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Amos
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Best-smelling chemicals
This is a pretty weird one, but what would you users say is the chemical they've synthesized or encountered that smells the best to you, personally?
And I'm referring to pure compounds (or meant to be pure); not essential oils that contain loads of things.
I personally love the smell of chloroform, though acetone has really grown on me since I started doing chemistry. Methyl salicylate is of course
wonderful too.
Edit: I really should've used the search engine first.
[Edited on 9-4-2014 by No Tears Only Dreams Now]
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hyfalcon
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For smell you can't beat Ethyl methylphenylglycidate. What can I say, I'm a child of the 60's. LOL
Think strawberry incense and rolling papers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_methylphenylglycidate
[Edited on 4-9-2014 by hyfalcon]
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Mailinmypocket
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For me I love the smell of pure phenol, no clue why as some people hate it.
This is a similar thread on best smelling chemicals:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=1216
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gdflp
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My personal favorite is benzaldehyde, I just love the smell.
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Metacelsus
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+1 for benzaldehyde. I recently made some from Mn-catalyzed electrochemical oxidation of toluene, and it smells great!
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woelen
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I made chlorobutanol, CH3C(CCl3)(OH)CH3, from acetone and chloroform. This stuff has a fantastic cooling smell. It makes you feel like your throat
opens up widely and makes breathing easy. It also gives a great cooling sensation, like peppermint. You should not inhale too much of this though, it
makes you drowsy and reduces your conciousness (so no driving or controlling complicated things after you inhaled this stuff).
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nezza
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Diethyl ether - mmm.
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Amos
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Quote: Originally posted by woelen  | | I made chlorobutanol, CH3C(CCl3)(OH)CH3, from acetone and chloroform. This stuff has a fantastic cooling smell. It makes you feel like your throat
opens up widely and makes breathing easy. It also gives a great cooling sensation, like peppermint. You should not inhale too much of this though, it
makes you drowsy and reduces your conciousness (so no driving or controlling complicated things after you inhaled this stuff). |
Thank you woelen, I now know what I'm going to synthesize next!
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barbs09
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Along side actually nice smelling chemicals are those that evoke a sense of nostalgia. For me a diluted smell of iodine or chlorine and even acetic
acid reminds me of my younger experimental years, or what I imagine an old school chemistry lab should smell like, despite some of these chemicals not
being particularly pleasant smelling. I still get a smile when I smell bleach as it reminds me of electrolysis of salt to make potassium chlorate-
that smile inducing chemical  
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Amos
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| Quote: Originally posted by barbs09 | | Along side actually nice smelling chemicals are those that evoke a sense of nostalgia. For me a diluted smell of iodine or chlorine and even acetic
acid reminds me of my younger experimental years, or what I imagine an old school chemistry lab should smell like, despite some of these chemicals not
being particularly pleasant smelling. I still get a smile when I smell bleach as it reminds me of electrolysis of salt to make potassium chlorate-
that smile inducing chemical |
Ah, yes. That's more of what I meant when I said acetone was nice-smelling.
salicylic acid is the same way for me.
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Fantasma4500
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the smell after burning off KNO3 Mg and ferrocerium flashpowder
also phosphine and resorcinol
couldnt help but tasting some resorcinol, ill keep it to nanogrammes although
a more mixed up 'chemical' -- cannabinoids and THC, not sure which of it that gives the smell but if its too much smell then it just gets disgusting
also one thing pretty much everyone i have ever met will disagree: ammonia
edit: smell of freshly deflagrated AP, perhaps its all about nostalgia..? should have done some esters when i started with chemistry..
[Edited on 5-9-2014 by Antiswat]
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Magpie
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I love the smell of benzaldehyde. Phenol is seductive but a little scary. Same for ammonia. My homemade nerolin smells really nice.
I have a strong nostalgia for the sights, sounds, and smells of my university organic chemistry lab: long black benches, high ceilings, dark wood
window casements, smell of steam baths in operation, smell of ether or sometimes ethyl bromide, hissing sound like air escaping (not sure what that
is), etc.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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metalresearcher
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The 'typical' odor of ethanol. Of which I mean, the odorant of lens cleaning 96+% ethanol.
I think, really pure ethanol has no odor in itself ?
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Mailinmypocket
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Anhydrous ethanol definitely has a distinct smell... Not strong like 2-propanol though in my opinion.
Thymol smells quite peculiar, not as nice as camphor and the smell lingers but it isn't bad.
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confused
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Vanillin, that stuff smells lovely
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BlackDragon2712
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As far as my experience can tell, I really like the smell of phenol and eugenol but my favorite one by far is vanillin although isoamyl acetate (and
lots of esters) gives a hard fight. I've been told that fructone also smells delicious!
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Fantasma4500
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in our school lab if we have as little as 0.01mL of methanol we have to hold it under something to remove the supremely deadly vapours, however i went
totally rogue when i decided to smell what 'absolute alcohol' smells like
it said 95%, not sure what the rest 5% were but it smelt different than normal 93% alcohol with denatonium benzoate and other things in it, it smelt
very sweet
anyhow.. what can be 100% pure anyways
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Praxichys
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DON'T do this.... but I got a whiff of methyl ethyl ketazine the other day straight off the extraction step of a large (~150g) hydrazine sulfate prep.
It's very sweet and flowery to start, almost like lilac, then finishes up spicy with the smell of fresh-cut green peppers, but with more of a bite.
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xfusion44
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I think, chloroform has pretty good smell (don't smell it too often, or for too long time - carcinogen). Also acetonitrile has a good smell (but
please try to avoid smelling it, because it metabolises in body, to produce hydrogen cyanide, which is very toxic and other toxic compounds). I've
read on wikipedia that it has similar smell to diethyl ether, but was surprised, when I found out that this wasn't actually true, or maybe just my
ether had some ingredients inside that would change the smell? weird...
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zirconiumiodide
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The chemical compound 4-Hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde (Vanillin) is probably one of my favourite smells.
A reason i love organic chemistry - home of the best smelling chemicals!
[Edited on 14-9-2014 by zirconiumiodide]
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Amos
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Obviously I really need to make some vanillin. I'm starting a "smells" collection of sorts.
Not to mention all of the worst toxins and carcinogens!
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BromicAcid
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Cinnamaldehyde, one of the universities I used to do waste disposal for was getting rid of a 500 g bottle of this material, wonderful smell when I
poured it up into the flammable waste.
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Cou
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Weirdly enough, I really like the smell of hydrogen sulfide (in low concentrations, of course). Reminds me of scrambled eggs, but most people act it
smells like death.
Someone said they like the smell of chlorine. What is it about highly toxic gases that makes them smell so good?
[Edited on 13-10-2014 by Cou]
[Edited on 13-10-2014 by Cou]
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j_sum1
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[Reposting this since all my posts vanished.  ]
I quite enjoy H2S also. Smells like one of my favourite places. Rotorua
I can also handle a whiff of bromine. Smells like trouble.
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diddi
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lots of organic solvents! my least favourite would be indole, followed by n-butyric acid and t-butanol
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