feacetech - 5-12-2007 at 12:05
one of the bosses at work found a small pile of white crystalls on his bench, he uses no white poweder chemicals and wants to know if it is meth or
not
I tested to see if it was NaCl, but it wasnt.
Any quick and dirty chemical tests i could do to see if it is meth
My lab dosent have a ft-ir lc-ms the most technical piece of equipment is a uv-vis spectro.
[Edited on 7-12-2007 by feacetech]
Phosphor-ing - 5-12-2007 at 12:29
Marquis reagent. UTFSE for instructions on its use
feacetech - 5-12-2007 at 12:31
sorry I didnt search I was a bit of hurry i have plenty of other work to do.
cheers
solo - 5-12-2007 at 13:30
Do solubility test and MP........that should tell you..............solo
feacetech - 5-12-2007 at 16:07
will formalin(400g/L of methanal stabised with 100g/L of methanol) work in place of formaldehyde.
well the test with the above formalin in 98% H2SO4(10ml formalin in 90mL H2SO4) yielded no colour formation, some fizz.
The the white crystals are relativly insoluble in cold/hot water.
Silver nitrate yielded no ppt.
69% nitric yields no colour only a fizz.
37% HCl + unkown on Nicrome wire under flame yileded a red colour so maybe Ca ions are present.
When dissolved in dilute HCl (0.5M) then neutralised with NaOH a white gelatanious ppt forms which is not soluble in excess NaOH, further indicatin Ca
Gas from acid addtion wont pop (No H2) and will extinguish a glowing splint.
Does seem like a carbonate. I would do the lime water test if I had more sample.
However it is insoluble in water ethanol and pet spirit(40-60C), soluable in acid.
when heated with a lighter in a spoon it didnt melt, slightly discoloured and sort of blew apart(decomposed) in small amounts. It didnt melt when
placed in a 600C furnace.
leaning towards calcium carbonate(but it isnt a fine powder more a small crystall) I have turned the furnace upto 800C and will push it to 850 once it
has been there for awhile.
well maybe not the oven is at 900 and the salt is still there.
Still there after 1100C but before 1200 thats as high as i can go damn it.
any ideas from anyone to where to go from here.
[Edited on 7-12-2007 by feacetech]
feacetech - 6-12-2007 at 11:22
well it might not have broken down in the muffle furnace because after it spent the night in there at 600 when i opened the door it was still ther but
I could here a distanct crackling sound.
so it might of needed the air to react with.
[Edited on 7-12-2007 by feacetech]
MagicJigPipe - 6-12-2007 at 21:15
At 600*C methamphetamine HCl would have been melted and mostly vaporized. It's melting point is about 133*C (273*F). And it sublimes readily at
elevated temperatures.
So, definitely not methamphetamine HCl. Or any other amphetamine salt or freebase for that matter.
[Edited on 6-12-2007 by MagicJigPipe]
JohnWW - 7-12-2007 at 00:09
It is clearly far too thermally stable to be any organic compound, even a polymer, and also too thermally stable to be a carbonate. It seems most
likely to be an oxide.
feacetech - 10-12-2007 at 15:48
I ended up up doing the lime water test and it was liberating CO2 when mixed with acid.
how hot does a spoon get when heated by a lighter cause it would decompose when heated like that, but not in a muffle furnace
MagicJigPipe - 10-12-2007 at 21:05
Butane, without supplemental oxygen, can produce temps up to 1970*C. You're probably right about it being calcium carbonate. It melts at 825*C and
decomposes shortly thereafter.
So, in theory, it could have melted under a butane flame and not melted in the furnace. And it releases CO2 when mixed with strong acids. Sounds
like a very reasonable guess to me.
I decided to start posting references for as much of my information as possible. So, here goes...
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/flame-temperatures-gases-d...
That's where I got the flame temp specs. Other sources seem to be in the same range. (ranging from 1300C-2000C)
anotheronebitesthedust - 24-12-2007 at 13:09
gypsum ?
MagicJigPipe - 24-12-2007 at 13:20
Much too unstable to be gypsum. Also, it doesn't release CO2. I suppose the crackling could have been it losing water but it still doesn't explain
the CO2.