessel during this stage. It doesn't take long to break it all down, so when you're satisfied that it's clean you can remove it from the heat and let it cool before adding distilled H2O. Grab a glass funnel and stuff a Charmin plug in the neck so you can pour off the acid while filtering the red P out and give it a good rinse again with distilled water until all of the acid is gone. Finally, a quick acetone wash is done and the phosphorus is again collected on the Pyrex plate and left to dry completely.
The final step is to soak the powder in a small amount of a 20% sodium hydroxide solution. Just enough to cover the phosphorus by about an inch. Let it sit for about 30 or 45 minutes and then rinse with distilled water, filter it off again, and once it's fully clean and all the NaOH is rinsed away you can let it dry before one last acetone wash. After it dries this time, crush it into a very fine powder in a mortar and pestle and then store in an airtight container until ready to use.
The antimony and sand and ground up glass that's in the mixture won't harm the reaction but it does take up space. Just remember that you're most likely going to need more than the amount listed in whichever reaction you plan to perform, so be sure you've got at least 20% extra red P before you start mixing shit up. That way you can add more if the reaction doesn't proceed properly.
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