Pretty Pictures (2)

First is the silver mirror from Tollen's reagent made in an old-fashion Coke bottle.



Some Mohr's Salt I made.



Copper Sulfate crystal still growing.

The disatvantages to work with molten Potassium in test tubes

Quote: Originally posted by Neme

One picture is bunch of copper(II) acetate crystals. In next pictures is my attempt to double phantom crystal, chrome alum crystal in chrome alum+ KAl alum mixture in KAl alum. The inner black crystal is not visible tho so it's more like normal phantom crystal.

Did you do anything especial for the copper acetate crystals? I havent been able to crystalice it That way, un dark big crystals. All I get are lots of small lighter ones. The biggest dark ones I got were like 2-3mm big. Probably because impurities, or temperature changes? I wanted to try making it in a thermos, as I dont think I can get it much purer. I recrystaliced the acetate I have like 3 times in attempt to get crystals like those.

And since this is the pretty pictures topic, here is the result of my last attemp:


This one has copper wires fragments inside, because in one of the attemps I has the biggest (3mm) crystals grow con a copper wire, so I tried adding some.

[Edited on 26-6-2017 by ficolas]

Salt pyramids

Got these after concentrating a batch of sodium dichromate:
I'm suspecting it's sodium chloride (from the bleach). Hard to tell from the photos by they are hollow, inverted pyramids.


Another pic taken at an angle:

Quote: Originally posted by ficolas

Did you do anything especial for the copper acetate crystals? I havent been able to crystalice it That way, un dark big crystals. All I get are lots of small lighter ones. The biggest dark ones I got were like 2-3mm big. Probably because impurities, or temperature changes? I wanted to try making it in a thermos, as I dont think I can get it much purer. I recrystaliced the acetate I have like 3 times in attempt to get crystals like those. [Edited on 26-6-2017 by ficolas]

Quote: Originally posted by ficolas

Quote: Originally posted by Neme   ... ...

Selfmade Sodium Ferrate(VI) solution:

I have no clue what this is to be honest.
I was trying to react some Iodine with FeCO₅ and thought this was an Iodine-Ethanol solution. Turns out and judging by the blue color this was actually with an indicator, I guess starch? So this is the moment where the two chemicals meet but don't react as they are in different phases.

An intermediate product in the synthesis I'm doing at work currently, made via a Wittig reaction.


Sure it's just a white solid, but I'm rather proud of the purity of it.

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

An intermediate product in the synthesis I'm doing at work currently, made via a Wittig reaction. Sure it's just a white solid, but I'm rather proud of the purity of it.

Lead picrate I made a week or so ago, as well as a demonstration of K3CrO8 with sulfur, and a few grams of black powder + magnesium I made for July 4th:







[Edited on 7/28/2017 by Velzee]

Quote: Originally posted by Loptr

Quote: Originally posted by zts16   An intermediate product in the synthesis I'm doing at work currently, made via a Wittig reaction. Sure it's just a white solid, but I'm rather proud of the purity of it. That looks like a disilyl ether of methyl 3,4-dihydroxycinnamate? It's hard to see the backend of the bottle being visible as well. What would the IUPAC name be for this compound? The TBS addition throws me off. What is in store for this compound? What is the intended purpose of those silyl groups?

Wet copper (II) chloride crystals, along with a small amount of excess HCl, giving rise to CuCl₄^2- and the green color.

Sodium bentonite clay that had some "continental drift" due to evaporation. Not a pretty picture but if you did it again in a larger pan and let it dry out, the image would be curious to see, with an artistic quality perhaps say if you had some separate in a long glass tube or something, the odd shapes it might make?
When it was saturated the thixotropic clay made a faint resonant sound when the bowl was tapped, or more apparent you could feel a ring to it.



[Edited on 1-8-2017 by Morgan]

Do drawings count?

A friend asked how cannabis plants make cannabinoids. I may have gone a little far in drawing my answer...

Tollen's Reagent

I kinda went wild with Tollen's reagent...
(I hope to sell these at the local flea market as art)

Quote: Originally posted by Supersonic

Quote: Originally posted by Amos   Copper(II) formate crystals. Their supernatant is the deepest of royal blues and yet the crystals are an icy-looking aqua color. Large crystals have a nice form and beautiful color. It`s a pity that they erodes even in warm air. There crystals were synthesed from copper(II) hydroxide and formic acid.

Those are really beuatiful copper formate crystals. Especially, the second one is really big and it seems to be nicely shaped. What technique did you use to grow it? I tried once but there was a problem with hydrolysis mostly and even in acidic environment the salt did not want to crystallize easily.

