Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Pretty Pictures (2)

Another interesting experiment was generating some phosphine.

In the round bottom flask some white phosphorous is melt under a sodium-hydroxide solution and the phosphine/diphosphane what is generated from this mixture is blown out from the gas phase using some argon.

The gas is bubbled through water and when it contacts with air, it ignites due the diphospane content. -do not try this at home(;

I thought this produced sodium hypophosphite?

UnintentionalChaos - 26-12-2013 at 11:21

Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1

I thought this produced sodium hypophosphite?

It does. It's a disproportionation. Phosphorus is both oxidized to hypophosphite and reduced to phosphine in a redox-balanced manner.

Arthur Dent - 27-12-2013 at 15:37

Copper Acetate synthesis:
Some coiled telephone wire in a test tube filled with glacial Acetic Acid. After 3 days at room temperature, the solution is a nice sharp cyan color. A previous synthesis yielded some very nice 1/2mm dark blue crystals.

Robert

UnintentionalChaos - 31-12-2013 at 13:03

My brother is into photography and recently built a diffuser for his flash to use for macro photography. I found him a subject in my jar of 1,3,5-trioxane while I was reorganizing my lab space.

EDIT: attached a large sized version for anyone who wants it.

[Edited on 12-31-13 by UnintentionalChaos]

Attachment: trioxane.7z (1.6MB)
This file has been downloaded 931 times

Arthur Dent - 1-1-2014 at 13:30

Quick follow-up to last week's experiment:
You can already see the formation of Copper Acetate crystals on the surface of the copper wire coil

Robert

Hegi - 3-1-2014 at 01:24

Quote: Originally posted by Arthur Dent

Quick follow-up to last week's experiment:
You can already see the formation of Copper Acetate crystals on the surface of the copper wire coil

Robert

looks nice, will try soon and post some macro photos.

... some copper sulphate crystals ( you can find 4 more photos of one big copper sulphate monocrystal here copper sulphate monocrystal)

[Edited on 3-1-2014 by Hegi]

[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: removed quoted image]

[Edited on 3.1.14 by bfesser]

kristofvagyok - 4-1-2014 at 16:16

Fun with fluorescent dyes. Here I used fluorescein-isothiocyanate, rhodamine 6g, aesculin and eosine(:

Hegi - 6-1-2014 at 08:08

Fun with fluorescent dyes. Here I used fluorescein-isothiocyanate, rhodamine 6g, aesculin and eosine(:

beautiful pics, could you please tell me exposure settings? ..

kristofvagyok - 6-1-2014 at 15:11

beautiful pics, could you please tell me exposure settings? ..

ISO: 100
40 mm f/6, 1/2s to 1/8s

Hegi - 7-1-2014 at 10:10

beautiful pics, could you please tell me exposure settings? ..

ISO: 100
40 mm f/6, 1/2s to 1/8s

thanks.

silver growing on a copper wire..

<center>to see more photos click here silver crystals</center>

[Edited on 7-1-2014 by Hegi]

Zyklon-A - 9-1-2014 at 10:28

Recrystallized potassium nitrate.

Hegi - 11-1-2014 at 06:13

dipotassium bis(oxalato-O,O')-copper(II) complex photo + infrared spectra for dihydrate and tetrahydrate you can find on my blog -> infrared spectra of copper complex

Brain&Force - 11-1-2014 at 20:54

Here is terbium (actually ferroterbium) taking a bath in HCl. The sample I received was contaminated with iron, and I'm attempting to determine the purity of the source material.
The second photo is some magnesium I burned. For the last two New Year's Eves I've burned magnesium. This may be the start of a new tradition.
The third photo is a mixture of red lettuce pigments separated through chromatography. Fun lab. Unfortunately the pigments faded away after a few weeks.

TheChemiKid - 12-1-2014 at 08:40

I know there has already been a post on copper sulfate crystals, but I thought I should add this.
You should open the file to full size, it is much better.

Screen Shot 2014-01-12 at 11.30.19 AM.png - 477kB

Here are the specifications:
Camera: Canon 60D
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO: 100
Flash: None

bfesser - 13-1-2014 at 06:31

Maybe not pretty, but I like the look of this dial and tube:

<table><tr><td><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35937732@N02/11920229446/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7297/11920229446_d53f268636_n.jpg" width="320" height="240" alt="CD V-715"></a></td><td><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35937732@N02/11919846204/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7438/11919846204_a47cfc66ec_n.jpg" width="320" height="240" alt="SI-3BG"></a></td></tr><tr><td align="center">CD V-715 Ion Chamber Survey Meter</td><td align="center">SI-3BG Geiger–Müller Tube</td></tr></table>

Hegi - 13-1-2014 at 11:51

Maybe not pretty, but I like the look of this dial and tube:

I don´t even know what is the first device used for.. o.O looks pretty!

