Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Formic Acid

Scapegrace - 5-3-2012 at 13:39

If i get a whole bunch of aunts together and burn them after there dead will formic be extracted after i drain the body parts out? does anyone know before i waste time trying to catch ants.

Nicodem - 5-3-2012 at 13:43

Quote: Originally posted by Scapegrace  
If i get a whole bunch of aunts together and burn them after there dead will formic be extracted after i drain the body parts out? does anyone know before i waste time trying to catch ants.

You want to kill you aunts and drain their body parts out? What do they have to do with formic acid? Why don't you just buy formic acid instead of resorting to homicide?

PS: Open referenceless threads only in the Beginnings section.

bahamuth - 5-3-2012 at 14:36

Quote: Originally posted by Nicodem  
Quote: Originally posted by Scapegrace  
If i get a whole bunch of aunts together and burn them after there dead will formic be extracted after i drain the body parts out?
You want to kill you aunts and drain their body parts out? What do they have to do with formic acid?


HAHA!

This is a perfect example that one should always review ones post a couple of times before posting.
And please, buy the goddamn formic acid, don't torture ants.


They say its how people turn into serial killers, by torturing ants as a kid then moving up to draining body fluids out of the scorched aunt cadavers as they get older......

Vogelzang - 5-3-2012 at 14:42


entropy51 - 5-3-2012 at 16:49

According to the old texts, formic acid was first prepared by the dry distillation of ants, but it sure sounds labor intensive.

Easier is to get glycerol from the pharmacy and oxalic acid wood bleach from the hardware store. Distill at about 120 C pot temperature and dilute HCOOH distills over. Cool and add more oxalic. Repeat. About the third repetition 56% HCOOH distills. You can just keep adding oxalic and distilling until your patience runs out.

The 56% HCOOH can be fractionated to yield 77%, which is good enough for many purposes. You can take it to nearly anhydrous by drying with boric anhydride, but it is a pain.

This prep is in most of the old organic lab manuals in the forum library. I like it because it has worked every time I have run it, which is probably a dozen times.

I hate to use the T word, but the original post does have that aroma. Or maybe it is just the smell of barbecued ants.

Vogelzang's video of him exercising is not very flattering. I wonder why he posted it?

ScienceSquirrel - 5-3-2012 at 17:57

I suspect that the aunts referenced by Saki ( HH Munro ) would have been a great source of formic acid and more besides! :D

Chemstudent - 5-3-2012 at 20:45

I do know for a fact that Methyl Alcohol consumption produces blindness in a dose dependent manner when consumed by humans. This happens directly due to MA reducing to Formic Acid which attaches to the optic nerve causing semi-permanent to permanent damage. Acetaldehyde also is converted to a great degree, even more so than normal ethyl alcohol. Methyl-Alcohol was very widely partially or fully substituted for grain alcohol in the prohibition era. Many died, became sick, or became blind. The US govt. even took measures to ensure the industrial MA contained other alcohols or poisons knowing full well folks would abuse it or resell. An attempt to dissuade illegal imbibers of methyl-alcohol...

Well not sure if that helps, but maybe you can reduce MA which you can easily get at Walmart.

Adas - 6-3-2012 at 06:44

Quote: Originally posted by Chemstudent  
Well not sure if that helps, but maybe you can reduce MA which you can easily get at Walmart.


No reduction, you have to oxidize it. Use KMnO4 or K2Cr2O7 for this purpose.
But it is easier and safer to buy it, though.

Nicodem - 6-3-2012 at 07:36

Quote: Originally posted by Chemstudent  
I do know for a fact that Methyl Alcohol consumption produces blindness in a dose dependent manner when consumed by humans. This happens directly due to MA reducing to Formic Acid which attaches to the optic nerve causing semi-permanent to permanent damage.

Do you have any references for that?