Ascorbic acid residue

Nothing amazingly beautiful. Just some isopropyl propionate I made via Fischer esterification in my school's lab. 53% yield.

Image 1: preparing copper hydroxide from impure copper sulphate solution, the black is copper oxide formed when the hydroxide is heated above 80C.
Image 2: dissolving the subsequent copper oxide in dilute sulphuric acid, reminds me of the sea floor. 'Scuse the leg.

The reason I did this was to purify the copper sulfate, producing it from the metal using H2SO4 and KNO3 creates water soluble byproducts which are removed by filtration.

H2SO4 + KNO3 -> KHSO4 + HNO3 {all aqueous}
Cu(s) + 4 HNO3(aq) -> Cu(NO3)2(aq) + 2 NO2(g) + 2 H2O(l)
Cu(NO3)2 + H2SO4 -> CuSO4 + 2 HNO3 {all aqueous}
Producing a solution containing CuSO4, KHSO4, and potentially residual KNO3

CuSO4(aq) + 2 NaOH(aq) -> Cu(OH)2(s) + Na2SO4
Cu(OH)2(s) + heat -> CuO(s) + H2O(l)
The alkali salts all remain in solution, and CuO is collected, readily reacting with acids unlike the base metal. The CuO can also be reduced to copper powder, useful if you start with a single piece like pipe and desire a large surface area.

First post from me in a long time. Something very interesting too, check it out.

Two bottles, both containing quite similar looking compounds:



Change the lighting and ....

.
.
.
.




The first photo was taken under incandescent lighting, second photo is after the globe was changed over to a CFL.

In real life it's truly startling seeing the contents of the bottle change colour before your eyes when moving it between areas with different light sources.

On the left is Samarium acetate and at the right is Holmium acetate.

Lovely photo's / effect.

Do you realise how much more complicated you have made life for
Periodic Table Of The Elements sample display makers ?

Have not posted in a "while" but anyway,
Silicon carbide crystals on a carbon rod:

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

That's awesome! Did you grow those SiC crystals yourself or how were they made?

My friend gave them to me.
They were made industrially in an electrical arc furnace where carbon is in the centre and SiO2 is put around to rise up resistance and to keep the outer part cooler than the core. I'm not exactly sure what they are actually making but the SiC is basically an unwanted byproduct.
I have more samples and they look really cool under microscope but unfortunately my microscope is out of service atm so I can't take a better photo.
Here's another one (photo taken with a cell phone).

recrystallizing some Sodium t-butoxide

Today I decided to finally purify my sodium t-butoxide using hot T-butyl alcohol, after leaving it on the shelf for a few weeks.

I got a big polarized screen out of a busted monitor and I've been doing some filming with it. There's too many nice stills (and video) to post everything but here are some of my favorites:

Stress lines in gelatin:


Water and corn syrup, with a layer of heavy corn syrup at the bottom:


Corn syrup flowing over & through glass beads:

Quote: Originally posted by symboom

Put electricity through the silicon carbide I heard it lights up blue

Managed to grow this fluff ball out of the remains of nitric acid production (so about equimolar KHSO4 and KNO3 since I had a brain fart and used two molar equivalents of the latter). A pH strip indicates that it is primarily the bisulphate, and the strange thing was that it seemed to 'walk' of its own accord - a few smaller balls came first and then combined and migrated to the centre as the solution evaporated.

GaCl3

Crystals of anhydrous gallium(III) chloride on the inside of the ampoule.

Here's a couple pictures of some methyl 2,4-diTBSOcinnamate I made at work that crystallized as beautiful opalescent crystals.

Left: Nitrous Acid soln.
Middle: Copper (Tetra) Dichloroisocyanurate, Disodium salt
Right: Hexaammine Nickel (II) Sulfate

So, stopped by the thrift store today on my way home from work..



. Pt wire hell's yeah.



I made a small coil from ~2" of wire. If you hold a lighter to it for a brief moment, then let off the butane to extinguish the flames and then just resupply butane gas... The coil starts glowing and will eventually reignite the lighter. After just a couple times it had modified surface texture to a somewhat gritty appearance.

Regardless, I was exceedingly pleased I spent the time to stop in there.



And then I went back... Gold and silver wire with ceramic coating. RTE wire element for some kind of temperature measuring device is what I'm able to find on them.

It is such a specific form of metal, it would be foolish not to buy for the low price. I'd imagine it's not cheap new.

[Edited on 19-11-2017 by violet sin]

A crystal of what I believe is cesium trisoxallatoferrate(III) dihydrate.

Probably the first pictures of the compound on internet.