[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: removed quoted images]

[Edited on 24.1.14 by bfesser]

Mailinmypocket - 13-1-2014 at 13:24

My phenol usually arrives as small loose crystals but this time the supplier poured it liquid into the bottle and I was pleased to see a shiny solid 250g mass when opened

never seen large phenol crystals in person

Pic is not as nice as UC's previous phenol though

[Edited on 13-1-2014 by Mailinmypocket]

pneumatician - 13-1-2014 at 16:28

the philosopher's stone

by unknown

http://www.weather.com/news/science/nikon-small-world-contes...

thebean - 13-1-2014 at 18:40

Phase separation of methanol/water azeotrope (top) and toluene/dichloromethane mix.

UnintentionalChaos - 17-1-2014 at 13:10

Not the best shot ever, but these hydroxylammonium chloride crystals won't cooperate with my camera. I made them in a few rather annoying steps from sodium nitrite. I'd be more annoyed if there wasn't 400mmol in the picture because that should be plenty for my needs.

[Edited on 1-17-14 by UnintentionalChaos]

Mailinmypocket - 19-1-2014 at 07:51

Gold refined from a chain somebody was throwing away because it was ugly... Managed to get 2.85g from the 14 carat item. So got about 125$ worth of gold for free

MrHomeScientist - 21-1-2014 at 08:17

Mailinmypocket: Nice! I'd be interested to hear about your procedure; sounds like a fun experiment. What's the (ballpark) purity of your recovered gold?

Mailinmypocket - 21-1-2014 at 08:56

The extraction was done a few months ago so I'll have to check my notes and get back to you. It was basically just precipitating the gold out of aqua regia with sodium metabisulfate which gave gold powder. Then the powder was melted down with two MAPP gas torches. I'm sure the gold is quite pure just based on the composition of 14k gold... Nothing else should have precipitated out.

kristofvagyok - 21-1-2014 at 09:57

That awesome moment when a reaction overreacts. It climbs out from the flask, directly to the wall of the fume hood.

The sad part: it was a concentrated sodium methoxide solution what will be great to clean up. Organic chemistry <3

Zyklon-A - 21-1-2014 at 11:50

Strontium nitrate/potassium perchlorate, and aluminum flash powder:

Intentionally slow burning, (so I could get it on camera).

[Edited on 21-1-2014 by Zyklonb]

Bot0nist - 21-1-2014 at 12:52

kristofvagyok, I love that pic of you flicking off that horrible mess. It shows the (sometimes) shitty side of chemistry.

Magpie - 21-1-2014 at 13:25

Quote: Originally posted by Bot0nist

It shows the (sometimes) shitty side of chemistry.

Yes, I think we've all been there.

Kristo could you tell us the nature of the reaction, and the scale?

kristofvagyok - 21-1-2014 at 13:37

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

Kristof could you tell us the nature of the reaction, and the scale?

It was an intermediate during the synthesis of cubane, according to this, the third step:

The scale was a circa 400g.

A picture from the bromination:

[Edited on 21-1-2014 by kristofvagyok]

DraconicAcid - 21-1-2014 at 13:42

And I suppose it was the final step. My sympathies.

Zyklon-A - 22-1-2014 at 06:15

Quote: Originally posted by Bot0nist

kristofvagyok, I love that pic of you flicking off that horrible mess. It shows the (sometimes) shitty side of chemistry.

Although I have heard it both ways, I think the correct verb, to give the finger, is flipping off, not flicking off.

Some people say that you flip off a person, and you flick off a thing. E.g. mess. I don't know if that's true though.

ElizabethGreene - 22-1-2014 at 13:00

Maybe not pretty, but I like the look of this dial and tube:

I don´t even know what is the first device used for.. o.O looks pretty!

The CD V-715 is an Ion chamber gamma ray detector used to detect (large) amounts of radiation subsequent to a nuclear war. It was manufactured and distributed through the US Civil Defense program in the 1960s. The "little brother" of this device is a Geiger counter. Those are built around the geiger-muller tube in the second picture. The two devices work on different mechanisms to do the same job.

The range of this detector is measured in roentgens per hour. The normal radiation dose for a person is measured in hundreds of milli-roentgens per year.
Terrifyingly, there were 0-50 R/hr and 0-500 R/hr meters too. I'd rather not ever see that needle move off zero, thanks.

