Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Hazardous combinations of simple chemicals

Hazardous combinations of simple chemicals

Dan Vizine - 2-5-2014 at 09:22

I was just reading another topic on the forum concerning H2S. My thoughts were focused on the simplest combination to make this toxic gas and it turned out to be very easy from readily available chemicals.

That got me thinking about other combinations of simple chemicals that pose significant, and sometimes hidden, hazards. There seem to be a lot of aspiring chemists here and they might benefit from this topic.

A very accessible combination of chemicals is HCl and formaldehyde. Hopefully this combination isn't used on purpose in reactions anymore, although at one time it was used for chloromethylation. Anyone following an old OS prep. might run across it.

The specific danger is the production of ClCH2OCH2Cl, known as bis(chloromethyl)ether or BCME for short. This is a very potent carcinogen for these reasons:

1) It's a good alkylating agent. Both ends (see 2).
2) The "bite" size is just right to bridge two strands of your DNA.
3) It is "tuned to succeed". The lability of the chloromethyl is just right, it survives the aqueous media but readily reacts with nitrogenous bases.
4) You can't detect it at the allowable threshold without sophisticated tools. It was a tool in our "carcinogenesis" program for NCI way back when.

So here is my caution: Never knowingly heat together HCL and formaldehyde, even aqueous solutions. Since these are simple compounds you need to always consider the possibility of their generation in situ. This is a significant cancer hazard.

[Edited on 2-5-2014 by Dan Vizine]

gdflp - 2-5-2014 at 09:53

Another dangerous combination of simple chemicals is formic acid and sulfuric acid, the sulfuric acid acts as a catalyst causing the formic acid to decompose HCOOH --> H2O + CO, producing large quantities of carbon monoxide.

Dan Vizine - 2-5-2014 at 11:27

The addition of nitric acid to ethanol forms the metal etching solution "Nital". How much acid is added is important.

5% - safe, but don't store

10% - transitions over to hazardous

15% and above - liable to spontaneous decomposition

while mixtures of ethylene glycol and nitric acid can detonate after initiation from heat, friction or impact.
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Potassium is a problem when mixed with many things. Some are just more treacherous than others.

Many people know that K plus a halocarbon is an explosion waiting to happen, but a lot fewer know that with dry ice it forms a shock sensitive explosive.

Interaction with iron halides can cause violent explosions.

Interaction with Hg is extremely exothermic.

**********************************************************

Potassium permanganate can be dissolved in conc. H2SO4 to give the exceptionally potent and somewhat unstable oxidant manganese heptoxide. This can react violently and inflame upon contact with organic matter.

**********************************************************
Gallium can quickly destroy aluminum alloys.

**********************************************************
The use of magnesium to dry methanol needs to be carefully monitored to prevent runaway exotherms during the dissolution.

[Edited on 3-5-2014 by Dan Vizine]

Brain&Force - 2-5-2014 at 14:16

You missed the simple one...bleach and ammonia.

Hydrogen and oxygen can also be a hazard near an open flame. Hydrogen and chlorine can be a hazard near blue or UV light.

phlogiston - 2-5-2014 at 16:14

A colleague once left a mixture containing acetone and H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> overnight on his bench to find a white precipitate in the morning.
I greatly enjoyed his surprise when I demonstrated to him how this material reacts to a mild blow of a hammer.

Zyklon-A - 2-5-2014 at 17:19

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

You missed the simple one...bleach and ammonia.

Also bleach + hydrochloric acid. Although chlorine isn't quite as bad as chloralamine, both would be bad if made on accident.

Steam - 2-5-2014 at 20:23

Calcium Carbide and moisture goes to Acetylene gas. However most people who have Calcium Carbide know this!

Also do not dump Acetone in bleach. Haloform reaction starts which go very easily become a runaway reaction sending chloroform vapors into the air!

numos - 2-5-2014 at 22:45

According to Wikipedia, a reaction occurs between ethylene and disulfur dichloride or sulfur dichloride to form mustard gas. I have no wish to try this, so can anyone confirm? Both these chemicals don't seem too exotic, although I don't know how anyone could accidently combine (bubble?) these together.

sasan - 3-5-2014 at 03:28

Reaction of KCN and CuSO4 solution driving off dicyanogen gas,very dangerous

Combination of sulfuric acid with some organic materials such as sugar

bismuthate - 3-5-2014 at 03:48

Bismuth and perchloric acid is a rather obscure danger and silver nitrate, and sodium chromite with a bit of 35% H2O2 I've found can be very dangerous (It can act like a carcinogenic and red version of a baking soda volcano.