It was grown in the bottom of the container, so it doesn't represent the crystal habit of the compound perfectly.


https://imgur.com/gallery/napw4





[Edited on 18-11-2017 by CaCl2]

OsO4

Osmium tetroxide and osmium metal melted by electronic beam.

Quote: Originally posted by CaCl2

A crystal of what I believe is cesium trisoxallatoferrate(III) dihydrate. Probably the first pictures of the compound on internet. [Edited on 18-11-2017 by CaCl2]

Well not exactly a pretty pic, but found some of these thermometer switches while cleaning out an old lab. Any idea of their value?

[Edited on 26-11-2017 by carbonium]

Double recrystallized Nitroguanidine, formula CH₄N₄O₂

Quote: Originally posted by Tetra

Double recrystallized Nitroguanidine, formula CH4N4O2

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi

Quote: Originally posted by Tetra   Double recrystallized Nitroguanidine, formula CH4N4O2 Where did you get it?

https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=89...

Tried it myself ages ago

Quote: Originally posted by plastics

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi   Quote: Originally posted by Tetra   Double recrystallized Nitroguanidine, formula CH4N4O2 Where did you get it? https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=89... Tried it myself ages ago

Aluminium Copper Alloy

Quote: Originally posted by Σldritch

It is beginning to get very cold where I live. I was doing an inspection of my chemicals (to make sure no glass bottles broke due to freezing) and was pleasantly surprised with this. The water crystals in this have formed nice, needle like structures in the bottle.

Mandelbrot set

View my zoom movie into the Mandelbrot set. I trimmed down from 150MB

Attachment: trip5.avi (6.9MB)
This file has been downloaded 838 times





[Edited on 19-1-2018 by wg48]

Got a small vial of trimethoxy benzaldehyde some time ago, extra toss in from getting indium sample. Well, I found it yesterday when cleaning. KA-THUMP! What was that... Ohh just a pile of stuff put in an odd location months ago.

Any how it was brown and odd looking. Got to check the melting point sans thermometer, = melts under boiling water temp. But only gave back brown looking crud. Did again and left wrapped in a towel to cool, big plates but not exactly better, same appearance. But it was soluble in water to a minor extent and I just used that capacity. Made a nice sat solution while learning the fun of makeshift filter and clogging said filter.

But the results were at least aesthetically pleasing, even if grueling to do. The day job suffered a touch from low sleep science when you can, consequences be damned.




Crystals <------> crude mid solidification


Suggestions for a legit use?

[Edited on 20-1-2018 by violet sin]

You sure do man, it was almost lost to a crash of phosphoric acid, oil of wintergreen, Cu/NH3 cellulose solution, and some other random crap(not headed to garbage) left in the gutted out microwave that is FINALLY heading to the dump. Everything lived some how even after getting briskly lifted and tossed in a truck, lol.

Here are a couple pics from actual time in workspace. I was trying to study up and identify positively rhenium powder from an eBay purchase. It did not like most of the chem I threw at it. The borax bead test worked though. Sulfuric acid, not so much. Hydrogen peroxide 30% dented it though, add in some ammonia and it was dissolving the dust. And a last test, a tiny bit heated in a test tube with air in there made a subliming straw yellow oxide. Missing some pics though...


Ammonium perrhenate (1-4)

Ammonium tungstate and a super tiny mag stir w/ Ru powder


We should come up with a "testing eBay buys" thread for frustrated purchasers. Man that would be useful, lost ~230$ a couple years back on fake Or powder... But if you figure it out soon enough, eBay covers it.

[Edited on 20-1-2018 by violet sin]

Drinking too much is bad for the health, however Nature makes use of Everything.

Some photos of a mixture of p-xylene and water from who knows how long ago:



[Edited on 19-2-2018 by WouldSynthesizeForFood]

1)Thrift store find, another good book.
2) EBay purchase 5$ = 50 switches.



3) Can't really tell, but that's bees wax bubbling up outta yuck soup... Rotting pollen etc. from a failed colony.
4) Built another ATX power supply for working around with small projects. The two power resistors are fixed on a heat sink over the exhaust fan, conveniently blowing outward.

Whoops, might’ve left some sodium sulphate solution in a separatory funnel. Also, a sodium sulphate forest in a 250mL RBF.

I think this is a CaSO4 crystal in a solution of HNO3 and H2SO4. I took a concentrated solution of Ca(NO3)2 and added it to a 30% solution of H2SO4, with excess H2SO4, filtered and then tried to distill off some of the HNO3 (didn't work to well) but about 150ml of liquid came over, so there was more CaSO4 dissolved in the hot solution after about 2 weeks I checked the bottle and found these little beauties growing.