Bfesser: That meter is in fantastic shape. Did you restore it?

[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: removed quoted images]

[Edited on 24.1.14 by bfesser]

Brain&Force - 22-1-2014 at 15:00

Here's some tetraamminecopper(II) sulfate and tetrachlorocupric acid (is that what you'd call the green product formed by HCl + CuCl₂?).

A cool demonstration to do is to heat a vial with iodine until it vaporizes. Cap the vial (being careful not to burn yourself in the process) and invert it. The result is an iodine cap over the vial, like this (it didn't form completely, and the photo's a little blurry):

bfesser - 22-1-2014 at 15:24

Quote: Originally posted by ElizabethGreene

I'd rather not ever see that needle move off zero, thanks.

Bfesser: That meter is in fantastic shape. Did you restore it?

Surprisingly, no. It was in this condition when I purchased it from the surplus shop. The only problem I found was that the ferrite core of an inductor had broken loose and was sliding freely back-and-forth through the bobbin, when tilted. I 'fixed' this with a small piece of clear Scotch tape over each end. With a D cell installed, the circuit check and zero work as expected; as far as I can tell, it's in perfect working order—I don't have a γ source strong enough to deflect the needle.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35937732@N02/11920075066/" title="CD V-742 by bfesser, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/11920075066_be60878034_n.jpg" width="200" height="150" alt="CD V-742"></a> <img src="../scipics/_ext.png" valign="top" />

As for the range, let's just say that I'd rather not have need to use this meter, nor would I like to see deflection in the filaments of my 200 Röntgen dosimeters.

[Edited on 30.1.14 by bfesser]

zenosx - 23-1-2014 at 21:15

Tis pretty, but I would hope to NEVER see than needle move in my presence

Maybe not pretty, but I like the look of this dial and tube:

[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: removed quoted images]

[Edited on 24.1.14 by bfesser]

Mailinmypocket - 26-1-2014 at 11:26

Distilling bromine, always beautiful

This was to produce ~100ml.
[img]

[/img]

Brain&Force - 26-1-2014 at 14:19

Some astronomy: the moon, Saturn and Jupiter

alexleyenda - 29-1-2014 at 17:35

Failed attempt to make a prince rupert's drop, beautiful anyway.

Zyklon-A - 29-1-2014 at 17:53

How did it fail? The air bubbles inside? Looks awesome to me! I've always thought molten glass would shatter if dropped into RT water.

alexleyenda - 29-1-2014 at 18:08

I don't know why it failed, all I know is that it did, when I crushed the tail the drop did not shatter. Second try : No bubble, a part of the bottom of the drop shattered in the water. I'm done for today, it takes so long before the drop starts falling.

[Edited on 30-1-2014 by alexleyenda]

New pics

zenosx - 30-1-2014 at 18:27

First are a CD pen type exposure counter after being reset and stored with my Uranium collection for about a year. There is also 1 uCi of Americium there, but being a Y only emitter, it doesn't count. Total U ore = about 1 lbs.

While it took over a year, I certainly wouldn't want to sleep with that under my pillow. 20 R exposure would certainly cause quite a bit of DNA damage

Last photo is an extract of ~ 70 mL artificial vanilla which listed ethyl vanillin as the vanilla ingredient. Extracted with DCM.
The two spots look suspiciously like bacterial contamination.

Brain&Force - 31-1-2014 at 20:03

Beautiful flame of copper chloride/methanol. Interestingly, copper chloride is reduced in the flame to the metal. The second photo is of the sulfate/methanol mix. It doesn't dissolve well (sulfates don't dissolve in alcohols). The chloride flame is ethereal and has a bluish tint that the sulfate flame does not have.
The third photo is terbium sulfate filtrate under shortwave UV light.

ParadoxChem126 - 3-2-2014 at 08:06

Steam-distilling crude chlorobenzene out of Sandmeyer reaction waste.

Zyklon-A - 3-2-2014 at 08:32

Hey, that's a good idea, to put weights on your chemistry stand, I'm going to do that next time I'm holding something heavy on it.

zenosx - 3-2-2014 at 18:21

I was thinking the same thing when I saw that....

Zyklon-A - 3-2-2014 at 19:45

Precipitating copper carbonate, looks way better in real life.

alexleyenda - 3-2-2014 at 21:22

How could you live without weights on your stands :p The first thing I did when I received mine is to put weights on them, they are so unstable without them.

@ Zyklonb, it looks great, I always loved copper solutions/compounds, the colours are so vibrant.

