Scapegrace
Harmless
Posts: 15
Registered: 2-3-2012
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Formic Acid
If i get a whole bunch of aunts together and burn them after there dead will formic be extracted after i drain the body parts out? does anyone know
before i waste time trying to catch ants.
|
|
|
Nicodem
Super Moderator
Posts: 4230
Registered: 28-12-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Scapegrace  | | If i get a whole bunch of aunts together and burn them after there dead will formic be extracted after i drain the body parts out? does anyone know
before i waste time trying to catch ants. |
You want to kill you aunts and drain their body parts out? What do they have to do with formic acid? Why don't you just buy formic acid instead of
resorting to homicide?
PS: Open referenceless threads only in the Beginnings section.
|
|
|
Nicodem
|
Thread Moved
5-3-2012 at 13:44 |
bahamuth
Hazard to Others
Posts: 384
Registered: 3-11-2009
Location: Norway
Member Is Offline
Mood: Under stimulated
|
|
| Quote: Originally posted by Nicodem | | Quote: Originally posted by Scapegrace | | If i get a whole bunch of aunts together and burn them after there dead will formic be extracted after i drain the body parts out?
|
You want to kill you aunts and drain their body parts out? What do they have to do with formic acid?
|
HAHA!
This is a perfect example that one should always review ones post a couple of times before posting.
And please, buy the goddamn formic acid, don't torture ants.
They say its how people turn into serial killers, by torturing ants as a kid then moving up to draining body fluids out of the scorched aunt cadavers
as they get older......
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
|
|
|
Vogelzang
Banned
Posts: 662
Registered: 26-4-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
|
|
|
entropy51
Gone, but not forgotten
Posts: 1612
Registered: 30-5-2009
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fissile
|
|
According to the old texts, formic acid was first prepared by the dry distillation of ants, but it sure sounds labor intensive.
Easier is to get glycerol from the pharmacy and oxalic acid wood bleach from the hardware store. Distill at about 120 C pot temperature and dilute
HCOOH distills over. Cool and add more oxalic. Repeat. About the third repetition 56% HCOOH distills. You can just keep adding oxalic and
distilling until your patience runs out.
The 56% HCOOH can be fractionated to yield 77%, which is good enough for many purposes. You can take it to nearly anhydrous by drying with boric
anhydride, but it is a pain.
This prep is in most of the old organic lab manuals in the forum library. I like it because it has worked every time I have run it, which is probably
a dozen times.
I hate to use the T word, but the original post does have that aroma. Or maybe it is just the smell of barbecued ants.
Vogelzang's video of him exercising is not very flattering. I wonder why he posted it?
|
|
|
ScienceSquirrel
International Hazard
Posts: 1863
Registered: 18-6-2008
Location: Brittany
Member Is Offline
Mood: Dogs are pets but cats are little furry humans with four feet and self determination! 
|
|
I suspect that the aunts referenced by Saki ( HH Munro ) would have been a great source of formic acid and more besides! 
|
|
|
Chemstudent
Harmless
Posts: 44
Registered: 3-3-2012
Location: Sunny Florida
Member Is Offline
Mood: Contemplative
|
|
I do know for a fact that Methyl Alcohol consumption produces blindness in a dose dependent manner when consumed by humans. This happens directly due
to MA reducing to Formic Acid which attaches to the optic nerve causing semi-permanent to permanent damage. Acetaldehyde also is converted to a great
degree, even more so than normal ethyl alcohol. Methyl-Alcohol was very widely partially or fully substituted for grain alcohol in the prohibition
era. Many died, became sick, or became blind. The US govt. even took measures to ensure the industrial MA contained other alcohols or poisons knowing
full well folks would abuse it or resell. An attempt to dissuade illegal imbibers of methyl-alcohol...
Well not sure if that helps, but maybe you can reduce MA which you can easily get at Walmart.
|
|
|
Adas
National Hazard
Posts: 711
Registered: 21-9-2011
Location: Slovakia
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sensitive to shock and friction
|
|
No reduction, you have to oxidize it. Use KMnO4 or K2Cr2O7 for this purpose.
But it is easier and safer to buy it, though.
Rest In Pieces!
|
|
|
Nicodem
Super Moderator
Posts: 4230
Registered: 28-12-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
| Quote: Originally posted by Chemstudent | | I do know for a fact that Methyl Alcohol consumption produces blindness in a dose dependent manner when consumed by humans. This happens directly due
to MA reducing to Formic Acid which attaches to the optic nerve causing semi-permanent to permanent damage. |
Do you have any references for that?
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