Quote: Originally posted by violet sin

We should come up with a "testing eBay buys" thread for frustrated purchasers. Man that would be useful, lost ~230$ a couple years back on fake Or powder... But if you figure it out soon enough, eBay covers it.

I too have had difficulty fiding pure Or powder

Quote: Originally posted by crystal grower

Wow those are beautiful. Is it possible to take them out of the bottle or are they too britle?

sulaiman: ya got me there... Ir as in Iridium... 99% of the time I'm typing on a phone that was popular in, wow I'm not sure. wiki- "The smartphone was unveiled on 19 February 2013". I've been a victim of the dreaded Auto-Correct, no matter how it occurred i blame the operator

Not quite sure what this is but it is beautiful

I ran a cell using two graphite electrodes in my first attempt to make NaBrO3 from NaBr and after putting the solution after electrolysis into a beaker and added some KOH in the hopes that the less soluble KBrO3 would crystallize out I ended up with this.

Yeah I know right?

I left the solution sitting in a beaker for about three days until I figured out a way to get the graphite powder out of solution without using a glass fritt and then saw this sea urchin looking crystal and decided it was just too pretty to dissolve it again.

I actually had another strange formation, I did the procedure for p-DDNP from acetaminophen nitration written by I believe the member nitro-genes which was an excellent and fun project. I was recrystallizing recovered Isopicramic acid before diazotization and I had it sitting in a weighing boat dissolved in MeOH and it seems that as the solvent evaporated it grew these strange looking crystals

A not very natural scenery

Im making a lot of Copper Acetylide for an upcoming project, this is a mixture of Cupric Chloride and Nickel Chloride that i have lazily let dry out over a couple of weeks before i separate it. It grew some nice structures and with the blue wall of my lab it looks like some kind of scenery.

Have you ever tried sublimating benzoic acid in a pickle's jar?
After two days 8 g benzoic acid filled up the jar like this:

Beautiful yellow crystals of p-benzoquinone.

1) Crystals of silver grown by reacting copper with silver nitrate solution on a microscope slide.

2) Vanadium(III) solutions with a) excess oxalate and b) excess glycinate.

Failed recrystallization attempt of MCPA.
The liquid separated into two layers upon cooling and after a few days in the cold crystals started to grow.
Then a few days later they grew through the layer seperating barrier into the other layer. It seemingly did not bothered them much. :-)

Accidental big crystals of potassium iron (iii) oxalate.

First crystal of my CoSO4 solution prepared from CoCl2 + Na2CO3, then CoCO3 + H2SO4.
I'll try to make prettier crystals when the solution is all evaporated.

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

Beautiful color!

Thanks, I like it too, reminds me of Garnet.
CoCO3 (I know It's not the actual formula) is also quite interesting even though it's just a bubbling mess inside of a beaker.

Cleaning some sodium metal made using Nurdrages procedure.
This is on the third wash.
Looks so nice before it gets oxidized by atmospheric O2

[Edited on 17-4-2018 by greenlight]

Beauty of carbamide crystals

I just made some salen. One of the simplest, quickest organic reactions I've ever done. Too bad the reaction of the ligand with copper acetate wasn't as nice.

Quote: Originally posted by TheMrbunGee

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid

I just made some salen. One of the simplest, quickest organic reactions I've ever done. Too bad the reaction of the ligand with copper acetate wasn't as nice.

Beautiful .

The boiling flask at the end of a nitric acid distillation:



Something that stood out was the remarkably stable vapor front that formed in the
condenser:

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid

I just made some salen. One of the simplest, quickest organic reactions I've ever done. Too bad the reaction of the ligand with copper acetate wasn't as nice.

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk

Not exactly salen, but close enough and with very OTC chemicals! http://www.asianjournalofchemistry.co.in/User/ViewFreeArticl...

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid

I work at a college, so I cheat- I can basically order anything I like as long as it's not too expensive and I intend to use it for educational purposes (not just my own).

My bad I left academic environment..

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk

Not exactly salen, but close enough and with very OTC chemicals! http://www.asianjournalofchemistry.co.in/User/ViewFreeArticl...

not so pretty picture

As a part of my ongoing investigation into the corrosive effects of aqua regia fumes on common objects,
I submit the following annotated photograph.



The aqua regia is the green solution in the background,
the colour is due to gold and silver dissolved in the aqua regia.

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid

I suspect that the green colour is due more to copper impurities in the silver and gold, since silver(I) ions are colourless and AuCl4- is orange-yellow.

D'oh !

Of course the colour is due to copper not silver - brain fart
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've recovered gold from scrap many times
(but my total gold collected is only just over one gram)
and I love the colour of chloroauric acid in solution - like urine but with with a sheen.

[Edited on 20-4-2018 by Sulaiman]