Zyklon-A - 3-5-2014 at 05:07

Quote: Originally posted by numos

According to Wikipedia, a reaction occurs between ethylene and disulfur dichloride or sulfur dichloride to form mustard gas. I have no wish to try this, so can anyone confirm? Both these chemicals don't seem too exotic, although I don't know how anyone could accidently combine (bubble?) these together.

Yes, that reaction does occur. Sulfur chlorides are somewhat exotic, although made from direct combination of sulfur and chlorine gas, it needs to be distilled, and the entire procedure is a mess. I have done it before, it's not fun.
Sulfur chlorides are not something you're going to just find lying around.

zig - 12-5-2014 at 11:40

It was a clear autumn morning in the mid 90s, kid cousin and myself preparing to walk to school. Pressed for time, my reasoning behind using superglue to fix her torn backpack seemed brilliant. It became clear (as i watched her backpack begin to smoke and eventually catch fire) cotton+superglue is not so brilliant. A surprising amount of people (read: the majority of non-stem types) are unaware of this fact, considering its potential to toast the ignorant!

I'm aware cotton is not an isolated chemical.

DraconicAcid - 12-5-2014 at 11:54

Quote: Originally posted by bismuthate

Bismuth and perchloric acid is a rather obscure danger....

I think that "pretty much anything and perchloric acid" is a generally well-known danger.

Zyklon-A - 12-5-2014 at 12:34

Quote: Originally posted by zig

I'm aware cotton is not an isolated chemical.

What do you mean by that? Cotton is probably >98% cellulose.
The reaction of Cyanoacrylate and cellulose is quite well known, but I can't seem to find any actual equations.

Does anyone know what exactly is happening?

DraconicAcid - 12-5-2014 at 12:39

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb

Quote: Originally posted by zig

I'm aware cotton is not an isolated chemical.

What do you mean by that? Cotton is probably >98% cellulose.
The reaction of Cyanoacrylate and cellulose is quite well known, but I can't seem to find any actual equations.

Does anyone know what exactly is happening?

I seem to recall that the hardening of the glue is a reaction that's initiated by water. With cotton, the hydroxyl groups of the cellulose work just as well, and the exothermic nature of the reaction makes it run away.

bismuthate - 12-5-2014 at 12:40

Draconic acid, the reaction with bismuth is VERY violent (it explodes) and unexpected (bismuth isn't very reactive).
Also H2SO4 and fluorides are very dangerous together. Both are found in many households.

woelen - 12-5-2014 at 12:59

A really dangerous one is mixing of calcium hypochlorite and sodium dichlorocyanurate.

A few years ago, someone in the Netherlands nearly died. He had a jar of calcium hypochlorite and used that for chlorinating his swimming pool. It was sold as so-called shock-treatment. A while later he purchased another jar of shock-treatment, of the same brand. This bottle happened to be sodium dichloroisocyanurate.

He still had some calcium hypochlorite and put this in a bucket. Then he added the sodium dichloroisocyanurate, just to make up the right amount for his swimming pool (both are shock treatment, both are pool chlorinators and are in similarly looking bottles). Then he added some water. Soon after that, the material in the bucket started reacting in a very exothermic reaction. The mix became so hot that it charred and a huge cloud of very toxic fumes and gas came from the mix (probably chlorine, chloramine and other nitrogen-chlorine compounds). He had to run away and stumbled and inhaled quite a lot of the fumes and was sick of it for a few days afterwards.

I have done a smnall scale experiment and mixed 2 grams of granular calcium hypochlorite and 2 grams of granular sodium dichloroisocyanurate. When the dry powders are mixed, nothing happens. Then I added a small amount of water, When this is done, a very scary reaction occurs. A lot of gas is produced, a yellow oil is produced and a lot of crackling noise is produced. Finally, there was one loud crack and all material was swirled out of the test tube

The yellow material most likely was NCl3 and a small pocket of NCl3 must have exploded and swirled everything out of the test tube. Fortunately the test tube was not shattered.

