Pretty Pictures (2)

Long wave UV lamp left column, incandescent light right.

The top four are pictures of a rock I got from Violet Sin,and the other set is a piece of dragon's blood resin (incense)

Hydroxylamine HCl from approximately 80% methanol.

One of my earlier attempts to make YInMn blue in two different hues


A recent big batch of YInMn blue

Metal substitution variants of YInMn blue, YAlCuTi greens

Neodymium acetate tetrahydrate, taken with a really nice Leica microscope and a polarizing filter.

Gold!!!




not really, just a leaf of lead iodide

I recently worked with a Chlorine compressor (takes gaseous chlorine from a big electrolysis cell and turns it liquid) and the liquid Chlorine looked absolutely stunning when shining a flashlight through the watchglass.

Crystals of Cu(acac)2, formed from methanol/isopropanol.

Nickel sulphate made by dissolving nickel nitrate in glacial acetic acid and then dropwise adding the stoichiometric amount of sulphuric acid.

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk

That blue is intense! I read about it, is the color in the picture representative for the color in real life?

I hope you're asking about the YInMn blue or I'm about to answer questions no one is asking. Yes, that is pretty close to how it looks in bright light when synthesis is complete. I adjust white balance and if necessary adjust hue a little in order to make it look in photos as it to my eye. It doesn't come out this intense after the first heating, although it is most definitely blue.

If I had a pelleting press I might be able to do it in one run, but without one it requires a few heat-grind-reheat cycles to develop this intensity. I have photos up that show changes over the typical 3 necessary heating cycles as part of an instructable I recently posted on making the pigment. Figured I kept saying that most anyone with a kiln that could reach 1200°C could make it, so I should try to prove it. I wrote it up as a introduction to solid state chemistry. Relevant photos will be in step 5 even if I improve the images used: https://www.instructables.com/Make-YInMn-Blue-Pigment-Using-...

Regardless the process ends up producing pigment that looks very much like the commercial pigment. I'm attaching an image of mine vs official PB86 shot side by side. The isolated PB86 was a byproduct of analysis I did on Golden heavy body acrylic YInMn blue I bought when it was briefly available. I wanted to find out how much pigment they used in their paint (answer about 20-25% of the total weight of paint, 40-45% of the dry weight in case anyone cares) to guide my own paintmaking.

That is probably more than you or anyone else wanted to know.

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid

Crystals of Cu(acac)2, formed from methanol/isopropanol.

Quote: Originally posted by DrRadium

Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid   Crystals of Cu(acac)2, formed from methanol/isopropanol. Are those crystals as flexible as is claimed? Can they really be tied in knots?

Thanks for the answer, I was asking about the YInMn

Wet potassium ferric oxalate. I hope it keeps the color after bench drying

Hi Texium yep I am aware of this and wait with interest to see how quick this will happen. Once dry it will in a clear vial which of course don't help but I like to see the colors

Quote: Originally posted by kweiny

I recently worked with a Chlorine compressor (takes gaseous chlorine from a big electrolysis cell and turns it liquid) and the liquid Chlorine looked absolutely stunning when shining a flashlight through the watchglass.

Some compositions of uranium over a UV light. I dont even remember how I made this.

some photos

some ampoules.

accidentally grown cobalt nitrate crystals.

Uranium metal

Burning graphite with pure O2. Notice the little tails coming off the sparks

UO2(NO3)2 in tributyl phosphate / dilute HNO3

Some inorganics: Cesium, Antimony, Bismuth, Samarium, Cerium, Copper ... compounds.

Oxidation states of vanadium:
+5, +4, +3, +2

I am not terribly happy with the green, but it is still rather nice to have them all on display.

Quote: Originally posted by Texium

Nice! Are the lower ones backfilled with nitrogen or argon? If not, I’d worry the colors won’t last for long.

The +2 has a little sliver of zinc still in there. It seems to be stable. I have a second without the zinc to compare with.
The +3 was more tricky to produce. I found that it would oxidise back to the blue within seconds after removing the zinc strip that I was using to reduce it. I ended up doing the reduction in the ampoule and sealing it as soon as it looked right. There is a tiny piece of zinc in there too which should mitigate against the trapped oxygen. That one was a balancing act. And I definitely did not capture the best shade of green.

