digga
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A set of challenges for home chemists.
I believe that there a series of challenges available for all chemists. Those who arrive at solutions for any of these may become rich and famous.
Then again, you might pull a Midgley. There are many materials which accumulate in our society and have no obvious use:
Used Cat Litter - my house alone uses the best part of a ton, every year. All that nitrogen, going to waste.
Elemental Sulfur - there are piles in Canada visible from space.
Glycerol - so much bio-diesel, so little time. It is really, really cheap.
LDPE film
Calcium Chloride, preferably aqueous Solvay Process by-products.
Except for the first item in the list, there are uses for these materials. Supply, however, greatly exceeds demand. Do you think anybody at Monsanto
or Dow is working on any of these?
Can anybody suggest any more?
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diddi
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This touches on the more far reaching issue of recycling at the macro level. The world as a whole is responsible for absurd consumerism with no regard
for the finite nature of the resources thrown away. I would love to recycle more interesting materials but unfortunately due to the cost of basic
chemicals which are now so expensive to home chemists, it is just totally infeasible to consider trying. I have processed some ewaste, but the cost of
nitric acid outweighs the value of any of the metals recovered. The irony however is that a factory near me flushes thousands of litres of nitric
through stainless steel piping to clean out the system. Then that flush is neutralised, then rinsed and then the whole lot is - you guessed it -
thrown away. Then another tanker brings another few thousand litres next week and they do it all again. 1 minutes worth of flow would give me enough
'slightly dirty' nitric acid to process ewaste for 10 years.
At the commercial scale, we as consumers have to place value on recycled materials. We all want pure white paper to wipe our bums and we dont want to
buy a beverage in a cloudy looking plastic bottle made from non-virgin plastic. The supermarkets reject bananas that are too straight or too bent or
too big, ffs. When are we all going to come to our senses and see that what we have around us has to last us for ever. Once its used up we are going
to be making some huge adjustments in our lives to accommodate the disappointment of expectations that our resources cannot meet.
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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digga
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As a long time New Englander, I hate seeing anything wasted, whether it's a thing, a thought or a thane. In my gut, I see that there is a use for
everything. It's a matter of finding it. Find a good macro use for one of these items and you will have done more good than a thousand do-gooders.
But my real ulterior motive is to arrange a world in which somebody will come and get my used cat litter from me. I've got me one of those nekkid
cats and they are superior devices for turning mice into shit.
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VSEPR_VOID
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Nitric acid from ammonia
Sodium metal without fire or electrolysis
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
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Texium
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First one has already been done quite successfully on here
Second one is science fiction
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DavidJR
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Tell that to nurdrage
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Herr Haber
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Used cat litter:
I was going to make a joke about how the ammonia would neutralize acid spills and use it for shipping nitric acid.
Then thought some (many?) of these cat litters are bentonite based.
Bentonite is already injected as a mud under pressure in soils to stabilize them before building something on top.
I guess the ammonia in that case isnt a problem. If it is, only use near fracking sites. They're allready polluted and from what I heard quite
destabilized after the exploitation.
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VSEPR_VOID
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Nerd Rage did it.
Also the nitric acid synthesis from ammonia has not been streamlined or standardized for amateurs
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
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Texium
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Damn. Somehow I entirely forgot about that.
Still though, it seems like things that have already been successfully done lack relevance in this thread.
[Edited on 8-2-2018 by Texium (zts16)]
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symboom
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Basic reagents are a must
Nitric acid
Sulfuric acid
Hydrochloric acid
Sodium hydroxide
Ammonia
Some that havnt been made yet
Ammonium persulfate
High test hydrogen peroxide
Making the alkaline earth metals
with silicon metaloid
Such as MgO and Si forming magnesium metal and silicon dioxide
Neodymium metal
Cerium metal
Double salts and complexes
Such as ammonium cobaltinitrite
And sodium iodochloride
[Edited on 2-8-2018 by symboom]
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clearly_not_atara
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Producing phosphorus halides or air-stable organophosphines from phosphates is definitely the first thing that comes to mind
[Edited on 04-20-1969 by clearly_not_atara]
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AJKOER
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With respect to 'A set of challenges for home chemists', I believe one of the largest challenges is the increasing scientific ignorance in the general
U.S. population and even what I have witnessed in the secondary school system (high school chemistry is no longer taught in even some of the more
affluent counties).
A home chemist could very well be sentenced to life imprisonment for manipulating dihydrogen oxide from a jury of said ignoramuses.
That is a challenge!
[Edited on 3-8-2018 by AJKOER]
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Loptr
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Quote: Originally posted by AJKOER  | With respect to 'A set of challenges for home chemists', I believe one of the largest challenges is the increasing scientific ignorance in the general
U.S. population and even what I have witnessed in the secondary school system (high school chemistry is no longer taught in even some of the more
affluent counties).
A home chemist could very well be sentenced to life imprisonment for manipulating dihydrogen oxide from a jury of said ignoramuses.
That is a challenge!
[Edited on 3-8-2018 by AJKOER] |
Speaking of phosphorus mentioned above, most people seem to have this idea that phosphorus explodes on contact with water (yes, there can be a
reaction but its not favored under storage conditions). I have heard this mentioned several times on various TV shows. People hardly care about
anything any more, other than posting to social media or how they look, both of which scream look at me! It's all about self now a days...
"Question everything generally thought to be obvious." - Dieter Rams
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largenumbergoeshere
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| Quote: Originally posted by AJKOER | With respect to 'A set of challenges for home chemists', I believe one of the largest challenges is the increasing scientific ignorance in the general
U.S. population and even what I have witnessed in the secondary school system (high school chemistry is no longer taught in even some of the more
affluent counties).
A home chemist could very well be sentenced to life imprisonment for manipulating dihydrogen oxide from a jury of said ignoramuses.
That is a challenge!
[Edited on 3-8-2018 by AJKOER] |
What a world we live in. Give it a few generations and who knows what unspeacable dihyrous oxide contamination we will have.
Thank god people are paranoid about other people spending thier time doing something useful with thier lives.
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symboom
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A set of challenges
Change the chemophobia and dihydrogen monoxide instances
In society which are embarasing if the whole finding intelligent life outside our galaxy.
Educate society on important of freedom of information
Access to all unclassified scientific articles
Become
The society of independent chemists An idea
if everone knew chemistry would we destroy each other with that knowledge? Aka many countries that have nuclear weapons aka cold war. Mutually assured
distruction reconition that followed.
[Edited on 4-8-2018 by symboom]
[Edited on 4-8-2018 by symboom]
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