Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Piece of science

Piece of science

crystal grower - 16-3-2016 at 04:17

Hello everyone,
I want to inform you about changes that we have made to improve our website http://chem.pieceofscience.com/ .
My friend hegi have worked on this site for several years and I have joined this project only few weeks ago.
Recently we (especially hegi

) have made serious changes to website design and we have also added numerous interesting articles with superb photos. You can find here numerous organic and inorganic synthesis, crystal growing procedures and more interesting stuff.
Come and check out our new, improved website, I can guarantee it is worth it!
here you can see some photos from the website:

potassium-dichromate-1-1024x683.png - 820kB

[Edited on 16-3-2016 by crystal grower]

j_sum1 - 16-3-2016 at 05:58

I must browse more thoroughly. But this looks absolutely gorgeous. And also has some nice procedures described.
Well done!

Loptr - 16-3-2016 at 06:06

I thought the same when I browsed the site.

Maker - 16-3-2016 at 09:26

Well written explanations, nice pictures and easy to navigate, I like it.

Hegi - 16-3-2016 at 14:35

Thanks everyone for positive feedback! We will be glad if you keep visiting our page that is going to rapidly improve this year. We will revise old posts, add detailed procedures and of course more photos! :cool:

chemplayer.. - 16-3-2016 at 15:21

Brilliant photos and great lighting. Well done; it's a very nice site.

The Volatile Chemist - 16-3-2016 at 17:26

Indeed! I like the new set-up, and there's quite a lot of new syntheses on there. Good work! The preps are definitely complex. But have you removed some of the older entries?

crystal grower - 16-3-2016 at 22:02

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Indeed! I like the new set-up, and there's quite a lot of new syntheses on there. Good work! The preps are definitely complex. But have you removed some of the older entries?

Firstly I want to thanks everyone for nice feedback

.
Yes, some of the old posts were removed but only temporary as they need revision. You can expect them back on the site soon.

Hegi - 22-3-2016 at 14:22

Yes, we did it too! ... CHEVREUL´S SALT and also added info about it... Hope you´ll like. Be sure to check out the page soon - revised articles about cyano complexes, mohr´s salt and pyrophoric iron are coming! :cool:

Thanks.

100PercentChemistry - 26-3-2016 at 16:13

That looks amazing. I'm tempted to grow some crystals now,

crystal grower - 26-3-2016 at 22:35

Thanks for compliment, growing crystals is fun, altough it needs a portion of patience

.
We are now also revising articles about minerals with a whole new category - mineralogy. Here is an example: Cassiterite
I hope you will like it.

[Edited on 27-3-2016 by crystal grower]

Hegi - 28-3-2016 at 13:46

Besides cassiterite specimen, the articles about crystals of RHODOCHROSITE and MOLYBDENITE have been revised (more info added, photos and structure). Do not miss!

[Edited on 28-3-2016 by Hegi]

New articles and FB fanpage

Hegi - 9-4-2016 at 12:25

New articles have been posted recently! Check out.

1. Potassium ferrioxalate synthesis

2. Pyrophoric iron

3. Mohr´s salt preparation

Also, if you like the page, you can follow us on our new FB fanpage PIECE OF SCIENCE. We are going to do our best to write as many interesting articles as we are able to.

aga - 9-4-2016 at 14:43

It is a mystery why the blatant promotion of your own chem website (which is shaping-up rather well) is tolerated here, at all.

Heigh-ho.

If you'd care to post your articles here on SM as well, that'd be very interesting.

(might also be useful as a backup for when your site gets shut down).

MrHomeScientist - 11-4-2016 at 12:54

Your page on making chrome alum (http://chem.pieceofscience.com/?p=419) has a very confusing procedure. I'm not sure what chemicals are added where, or what the purpose of the seven (!) separate gas wash bottles are. How is the sulfur dioxide generated? Where is the potassium dichromate solution? Is any excess gas neutralization done? What's the advantage to this method over, say, mixing potassium and chromium sulfate solutions together? Did you seriously actually set up seven gas wash bottles like that?