Both the sodium dichloroisocyanurate and the calcium hypochlorate are sold as "choc" treatment in jars of 2.5 kg or 5 kg:

<img>http://www.interline-products.com/savefile/21746/000%20Interline%202012/Producten/Waterbehandelingsproducten/52781524%20Pool%20Power%20Chlo orgranulaat%20Choc,%205%20kg.jpg</img>

The most insidious of this reaction is that it is with commonly available chemicals, which both are used in exactly the same application, are sold in identical jars. One hardware store has the dichloroisocyanurate, the other has calcium hypochlorite and sometimes they switch over time, probably depending on the margin they can realize with the product.

Zyklon-A - 12-5-2014 at 13:06

Another thing is potassium with an oxide coating + mineral oil. Although this isn't exactly a "simple chemical", it isn't something many people would expect to be very dangerous. As potassium is oxidized by air, it forms several different oxides including peroxide (O^-) and superoxide O₂^-. These very powerful oxidizing agents (especially superoxide) can detonate if they are subjected to shock in the presence of fuels (eg. mineral oil.)
DraconicAcid, ok thanks. I also read (while looking for the equation) that a reaction can be initiated by water. I didn't realize that the hydroxyl groups in cellulose can do the same thing.

DraconicAcid - 12-5-2014 at 13:10

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb

Another thing is potassium with an oxide coating + mineral oil. Although this isn't exactly a "simple chemical", it isn't something many people would expect to be very dangerous. As potassium is oxidized by air, it forms several different oxides including peroxide (O^-) and superoxide O₂^-. These very powerful oxidizing agents (especially superoxide) can detonate if they are subjected to shock in the presence of fuels (eg. mineral oil.)

Yep. I was once destroying an old jar of dispersed potassium- I had added isopropanol to react with the potassium, and once the reaction had pretty much stopped, I used a spatula to scrape some of the stuff off of the sides of the jar into the reaction mixture.

BAM!!

Suddenly the jar was on fire, and I had no idea where the spatula had gone.

Dan Vizine - 12-5-2014 at 13:33

I had exactly the same experience not 3 weeks ago. I had melted oil coated K under xylenes as the first step in getting oil free K. The collected skin was pressed free of gross amounts of K then put into a steel pan for disposal. As I scooped small spoonfuls up and sprinkled it into water, all of a sudden the residue exploded. It was maybe 15 - 20 grams of material that didn't have the color I had associated with hazardous K, yellow to brown, it was a more normal purple-gray.

It was a low grade explosion, but quite loud. All of the residue had essentially vanished into smoke. My neighbors have long since stopped being concerned or even surprised by these events.

zig - 12-5-2014 at 18:11

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb

What do you mean by that? Cotton is probably >98% cellulose.
The reaction of Cyanoacrylate and cellulose is quite well known, but I can't seem to find any actual equations.

Does anyone know what exactly is happening?

There exists a certain breed of chemist that take great pleasure in 'correcting' this kinda thing.

"Well technically, 'backpack' is not a simple chemical. Consider the potential presence of dyes / plastics / act."

I am glad you're not one of them!

IrC - 12-5-2014 at 21:38

Quote: Originally posted by Dan Vizine

Many people know that K plus a halocarbon is an explosion waiting to happen, but a lot fewer know that with dry ice it forms a shock sensitive explosive.

After searching for a few hours and many links I still find no information about this. Also I notice some of the posts here are more on the lines of hearsay rather than in a format belonging in a chemistry forum. Failing to state reaction equations or the resultant chemical of concern, as with the quote above. What does it form? Without knowing the actual chemical how can one look it up, learn the danger? Many things are shock sensitive. How shock sensitive is whatever chemical you are describing? We have K, CO2, yet I find it unlikely C2K2 is the resultant product, nor do I see mention of Potassium Carbide being either shock sensitive or explosive. So clearly something else is being formed. A peroxide, a super-oxide? When you said "a lot fewer know that with dry ice it forms a shock sensitive explosive", I believe you. After hours searching still nothing mentioned anywhere on the subject.

Not to put this one request on you personally or exclusively (I picked your post because I was intrigued by your information), but can people please be more precise chemically when you make additions to this page? How else can we be better informed as to what it is that needs to be studied in greater depth for the sake of safety?

froot - 12-5-2014 at 23:03

Nickel Carbonyl

This can quite possibly happen apon an unsuspecting suburban resident.

According to the article it can be synthesized quite easily. All you need is a warm nickel alloy in contact with CO.
The exposure limits are frightening!

