Fantasma4500
International Hazard
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Registered: 12-12-2012
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Strange and dangerous reaction
just right now i have experienced an reaction where i had no idea on what was going on..
so i have these insoluble things drying at my window, decided to clean up and get some removed as i have alot of junk.. so i take some powder, its
very dry, lightblue-whiteish
kinda fluffy consistence (copper containing?) i assumed at this point that it was basic copper carbonate..
i added some HCl to it and it bubbled and fizzled as expected, tho with abit more bubbles and more consistent bubbles..
the solution wasnt like CuCl2 or CuCl4 however.. it was thick and very covering green, not dark but very light.. couldnt see through it at all..
at this point i realised by smell that i had somehow formed chlorine.. so i got some steelwool, lighted it and put it into the beaker with the
solution (burning steelwool reacts with chlorine gas)
apparently not enough chlorine for this reaction to happen..
i removed most of the chlorine by blowing strong ammonia into the beaker.. heaps of smoke..
so i decided to put in some aluminium foil to make some hydrogen before getting completely rid of this weird compound.. and dump the steelwool in to
remove that aswell
it was starting up many times slower than HCl and CuCl2/CuCl4 usually does..
it was really well going now
i held a flame in the beaker and the gas formed was hydrogen... but usually when i do this with CuCl2/CuCl4 the flame gets coloured green-blueish?
apparently its starting to look like this isnt really copper containing..
suddenly when i had my left side towards the beaker i heard a very loud bang, or well i was about 20 cm from the beaker.. my left ear started
ringing abit, and now that this happened i remember i heard a tiny pop when some of the burning steelwool sparks dropped into the solution..
i dont recall handeling anything that could somewhat spontaneously go bang in small amounts..??
so lets see..
blueish white fluffy powder
insoluble
reacts with HCl to give (CO2 also perhaps?) Cl2
reacts with aluminium foil
probably not copper containing
i have a slight idea that it might have been the Cl2 and hydrogen gas that ignited, but i remember seeing it as the reaction happened in the solution
judging by the tiny flash the spontaneous reaction gave off.. but i think i already removed all the chlorine tho new might have formed..
if you have another idea of what might have happened please tell.. and if you could say what this compound might have been
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blogfast25
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You're more or less pointing to hydrogen yourself, as the cause of the bang.
What was the source of the 'some powder, its very dry, lightblue-whiteish'? Did you make it yourself?
To check for copper, subject some of the substance to HCl (or another strong acid) and filter off insolubles. Neutralise filtrate slowly, then add
ammonia solution: a deep blue colour would be copper (II) tetra-ammonia complex and pointing to Cu(II) in the original substance.
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zed
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Bluish? Could be Copper. Could be Iron, or even a complex salt of Aluminum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_lazuli
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Fantasma4500
International Hazard
Posts: 1677
Registered: 12-12-2012
Location: Dysrope (aka europe)
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problem is blogfast that i removed it all right after the bang in panic for more sudden bangs 
but if it was copper (i know i havent made anything with aluminium, and iron is sparingly down to nitrates chlorides and oxides)
most likely it was containing copper, sort of wish i had more of it..
there was no MnO2 in it as it would of been black then
perhaps some hypochlorite, tho it usually decomposes before turning solid?
KMnO4 is out of question aswell..
really confusing that i cant think of what it was from.. just really mysterious that it formed chlorine with HCl.. not many things ive made does
that..
i think ill take it as i accidentally formed chlorine and hydrogen in too strong concentrations.. just thought it might have been something with
explosive potential as i remember the solution going bang and not the gas..
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hodges
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If you really had chlorine (and not hydrogen chloride from the hydrochloric acid), this cannot be good news. Depending on conditions, chlorine can
react with ammonia to produce the very dangerous and unpredictable explosive nitrogen trichloride. I'm not, however, convinced that you had chlorine
to start with based on starting materials.
Hodges
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Fantasma4500
International Hazard
Posts: 1677
Registered: 12-12-2012
Location: Dysrope (aka europe)
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Mood: dangerously practical
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oh... yes... that might be a possibility aswell!! i have infact tried ti make a tiny amount of NCl3 for blowing it up... but.. NH3 + Cl2 would it be
possible?? it could possible condense into the beaker, didnt pour in NH4OH tho, just blowing NH3 vapours at the HCl / Cl2 fumes.. NCl3 is soluble
after all... could be that the temperature made it selfignite.. kind hard to understand for me that the temperature of Al + HCl would be enough to
ignite a gasmix of H2 + Cl2..
sorry for late reply..
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