Really top quality photos, though. Absolutely beautiful.

Hegi - 12-4-2016 at 11:07

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

Your page on making chrome alum (http://chem.pieceofscience.com/?p=419) has a very confusing procedure. I'm not sure what chemicals are added where, or what the purpose of the seven (!) separate gas wash bottles are. How is the sulfur dioxide generated? Where is the potassium dichromate solution? Is any excess gas neutralization done? What's the advantage to this method over, say, mixing potassium and chromium sulfate solutions together? Did you seriously actually set up seven gas wash bottles like that?

Really top quality photos, though. Absolutely beautiful.

The sulfur dioxide is liberated in the three-neck round bottom flask (reaction of copper with concentrated sulfuric acid)

Yes I did actually set up gas wash bottles like that. I must agree with you. The scheme should be more detailed and the parts of the setup labeled. Let´s make it clear:

1. gas wash bottle - empty
2. gas wash bottle - concentrated sulfuric acid (to dry the sulfur dioxide)
3. gas wash bottle - empty
4. gas wash bottle - potassium dichromate solution
5. gas wash bottle - empty
6. gas wash bottle - sodium hydroxide 20% solution to neutralize excess of sulfur dioxide
7. gas wash bottle - empty, adapted to the vacuum pump

I think there is no advantage. Mixing would be much simpler if you have the compounds. It is just a nice demonstration of chromium(VI) reduction leaving the compound that grows nice crystals.

MrHomeScientist - 12-4-2016 at 11:19

Labeling the diagram would help immensely. The website currently leaves out your description above, so readers are going to miss the conc. acid drying bottle and the hydroxide neutralization bottle AND the fact that the whole thing is hooked up to a vacuum pump. Maybe that's standard procedure for such a setup; I've never done that sort of thing myself. I think that's critical information that should be included so others can repeat the experiment. I also didn't know you could make SO<sub>2</sub> straight from copper like that, neat.

You also say that the dichromate solution is placed in the 'separatory trap'; I took that to mean the sep funnel above the 3-necked flask, but it's actually in gas wash bottle #4. The seven wash bottles seems a little excessive to me personally, but again I haven't really worked with them before so maybe that's business as usual.

I'm just trying to help make the description clearer. Maybe discussion like this should be done via U2U so as not to clog up the thread.

crystal grower - 12-4-2016 at 11:50

Thanks very much for your opinion!
I agree with you too. We will improve this article. Of course we will be glad for further communication

Hegi - 19-4-2016 at 13:29

Quote: Originally posted by aga

It is a mystery why the blatant promotion of your own chem website (which is shaping-up rather well) is tolerated here, at all.

Heigh-ho.

If you'd care to post your articles here on SM as well, that'd be very interesting.

(might also be useful as a backup for when your site gets shut down).

Hi aga,

I´m sorry we are disappointing you with our blatant promotion (blatant being a new word for me). We are just trying to present the project I´ve been working on for over three years know. It is a time-consuming activity and it would be much more if I had to copy all articles also here.

I still can not see the point. We are doing science and we want to share our work. I try to post (at least) the photos at SM forum. The articles we posts on our website should be inspiring and useful for many hobbie-chemists.

(anyway, in return I´ll make a promotion of SM on the website ASAP to be fair

)

P.S.: New articles added

The photo of Bournonite crystals on quartz/sphalerite matrix from my collection. This sulfosalt mineral forms really nice tabular crystals!

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bournonite-1.jpg" alt="Bournonite" style="width:900px;height:600px;">

Also check out a short-write about Czech speciality called Hermanov sphere. It is really unique!
<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/hg1.png" alt="Hermanov sphere" style="width:900px;height:600px;">

MrHomeScientist - 20-4-2016 at 10:26

Aga I don't see the issue. There's no ads on their site so it's not like they are making money by promoting it. They're just sharing their work for others to enjoy, which they didn't want to double post on here as well. Hell I promote my YouTube channel all the time, and nobody ever complains about that. Relax, man.

crystal grower - 23-4-2016 at 06:08

Make sure to check out th is awesome synthesis of Fluorescein dye.
http://chem.pieceofscience.com/?p=1307

chemplayer... - 25-4-2016 at 19:42

Very envious of your quality of lighting and photography. Great work!