Quote:

The hazards of Ni(CO)4 are far greater than that implied by its CO content, reflecting the effects of the nickel if released in the body. Nickel carbonyl may be fatal if absorbed through the skin or more likely, inhaled due to its high volatility. Its LC50 for a 30-minute exposure has been estimated at 3 ppm, and the concentration that is immediately fatal to humans would be 30 ppm. Some subjects exposed to puffs up to 5 ppm described the odour as musty or sooty, but because the compound is so exceedingly toxic, its smell provides no reliable warning against a potentially fatal exposure.

woelen - 12-5-2014 at 23:15

I only give examples with chemicals which can be obtained outside of typical chemistry outlets (e.g. hardware stores, online health shops and so on).

I myself had an explosion with MMS-powder and hydrochloric acid. MMS stands for "Miracle Mineral Solution". The entire idea behind this is total crap, but in fact, MMS is NaClO2 (80%) with the remainder being NaCl. It is sold in many places (e.g. look at eBay, below are two examples):

http://www.ebay.nl/itm/Sodium-Chlorite-80-Pure-Water-Purific...

http://www.ebay.nl/itm/Sodium-Chlorite-28-Solution-Kit-Safet...

If you add MMS-powder (from the first seller, linked above) to 30% HCl, then it starts bubbling violently, somewhat like adding NaHCO3 to 30% HCl. Instead of CO2 bubbles you get pure bright yellow ClO2-bubbles. One time I made the mistake to do this outside in daylight and the gas above the liquid did KABOOM a few seconds after it appeared.
MMS-powder is sold in many places (we also have sellers in the Netherlands for this stuff) and only few people know that this material can lead to hefty explosions. Mixing it with fuels like sugar, powdered sulphur, fine dry wood can also lead to dangerous things. I know of one person on sciencemadness (mewrox99) who had spontaneous ignition of such a mix.

Dan Vizine - 13-5-2014 at 06:15

Quote: Originally posted by IrC

Quote: Originally posted by Dan Vizine

Many people know that K plus a halocarbon is an explosion waiting to happen, but a lot fewer know that with dry ice it forms a shock sensitive explosive.

After searching for a few hours and many links I still find no information about this. ....... Many things are shock sensitive. How shock sensitive is whatever chemical you are describing? We have K, CO2, yet I find it unlikely C2K2 is the resultant product, nor do I see mention of Potassium Carbide being either shock sensitive or explosive. So clearly something else is being formed. A peroxide, a super-oxide? When you said "a lot fewer know that with dry ice it forms a shock sensitive explosive", I believe you. After hours searching still nothing mentioned anywhere on the subject.

Hi IrC,

From Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards 6th Ed:

Non-metal oxides
1. Gilbert, H. N., Chem. Eng. News, 1948, 26, 2604
2. Mellor, 1941, Vol. 2, 241
3. Mellor, 1940, Vol. 8, 436, 544, 554, 945
4. Pascal, 1963, Vol. 2.2, 31
MRH Dinitrogen oxide 3.72/54, nitrogen oxide 4.60/61
Mixtures of potassium and solid carbon dioxide are shock-sensitive and explode violently on impact, and carbon monoxide readily reacts to form explosive‘carbonylpotassium’ (potassium benzenehexoxide) [1].........

and for the alloy with sodium:

Carbon dioxide Staudinger, H., Z. Elektrochem., 1925, 31, 549
Mixtures of the alloy and solid carbon dioxide are powerful explosives, some 40 times more sensitive to shock than mercury fulminate.

[Edited on 13-5-2014 by Dan Vizine]

IrC - 13-5-2014 at 09:32

Thanks Dan. What had my curiosity peaked was chemical reactions going on at such low temperatures, and at such a rate as to actually be explosive. One of the things I love about science is no matter how much you learn, there is still no end to new understanding.

Panache - 14-5-2014 at 10:10

Potassium hydroxide and dichloromethane isn't fun, however I am unsure of the decomposition products, I would have taken a swab of the glass shards embedded ten mm into the plaster walls but I was out of swabs. It taught me that the correct course of action, when you see a 1l schott bottle begin to boil violently, and it is still capped, is to duck behind the microwave (island bench).
Boom was alright, not as bass rich as a hydrogen/oxygen detonation though.

Dan Vizine - 17-5-2014 at 10:51

Nitric acid solutions used to clean glassware should not be stored. Even if you think that nothing hazardous could have formed, if you're wrong the consequences are potentially nasty.