Anyways, here's my collection of canadian dollars vandalized through electroplating/heating/chemical plating

. It was a lot of fun/learning/challenge/frustration through many months, it is not really hard but I started doing this 5 months ago when I just started chemistry as a hobby and I also had to wait to get more chemicals and labware to make different platings. The next one will be silver when I'll finaly manage to get HNO3 to dissolve it, Nitrates are so hard to get in Canada!

The one on the left (normal) should be bronze according to wikipedia. The mg's color is strange, it's the first one I made back at the time, I guess I did something wrong !

piasse.bmp - 420kB

[Edited on 4-2-2014 by alexleyenda]

Brain&Force - 3-2-2014 at 21:29

What was the process for plating Mg? If you did it in water, the metal would not reduce - it would convert to the hydroxide instead because the water already releases enough protons to reduce the metal. You'd need an anhydrous solvent like THF or pyridine.

alexleyenda - 3-2-2014 at 21:34

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

What was the process for plating Mg? If you did it in water, the metal would not reduce - it would convert to the hydroxide instead because the water already releases enough protons to reduce the metal. You'd need an anhydrous solvent like THF or pyridine.

I certainly did not do that, I was really beginning when I did this one. If my memory is good, I dissolved magnesium in HCl, then electroplated with a magnesium strip as the anode. I took a look at the theory and it looks like you are right and I made hydroxide :p I'll have to redo this one. I still wonder what is on the coin however.

[Edited on 4-2-2014 by alexleyenda]

ParadoxChem126 - 3-2-2014 at 22:28

Nothing special, just iodine sublimating and depositing onto a round-bottom flask full of ice.

kristofvagyok - 3-2-2014 at 23:28

The blood red reaction product is poured on ice-water to quench the reaction and to decompose the red colored iminium ion what was made by a Vilsmeier–Haack reaction.

At the bottom of the water the yellowish impure reaction product separates what will be recrystallized to yield white snowflake like crystals.

If anyone would like to buy this picture, please visit: http://society6.com/labphoto/Blood-in-the-flask_Print#1=45

Zyklon-A - 4-2-2014 at 07:05

@kristofvagyok, that looks awesome!

@alexleyenda, Thanks, I wont to start a electro-deposited coin collection as well. Maybe I'll post a picture as soon as it gets big enough. I don't know, I just never thought of putting weights on my stand.

@ParadoxChem126, I'm to scared to sublimate any of my Iodine, scared that I might lose some that is. I have ~30 grams, that I bought a while ago, but I don't think that I'll be able to buy any more. (Because of the drug war.) I know how to make it of course, but what I have is very pure, and was quite expensive.

[Edited on 4-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

Brain&Force - 5-2-2014 at 10:16

alexleyenda, for the plated coin collection, why not use silver? That should work fine. Other ones that may work include chromium, cobalt, and gold (if you can get your hands on a gold compound).

alexleyenda - 5-2-2014 at 13:52

For silver I would need nitric acid to dissolve it to make the aqueous solution (at my knowledge it is the only way to dissolve it), but I don't have nitric acid. It is impossible to find nitric acid or nitrates to make it in Canada (omg, explosives, fear, terrorism, let's ban all the nitrates, next step is water, dangerous solvent!), I know how I could get some but it'll take some time :p Gold I can't now for the same reason and I'll take a look at chromium and cobalt.

@ Kristof, your christmas ball over snowflakes synthesis looks really great :p

[Edited on 5-2-2014 by alexleyenda]

Zyklon-A - 5-2-2014 at 14:03

@alexleyenda, dissolve silver without HNO₃.

[Edited on 5-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

Simbani - 5-2-2014 at 15:30

Sorry no picture from me, but I can´t help myself, I have to link this video

Some incredible looking highspeed footage of a "christmas tree" made out of detcord!
Det Cord Christmas Tree

Hegi - 6-2-2014 at 08:24

not chemistry, but anyway...

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/js6.jpg" width="800" />

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/js4.jpg" width="800" />

and potassium hexacyanochromate(III), could always be find on wiki...

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hexacyanidochromate-II.jpg" width="800" />

[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: reduced image size(s)]

[Edited on 7.2.14 by bfesser]

Adas - 6-2-2014 at 10:19

Not very pretty, but still.. Something with copper sulfate and sodium hydroxide.

