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Ozone
International Hazard
Posts: 1269
Registered: 28-7-2005
Location: Good Olde USA
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Hello all!
This is a really great one! I love this site!
Let's see, favorites:
Phenylacetaldehyde -- jasmine, floral
nitrobenzene -- like cinnamon buns (to me)
ethyl maltol -- super caramel
Sassafrass -- well, like sassafrass.
ethyl ether
DCM, chloroform
BTEX are all quite nice, p-xylene is especially sweet smelling (while m-has the same sort of thing going for it as toluene).
vinyl cinnamate is interesting
methylisoborneol -- smells just like just rained on soil
Worst,
ethyl acetate gives me a raging headache too. (but does not smell too bad)
triethylamine -- smells like dead fish, or somewhat like the water aging in an old tire.
methyl t-butyl ether smells OK (like cola) at first, then like cat piss.
ethylenebis dithiocarbamate-2Na + metam Na -- like sulfurous cat piss.
butyl mercaptan -- skunk, dead ringer (but, strangely, not that unpleasant in small amounts).
2-mercaptoethanol -- smell to become a believer in the "stench" warning.
any isocyanate -- oh man, these are so bad.
many diamines -- these range from "burnt hair" to "bloated roadkill".
phosphines used in the organometallic department that you can smell a floor above and below (on occasion).
acrolein -- vile and physically miserable, lachrymatory reek of burning plastic (heat up some glycerol with a little acid to make a small enough
amount to smell without killing yourself) acrylic acid is also quite bad. Acrylates in general.
I apologize for the long list, but have had many projects and smelled many things. I have to note though, that even the really vile ones are sometimes
"interesting", particularly when dilute.
Is it not strange that the first thing you tend to do when youe smell something foul is to go eww; the second is to find a friend/colleague and say
"you have got to smell this".
Good luck, careful smelling, etc.
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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12AX7
Post Harlot
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I think methyl methacrylate (i.e. superglue) smells okay, kinda solventy-gluey-distinctively " superglue", though the fumes irritate the eyes, nose
etc. of course.
Tim
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Ozone
International Hazard
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I thought that superglue was methyl-2-cyanoacrylate? It is rather lachrymatory, isn't it. The regular acrylates are worse, I think.
supergluey goodness, mmm.
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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DrP
National Hazard
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Yea, I'm sure it's a cyanoacrylate as well. Not sure if methylmethacrylate will work as super glue.
Worst smell I had from superglue was when I spilt some onto some plastic box - it reacted with the plastic giving off a clear gass which stung my
eyes so much that I had to run away from it. Felt like it was disolving my eyes.
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Ozone
International Hazard
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Youch! Do you have any idea what the substrate was? we might be able to postulate the identity of your foul stench. The cyanoacrylate was not the
culprit itself, I think.
Take care,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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Bromine
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mr. Wizard
I can't smell ammonia anymore. My sense of smell is otherwise very good. A couple of intense exposures to the gas has left me unable to detect it,
unless my eyes start to water or it irritates my throat. Has anyone else had this happen? |
It did happen to me too.
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Nerro
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Triethyl amine and Et3P are the smells that make me want to run.
I rather like the smell of amylacetate (banana's)
#261501 +(11351)- [X]
the \"bishop\" came to our church today
he was a fucken impostor
never once moved diagonally
courtesy of bash
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Mr. Wizard
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bromine
| Quote: | Originally posted by Mr. Wizard
I can't smell ammonia anymore. My sense of smell is otherwise very good. A couple of intense exposures to the gas has left me unable to detect it,
unless my eyes start to water or it irritates my throat. Has anyone else had this happen? |
It did happen to me too. |
Thanks for replying. I used to be very aware of ammonia, but after a day in a room that I was painting with a cheap latex paint that was loaded with
ammonia I developed some nose bleeds and haven't been able to smell it since. Later I learned the eyes are also very susceptible to ammonia damage.
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Broken Gears
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I had a little adventure in the chem lab the other day and I decided to look and sniff around. When I came across the big bottle that was allmost
empty and had a beautiful crystal landscape in the bottom. It was a bottle of benzaldehyde. I was very surprised what a pleacent smell.
