What's your guys' most unexpected chemical that's gotten moldy?
I had some potassium acetate solution that I guess had an organic contaminant in it, which grew a ton of mold in the form of these puffy black
clusters that spread hyphae all throughout the solution.
On my dresser there's a concentrated meta-stable solution of magnesium sulphate and sodium carbonate with a pH of probably like 12, which somehow got
colonized by a few molds near the surface. I don't know how anything can live in there, but it's kinda cool. khlor - 23-7-2023 at 10:07
I once forgot about a divded electrolytic cell, I was doing chlor-alkali, the cell just stood there for what I can only guess, two months and while on
the anode nothing happened(chlorine, hypochlorites, low pH) as presumed. But, the cathode chamber, some weird mold(penicilum/aspergillus) like, was
growing, it had white, light green and some black. No smell. Should have taken a pic to show for, but my spotty description will have to do. I am
still to this day, amazed, because nothing was supposed to grow there, pH was over 13, solution was satured with NaOH.... at the time I wanted
hydrogen and chlorine, so when experiment was ended I never bothered discharging the cell and storing the other products.Tsjerk - 23-7-2023 at 22:51
High concentrations of ethanol, at least above 40%. The fungus grew on top of the liquid, like how it grows on other things it is not supposed to grow
on, like high sugar fruit jam. There were also other unpleasent things in there, like methanol, isopropanol and azide.
The fungus forms a layer to separate itself from the high concentrations of ethanol/sugar.karolus28 - 24-7-2023 at 11:43
KClO3 recrystallisation watermayko - 24-7-2023 at 15:19
honorable mention: some ammonium phosphate solution
tied for first: these crudlings, surviving in the face of impressive osmotic stress and feeding on ... ?
unionised - 25-7-2023 at 13:00
I was always impressed by mould that grows in ammonium phosphate buffer... with 10% acetonitrile.arkoma - 27-7-2023 at 07:24
Balack powder that was left in my black match machine damp. Molded over like crazy.Metacelsus - 27-7-2023 at 07:59
I was always impressed by mould that grows in ammonium phosphate buffer... with 10% acetonitrile.
Well, it's got nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. All it needs are some trace elements (sulfur, metals, etc) from impurities. Life, uh, finds a way.ShotBored - 9-8-2023 at 10:53
Maybe this isn't weird to everyone else, but I have seen pure RDX packed in water mold in storage. When we found the material, I asked my boss about
investigating the mold as an environmental remediation option for RDX contamination in the environment. He didn't seem super interested in funding it
for whatever reason.woelen - 9-8-2023 at 13:55
I had a jar of ferric ammonium citrate, the brown variation. One year later, there was a big layer of hairy stuff on top of the chemical in the
container.
I also have the green variation in a similar container. That one did not get any mold on it, not even after more than 10 years of storage.Rainwater - 9-8-2023 at 16:27
I dont know how, but a algae can survive in gasoline, if any water gets into the fuel, it sinks to the bottom and the algae starts to grow, making a
thick pond scum. bnull - 19-1-2024 at 09:44
A citric acid solution that I used to clean some copper stuff. It is a sea of dark green furry spots with a white translucent jelly sitting on the
bottom. I thought copper was toxic to fungi. (Sorry for the quality.)