Hegi - 11-5-2016 at 05:25

Quote: Originally posted by chemplayer...

Very envious of your quality of lighting and photography. Great work!

Thanks much, your work is amazing stuff as well! ...

Some new articles were posted on the website.. If anyone is interested in polymorphs and hydrates, be sure to check our most detailed article about Nickel(II) sulfate hydrates and polymorphs. Soon there will be also posted an article about Copper(II) sulfate trihydrate preparation! :cool:

100PercentChemistry - 11-5-2016 at 16:41

Very nice

The Volatile Chemist - 17-5-2016 at 14:43

Nice. *Quite* the structure difference between the tri- and penta-hydrates, it seems.

crystal grower - 17-5-2016 at 20:46

Actually, the NiSO4 doesn't form pentahydrate or trihydrate, or did you mean CuSO4?

The Volatile Chemist - 18-5-2016 at 04:47

Quote: Originally posted by crystal grower

Actually, the NiSO4 doesn't form pentahydrate or trihydrate, or did you mean CuSO4?

For some reason I assumed those photos were of the copper(II) sulfate trihydrate preparation, didn't see that they were of a nickel salt.

crystal grower - 18-5-2016 at 06:32

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

For some reason I assumed those photos were of the copper(II) sulfate trihydrate preparation, didn't see that they were of a nickel salt.

Ok , never mind

.These are the crystals of copper(II) sulfate trihydrate and pentahydrate (from article http://chem.pieceofscience.com/?p=1485):

copper-sulfate-trihydrate-II.png - 1.3MB

[Edited on 18-5-2016 by crystal grower]

aga - 18-5-2016 at 14:32

Now that bigger picture, he'en mighty purdy.

Hegi - 20-5-2016 at 01:58

The photo of copper(II) formate tetrahydrate was added to the article - Copper(II) formate preparation

This one is recrystallized product. I observed that supersaturated solution is formed using this procedure.

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/copper-formate.png" alt="copper formate" style="width:900px;height:600px;">

Hegi - 26-6-2016 at 23:13

Hi chemists,

it was a busy month for me and my colleague but still - we posted a few new articles and also revised the old ones. We hope that you´ll find them useful or at least interesting.

Syntheses:

Cobalt metal preparation (2 ways) - Reducing cobalt(II, III) oxide with hydrogen and double replacement reaction are used for cobalt metal preparation.
Boric acid preparation - The article contains also trimethylborate preparation.
Copper(II) oxalate complex hydrates - A nice demonstration on how can hydrates differ in their crystal forms.
Silver nitrate preparation - A simple procedure starting with a silver ingot and pure nitric acid. Recrystallization recquries a lot of patience.

Minerals:

Halite - pretty basic stuff but did you know that this mineral was the first to be studied for its crystals structure?
Grossular - my own finding :cool:

here in Slovakia quarry. The crystal is well-shaped and is over 4 mm in diameter.

Velzee - 2-8-2016 at 14:59

Woah, beautiful!

We´re back

Hegi - 9-4-2018 at 11:55

Hi everyone! :cool:

I just want to inform you that we´ve got back together and after almost two years of inactivity we are going to continue posting and keep the page alive.

I hope you will like changes that are going to be made and the page content as well!

If you have any ideas of synthesis that might interest you, please write them down and we will try our best!

aga - 9-4-2018 at 12:02

Yay !

Happy days !

Hegi - 11-4-2018 at 11:54

Quote: Originally posted by aga

Yay !

Happy days !

Hi aqa! Hope you will enjoy new posts!

aga - 11-4-2018 at 12:23

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi

If you have any ideas of synthesis that might interest you, please write them down and we will try our best!

Trichloroacetic acid, Vogel, page 247.

I found a slightly less terse description in another paper somewhere. Will try to find it again.