Ofcourse there are all the chems that downright stinks like: Butyric acid and Hydrogen sulfide. But ammonia, it always sneaks up on me and it get
overwhelmingly fast.
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Ozone
International Hazard
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Nerro
Triethyl amine and Et3P are the smells that make me want to run.
I rather like the smell of amylacetate (banana's) |
Amylacetate and the alcohol, like ethyl acetate, both give me a headache if I work with too much in a day. The amyl alcohols and corresponding esters
are frequently found in un-rectified spirits. Check out "fusel oils"; they all smell quite interesting.
Happy wafting,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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Biginelli
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Best in my opinion:
- Acetoacetic ester (some fruit smell)
Worst:
- Oenanthol (heptaldehyde) - like a mixture of roten fish & local junkyard
- Thiophenol in large conc.
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kaviaari
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My personal favourite is camphor (1,7,7-trimethylbicyclo [2.2.1]heptan-2-one) and the stinkiest one is of course the good old hydrogen sulfide.
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Sauron
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N-methylindole (skatole) smells like shit, indole itself is not far behind.
The isonitriles (isocyanides), R-NC) do stink but are mostly not very toxic.
The lower thiols, dithiols and sulfides reek. And some of them are toxic. Ethanedithiol will give you a nasty headache apart from the smell.
1,4butanedithiol is toxic IIRC.
Remember, it's the ones that do their damage before they smell bad or are irritating that get you. Phosgene is insidious in this way as the pulmonary
edema is delayed and lethal concentartions are not initially irritating.
H2S overloads the sense of smell and then is insidious, and no antidote.
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UnintentionalChaos
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I'm half-numb to ammonia. After doing the CuSO4 synth from prepublications and getting a huge faceful of fumes a few times, I learned to 1: turn off
the bubbler a few minutes before taking off the lid, and 2: to pull the lid off, and come back in 5 minutes. A good whiff of that stuff burns back
into your head and down your throat. It doesn't even smell like ammonia when it's that strong, it just burns. I'm lost the ability to smell it at low
concentrations now. My mother on the other hand, gets nauseous if you open a bottle of 2.5% anywhere in the house for 5 minutes.
As for butyric acid, the smell, at least at medium concentrations is enjoyable. I was (for another hobby, edible wild foods) picking ginkgo nuts. The
fruit surrounding them is chock full of butyric acid. I collected them for hours because it reminds me of parmesean cheese (whose scent IS due
partially to butyric acid) while everyone else kept a huge radius from the cloud of vomit smell. You have to roast the nuts to get the last of the
butyric acid off, which resulted in me "perfuming" the entire first floor of my dorm with the lovely smell of butyric acid. Most people were asleep,
so they couldn't complain.  The few that were awake wanted to strangle me.
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JohnWW
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Has anyone here actually smelled either H2Se, H2Te, H2Po, selenomercaptans (or selenols), dialkyl selenides, or telluromercaptans, and lived to tell
the tale? I understand that they have some "interesting" smells, far more so than the corresponding sulfur compounds.
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guy
National Hazard
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What is the smell of armpits? That smells very....interesting.
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12AX7
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I've noticed when I'm rather ripe that I can detect a hint of cumin in said odor.
Makes me wonder what a cheese made from the bacteria might be like.
(Cheese, you ask? Hell, there are worse things around: aged brick (including the ultimate aged brick, limburger) smells distinctly like kitchen
trash, and well aged swiss smells like your finger after scratching your buttcrack. Both are well regarded cheeses ...well, by conisseurs of them,
anyway.)
Tim
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Fleaker
International Hazard
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JohnWW
Has anyone here actually smelled either H2Se, H2Te, H2Po, selenomercaptans (or selenols), dialkyl selenides, or telluromercaptans, and lived to tell
the tale? I understand that they have some "interesting" smells, far more so than the corresponding sulfur compounds. |
I've only smelled H2Se, and I had an accidental overexposure to it (because of its horrific reek, I had to remove it from the garage, all the while
gassing myself) which made me very sick. Unless you have a highly efficient fume hood or are working outside with a gasmask, don't mess with them. I
was ill for about 2 and a half months from it (consistently languid, bone pains).