Zinc flame

alexleyenda - 7-2-2014 at 11:56

While I was trying to extract zinc from batteries the other day, I had to test if the metal really was zinc. I thought a good first test would be to try to melt it with a blowtorch. My first attempt did not melt the metal, it was probably a steel case. On my seconth attempt however (with metal from another brand and kind), it was zinc and I learned by surprise that zinc did burn in a beautiful cyan color! Chemistry is so awesome for these "oh, I didn't expect that" moments

Anyways, I took some pictures of burning zinc after that. The quality kind of sucks, but it is still acceptable.

zinc1.bmp - 654kB

[Edited on 7-2-2014 by alexleyenda]

Zyklon-A - 7-2-2014 at 12:21

Cool, I just took apart two zinc-carbon batteries two days ago, the zinc yields were pretty good, I haven't weighed them yet though.

Mailinmypocket - 7-2-2014 at 14:04

Been handling lots of bromine lately. I stored it in the freezer to find these pretty crystals on the walls

<img src="http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/w541/mmpchem/Mobile%20Uploads/photo_zpscecc7722.jpg" width="800" />

[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: reduced image size(s)]

[Edited on 7.2.14 by bfesser]

Zyklon-A - 7-2-2014 at 17:02

That looks awesome, I just ordered a condenser, so I might make some bromine myself.

alexleyenda - 7-2-2014 at 17:26

Yep, I'm like a child in frond of red cristal candies :p

Zyklon-A - 7-2-2014 at 17:30

I'm going to electro-plate some coins today(at least one today). Will post some pictures later.

[Edited on 8-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

alexleyenda - 7-2-2014 at 18:10

My Québec version of the famous blue bottle experiment ; the beer bottle

I used our maple syrup as a source of glucose as I didn't manage to find pure glucose but it's even better ! It really looks like beer :p

bluebottle.bmp - 462kB

Mailinmypocket - 7-2-2014 at 18:48

That's hilariously cool! Nice job!

[Edited on 8-2-2014 by Mailinmypocket]

Sodium ferrioxalate

Hegi - 16-2-2014 at 11:47

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/picture.jpg" height="597" width="900">

Brain&Force - 16-2-2014 at 12:55

Hegi, you must show us what the sodium ferrioxalate looks like under UV light!

Here's the spectrum of a sodium lamp. The D line is visibly split. I don't know whether this is caused by the absorption of the light or by the actual splitting of the D line into D₁ and D₂ components. It's only visible when the lamp is at full power.
<img src="http://brainforce.weebly.com/uploads/5/5/1/3/5513329/228592_orig.jpg" width=800>

[Edited on 16-2-2014 by Brain&Force]

alexleyenda - 20-2-2014 at 19:23

A sealed test tube I made today to contain Iodine for the pleasure of safely subliming it. Works like a charm! Resists the pressure, no flaw.

iode.bmp - 304kB

Zyklon-A - 20-2-2014 at 19:37

Nice, I sublimated and condensed some iodine yesterday.

[Edited on 21-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

Oscilllator - 22-2-2014 at 00:02

Some copper aspirinate I made the other day. Also, an improvised dean-stark trap. It worked just fine for my synth of p-toluenesulfonic acid.

bfesser - 22-2-2014 at 05:31

That's a damned nice product—beautiful color! What are your plans for such a large quantity, though?

Hegi - 22-2-2014 at 07:56

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

Hegi, you must show us what the sodium ferrioxalate looks like under UV light!

Hey man, thank you for the idea, i´ve almost totally forget about that...

soon... Now it´s being recrystallised..

<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chromalum21.jpg" width="900" height="600">

kristofvagyok - 22-2-2014 at 15:35

Hey man, thank you for the idea, i´ve almost totally forget about that...

soon... Now it´s being recrystallised..
<img src="http://chem.pieceofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chromalum21.jpg" width="600" height="400">

As I see Hegedus is a popular name in Science photography

BTW great picture, what kind of camera/lens were used?

Something from me too:

Fun with fluorescent dyes part 3. In this case Eosin and Rhodamin B was used.

Oscilllator - 22-2-2014 at 19:19

That's a damned nice product—beautiful color! What are your plans for such a large quantity, though?

I'm afraid there are no special plans - I just went into the shops and bought 2 packets of aspirin. I am actually quite surprised that the product turned out as well as it did because halfway through the synth I realised I had used an excess of Na2CO3, so I added a dash of HCl to try and neutralise it.

Edit: Are there any further reactions that can be done with copper aspirinate? I was always under the impression that it was a dead-end in terms of reactions.

[Edited on 23-2-2014 by Oscilllator]

Brain&Force - 22-2-2014 at 22:24

kristofvagyok: I have a new wallpaper now, thanks!
Hegi: Your crystals remind me of copper acetate crystals. What's the scale on the photos?

Are you two twins separated at birth? Your photos say it all!

Hegi - 22-2-2014 at 23:46