When I was in grad school, our lab was occupied by 4 full-blown vacuum lines. Cleaning them was an ongoing chore. Since we had mercury diffusion pumps, things near the vacuum source end, and cooled by LN2, would condense a little mercury vapor leaving dark shadows. These were usually addressed by 68% nitric acid filled wash bottles as the first step. Following this step, water, alcohol, acetone, cyclohexane and benzene could also used to complete the cleaning. My lab mate put the waste nitric acid into a 500 mL bottle in the rear corner of a fume hood after he completed such a cleaning. That night, after the lab was empty, the bottle detonated with such force that brown glass fragments embedded themselves in the aluminum face of the nearby GC, removed numerous sections of the nearby vacuum line and bent one of the heavy metal supports comprising the hood frame away from its normal position by about 2 inches by actually deforming the metal. The only plausible explanation is that small amounts of organics were present. Whether or not the presence of mercury in solution and a trace of ethanol could have caused in situ generation of mercury fulminate is unknown. No organics were supposed to be in there.

Dan Vizine - 17-5-2014 at 11:04

Quote: Originally posted by woelen

A really dangerous one is mixing of calcium hypochlorite and sodium dichlorocyanurate.

The most insidious of this reaction is that it is with commonly available chemicals, which both are used in exactly the same application, are sold in identical jars. One hardware store has the dichloroisocyanurate, the other has calcium hypochlorite and sometimes they switch over time, probably depending on the margin they can realize with the product.

Woelen,
Somehow I overlooked your comment until now. That is a fascinating observation. Exactly what I had in mind when I started this thread.

AJKOER - 25-5-2014 at 17:56

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

You missed the simple one...bleach and ammonia.

Also bleach + hydrochloric acid. Although chlorine isn't quite as bad as chloralamine, both would be bad if made on accident.

Actually, in my opinion, NH2Cl can be an extremely dangerous threat as I once reported on SM, it can attenuate (greatly enhance) the poisonous properties of other compounds. I vaguely recall an account of where Chlorine bleach and ammonia spill occurred in an industrial accident. The Chloramine formed also came into contact with Methyl alcohol. There was a report of a mass blinding of workers.

I will let others contemplate other even more dangerous compounds than CH3OH and the possible consequences of their interaction with Chloramine.

[EDIT] As a sidebar, I find comical the whitewash of toxicity issues associated with Chloramine following its regulatory approval in some jurisdictions for drinking water (I remember, for example, what Wikipedia on Chloramine use to say on its toxic nature). If your water is treated with NH2Cl, I would not recommend it for drinking or even bathing. It is, however, legally suitable for advocating politicians, obnoxious in-laws and the like.

Here is a source link to many studies relating to Chloramine and drinking water http://www.vce.org/ChloramineScience/ChloramineScience.html

A Chloramine scandal sometime in the future relating as to how it 'unknowingly' heightens toxiticity relating to Pb, haloacetonitriles and my favorite, inflammatory bowel disease? Chloramination also appears to increase the formation of iodo-acids, iodo-THMs, and NDMA and other nitrosamines, relative to chlorine, and the likelihood of gastric cancers and DNA damage (all noted in sources per link provided above).

[Edited on 26-5-2014 by AJKOER]

pedantry

Metacelsus - 26-5-2014 at 14:09

Quote: Originally posted by AJKOER

attenuate (greatly enhance)

Wrong.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/attenuate

AJKOER - 26-5-2014 at 18:32

The term was not mine, but the choice of my original technical reference.

While you may be correct on the misuse of the word 'attenuate' based on conventional usage, but in the sciences, the term apparently has a richer meaning. For example, one technical source states (see http://www.online-medical-dictionary.org/definitions-a/atten... ):

"Attenuated Vaccines
Live Vaccines prepared from microorganisms which have undergone physical adaptation (e.g., by Radiation or Temperature Conditioning) or Serial Passage in Laboratory Animal hosts or infected Tissue/Cell Cultures, in order to produce a virulent mutant strains capable of inducing protective Immunity."