It smells something like a mixture of carbon disulfide, pyre-reek, and a scent I can not place. For me at least, it was not like H2S which deadens
smell; even when the gas was effervescing into my face, I could still smell it.
Neither flask nor beaker.
"Kid, you don't even know just what you don't know. "
--The Dark Lord Sauron
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JohnWW
International Hazard
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| Quote: | Originally posted by guy
What is the smell of armpits? That smells very....interesting. |
I read somewhere that it is due mostly to alpha-hydroxybutyric acid, and is the substance that most attracts mosquitos.
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Jdurg
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I have also had the unfortunate "luck" of smelling H2Se gas. In an attempt to make some of the red allotrope of selenium, I took some regular black
selenium and dissolved it in nitric acid. To this, some sulfite was added which precipitated out the red selenium. All of it was washed thoroughly,
but some acid must have still been left since when I opened up the vial a few months later a horrific stench of rotted radishes filled the area. Had
the same "rotted" type odor of hydrogen sulfide, but with radishes instead of eggs.
\"A real fart is beefy, has a density greater than or equal to the air surrounding it, consists of the unmistakable scent of broccoli, and usually
requires wiping afterwards.\"
http://maddox.xmission.com. |
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JustMe
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Selenide/Telluride
Another one here for H2Se... oh about 35 years ago, mixed powdered Selenium with Iron Fillings and heated. Took result and added to dilute HCl and
bubbled the gas into water... all outside, of course. Kept solution to play with and watched as it turned red. Y'see I was too afraid to work with
cyanides, but then found out H2Se was 20x more poisionous. Well, I lived!
What scared me was H2Te. Took chunk Tellurium, and mixed with Aluminum powder, heated. Took the product and added a few drops of slightly acidic water
and scared the pants off of myself! Didn't expect so MUCH gas to be generated so fast! Yeah, got a wiff of the nasty stuff and threw the test tube
away into the woods!!! Fascinated with H2Te because it could be liquified easily, but way too dangerous to attempt without a full lab.
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Jdurg
Hazard to Others
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JustMe
Another one here for H2Se... oh about 35 years ago, mixed powdered Selenium with Iron Fillings and heated. Took result and added to dilute HCl and
bubbled the gas into water... all outside, of course. Kept solution to play with and watched as it turned red. Y'see I was too afraid to work with
cyanides, but then found out H2Se was 20x more poisionous. Well, I lived!
What scared me was H2Te. Took chunk Tellurium, and mixed with Aluminum powder, heated. Took the product and added a few drops of slightly acidic water
and scared the pants off of myself! Didn't expect so MUCH gas to be generated so fast! Yeah, got a wiff of the nasty stuff and threw the test tube
away into the woods!!! Fascinated with H2Te because it could be liquified easily, but way too dangerous to attempt without a full lab.
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Did you wind up with the nasty body odor for a few days/weeks that Tellerium is (in)famous for?
\"A real fart is beefy, has a density greater than or equal to the air surrounding it, consists of the unmistakable scent of broccoli, and usually
requires wiping afterwards.\"
http://maddox.xmission.com. |
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garage chemist
chemical wizard
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A new one: Benzonitrile. I completed the synthesis today.
The reaction mix (TEBAC- catalysed dehydration of benzamide with thionyl chloride) was neutralized and steamdistilled.
I can say that benzonitrile smells very nice, very similar to benzaldehyde but somewhat sweeter. It also seems to have a very high index of
refraction- if you hold the liquid close to a light source, you can see all rainbow colors in it, like with carbon disulfide.
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12AX7
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Mmm, dispersion? Sounds pretty neat to look at...
Tim
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verode
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| Quote: | Originally posted by tom haggen
I like the smell of nitromethane, butane, the smoke that comes off of steel when your drilling it.
Dislikes- #1 fish oil #2 sulfur, #3 bleach, #4 stale machine coolant, this horrible smell comes from bacteria.
[Edited on 22-3-2004 by tom haggen] |
the worst the very worst
put HCL3+ anilin NH2C6H5 + KOH(CH3OH) and heat
you'll get phenilisocyanide
horrible!! sick
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