The chloral hydrate step needs to be Cold during the chlorination step or there is no solid precipitate.

Hegi - 13-4-2018 at 05:35

Quote: Originally posted by aga

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi

If you have any ideas of synthesis that might interest you, please write them down and we will try our best!

Sure I will be glad to perform the synthesis. However, at the time, I do not have access to chloralhydrate. Maby if someone is able to provide few grams I will do it.

aga - 13-4-2018 at 06:11

I remember reading that it is prepared by chlorinating cold ethanol, which creates a white precipitate, which is then reacted with conc sulphuric acid.

Can't find the paper/book at the mo. Will keep looking.

Edit:

Found it in Cohen "Practical Organic Chemistry" (in the library) page 99.

TCA is immediately after it.

[Edited on 13-4-2018 by aga]

Hegi - 13-4-2018 at 07:44

Quote: Originally posted by aga

I remember reading that it is prepared by chlorinating cold ethanol, which creates a white precipitate, which is then reacted with conc sulphuric acid.

Can't find the paper/book at the mo. Will keep looking.

Edit:

Found it in Cohen "Practical Organic Chemistry" (in the library) page 99.

TCA is immediately after it.

[Edited on 13-4-2018 by aga]

I would rather not work with elemental chlorine. Did it twice, did not go well.. .)

aga - 13-4-2018 at 08:26

Really ?

I'm nowhere near as accomplished as your distinguished selves, yet i found Cl₂ quite easy to work with.

Oh well, guess i'll have to keep trichloroacetic acid on my "TODO" list.

Hegi - 17-4-2018 at 04:38

The webapge has been moved to a new domain PIECEOFSCIENCE.COM from now!

j_sum1 - 17-4-2018 at 04:48

I haven't visited for a while. I had forgotten how lovely these photos are.

crystal grower - 17-4-2018 at 07:50

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

I haven't visited for a while. I had forgotten how lovely these photos are.

Thanks!
I've just noticed you have a YT channel, will have to take close look at it today

crystal grower - 21-4-2018 at 08:09

http://pieceofscience.com/world-of-crystals/
I've made a little "gallery" article if someone's interested.

The Volatile Chemist - 24-4-2018 at 07:49

Great looking website! Just enjoyed going through your more recent posts.

Hegi - 25-4-2018 at 09:23

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Great looking website! Just enjoyed going through your more recent posts.

Thanks a lot. We are preparing more articles.. and projects, si we hope it will amaze you as well.

Cobalt sulfate

crystal grower - 15-5-2018 at 09:18

I've experimented a little with CoSO4. These are crystal of Cobalt(II) sulfate hexahydrate crystallized from dilute sulfuric acid. They are really similiar to those of β-polymorph of NiSO4*6H2O, which makes me wondering if there aren't two polymorphs of CoSO4*6H2O too. (There is very little information I was able to find about CoSO4 hydrates properties). I'll try different concentrations of H2SO4 to find out if different crystals will grow.
Here's an article I wrote so far If you're interested:
http://pieceofscience.com/cobalt-sulfate/

[Edited on 15-5-2018 by crystal grower]

sodium thioantimonate

Hegi - 17-5-2018 at 21:33

here you go guys, sodium thioantimonate from natural antimonite .) SODIUM THIOANTIMONATE SYNTHESIS

Hegi - 6-6-2018 at 03:03

We posted a new article on hydroiodic and iodic acid preparation, check it! IODINE ACIDS :cool:

[Edited on 6-6-2018 by Hegi]

weilawei - 6-6-2018 at 03:48

"You do not have permission to preview drafts."

Edit: It works from the main site. Nice writeup!

[Edited on 6-6-2018 by weilawei]

crystal grower - 6-6-2018 at 05:14

Quote: Originally posted by weilawei

"You do not have permission to preview drafts."

Edit: It works from the main site. Nice writeup!

[Edited on 6-6-2018 by weilawei]

Hegi botched the link lol.
http://pieceofscience.com/home-synthesis-of-hydroiodic-and-i...
I'm glad you liked it.