Also, per http://ask.reference.com/web?q=What%20Is%20Attenuation?&... to quote:

"What is Attenuation?
The percentage of sugar that a yeast will be able to ferment. Low-attenuation yeast result in maltier beers. High-attentuation yeast results in drier, less sweet, beers. "

Also, per http://www.chemistry-dictionary.com/definition/attenuator.ph... to quote:

"Attenuator
1) used in e.s.r, the attenuation of the microwave power passing along a waveguide is achieved by means of a metal plate placed along the axis of the waveguide. The degree of attenuation increases as the plate is moved away from the wall of the waveguide toward the center. In IR and UV spectroscopy, the attenuator is a toothed comb, grid, or star arrangement introduced into one beam of a spectrometer, operated either automatically through an electronic servosystem, or manually to balance the radiation in both beams."

So one might, in more technical usage, ascribe to the term not just dilution, but in the context of a process of change, transfer or modification of the primary or correlated variable. Now, in the current case of Chloramine added to other toxic compounds, there is no doubt that the NH2Cl by mixing is itself diluted, but poisonous properties are apparently transported (compounded) in the process. Interestingly, high attenuation yeast example refers not to yeast concentration specifically, but high sugar conversion rates to alcohol. Similarly, associated high attenuation of Chloramine and Methanol may not be refering to the dilution of NH2Cl, but the elevated toxicity level via the significant incorporation of CH3OH.

[Edited on 27-5-2014 by AJKOER]

PHILOU Zrealone - 27-5-2014 at 04:54

This link about Dangerous chemical reaction from INRS is a good pdf compilation of dangerous reactions...a bit more documented than "Hazads in the chemical laboratory" book from the Chemical Society but in french.

INRS

hyfalcon - 28-5-2014 at 04:50

Whatever you do, when washing silver nitrate down the sides of a beaker, don't mistakenly grab the denatured ethanol wash bottle instead of the DI water. Makes for an interesting few minutes before you drown the whole mess. Luckily I realized what I had done almost immediately.

Blinded - 11-9-2014 at 06:28

Ammonium Nitrate + Calcium hypo Chlorite will react explosively. The moment it picks moisture. Found that the hard way grinding HTH with a AN contanimated pestle!
I was 17

Loptr - 11-9-2014 at 10:48

Quote: Originally posted by Blinded

Ammonium Nitrate + Calcium hypo Chlorite will react explosively. The moment it picks moisture. Found that the hard way grinding HTH with a AN contanimated pestle!
I was 17

And you were blinded I take it?

careysub - 11-9-2014 at 12:27

Quote: Originally posted by numos

Its called the Levenstein Process for making mustard gas. In WWI the chlorination of the sulfur and then the alkylation of the dichloride was all done in one large vessel in two steps. Made a crude smelly product, which had collodial sulfur suspended in it, which settled out later and distrubed the ballistics of artillery shells. Distillation to purify was added later.

A more plausible inadvertent mustard gas producing reaction is HCl with thiodiglycol (2,2-thiodiethanol or TDE) a solvent used in textile sizing and ball point ink.

This was the preferred method of making it after the Levenstein Process was abandoned. Field converting reactors were even developed, so mustard gas could be made close to the combat zone and not shipped (see Bari Harbor).

You can find thiodiglycol for sale on eBay right now.

Tdep - 11-9-2014 at 17:07

Some ball point ink and HCl forming small amounts of sulfur mustards..... How not to clean ink from clothes!(not that you would... And hopefully you'd wash it after adding HCl....)

But, still a great addition to this thread

chornedsnorkack - 11-9-2014 at 23:06

Quote: Originally posted by Tdep

Some ball point ink and HCl forming small amounts of sulfur mustards..... How not to clean ink from clothes!(not that you would... And hopefully you'd wash it after adding HCl....)

Both cellulose and protein are hydrolyzed by HCl.

Which synthetic textiles, if any, are resistant to HCl?

jock88 - 12-9-2014 at 13:58

Would Chlorates and Copper Sulphate count? (or hypochlorates).

Nitrogen triiodide

zirconiumiodide - 14-9-2014 at 13:57

Nitrogen triiodide could be pretty hazardous to the unexpectant. Made by simply mixing iodine with ammonia and leaving the filtered product to dry, a touch sensitive explosive is produced from simple chemicals that are also easily obtainable. Although Iodine in some countries is somewhat harder to buy than it used to be.

greenlight - 4-11-2014 at 23:48

60% Hydrogen peroxide and wood after watching someone accidentally spill it on a wooden pallet and not bother to clean up. Instant fire.

gardul - 6-11-2014 at 01:09

From my experience when I was younger..(15ish)

acetone and hydrogen peroxide.

which makes acetone peroxide. All I can say that stuff is rather unstable. haven't touched the stuff since.