[edit]
You were right to be suspicious, Texium.
This photo shows the two ampoules a couple of hours later: one with a zinc strip and one without.

[Edited on 24-9-2022 by j_sum1]

K2UO2(SO4)2
The fluorescence is incredible in person, unfortunately shining uv directly on it floods the picture with purple light so I had to shine it to the side.

This is the "perfect pairing."





I don't know why this pic is inverted.

[Edited on 9-28-2022 by CharlieA]

[Edited on 9-28-2022 by CharlieA]

Quote: Originally posted by CharlieA

I don't know why this pic is inverted. [Edited on 9-28-2022 by CharlieA]

Did you post after drinking the bottle ?

To drink "Atom" wine I would have gone for these glasses:




[Edited on 28-9-2022 by Herr Haber]

Quote: Originally posted by CharlieA

Are those goblets the ones that are colored with U salts? [Edited on 9-29-2022 by CharlieA]

CrO3 accident at homelab

Clusters of 1-bromo-2-methyl-4-nitronaphthalene crystals coming out of solution in a column chromatography fraction.

Went back over to the coast and cleaned out my poor Toyota pickup. I haven't been hanging drywall over there for 3-4 years. One of the things discovered was an plastic pan with some solution in it and what sounded like glass rolling around. I assume it chrome alum? Nice lavender purple color. There was a small pile of agate's I found on the beaches, and in the glovebox I found a pile of carbonized ground cherry skeletons probably already pictured in the bread pyrolysis thread.





It sure used to get boring over there away from the fam, and my scienceing budget was dollar store or thrift store max, lol. See if I can't clean up a couple crystals and get a decent pic without the yellow solution adhering.

Acetaminophen cristals

I found in mountains place with many red granites. They look really nice.





[Edited on 17-10-2022 by Bedlasky]

Corrosion of a copper pipe when cathodic protection is connected incorrectly. 3 days old

Carbonized fossil wood mineralized with calcite with uranium and vanadium crusts (gummite & carnotite) -Late Triassic -Moss Back Conglomerate

tris(bipy)nickel(II) sulphate


surprisingly soluble in organic solvents- these were grown by vapour diffusion of acetone into a methanolic solution. I'm going to try again, starting with a more dilute solution, so there isn't the sudden rush of crappy crystals with better ones growing on top.


[Edited on 28-11-2022 by DraconicAcid]

So a while back I posted this shortly after
I rigged up a drying tube to diaphragm pump, pid heater and insulated bucket.
Every hour 10ml of dry air is pumped in and 10ml of moist air is pumped out. Keep the temperature at 28c, Set it in the corner and completely forgot about it.
Inside was a beaker, containing a saturated solution of KCl obtained from multiple recrystallizations of "Muriate of Potash 0-0-60"

Another attempt at getting nice crystals of Ni(bipy)3SO4. The dark blue(?) crystals are presumable nickel with 2 bipy and either water or sulphate as the other ligands.

First go at Picric Acid.

Quote: Originally posted by arkoma

First go at Picric Acid.

Beautiful canary yellow colour indeed, love it.

Has a nasty habit of staining everything though haha.

Had a wet batch out drying on minimal paper towels when I was a teenager in my closet and it soaked through. The carpet is still a pretty yellow all these years later.

Tin beads, created during an attempt to melt some tin.

Quote: Originally posted by greenlight

Beautiful canary yellow colour indeed, love it. Has a nasty habit of staining everything though haha.

here are some photos from under the microscope

Quote: Originally posted by arkoma

somehow i managed to not get yellow stains on my skin, but my god, glass with no discernible residue on it shed yellow like mad when being (re)washed.

You dont necessarily see the stains on your skin with normal light.
Try a black light for some fun

Quote: Originally posted by Raid

here are some photos from under the microscope

It's not difficult to clobber up a "stand-off" from your objective lens with a bit of paper tube and tape. You can get sharp photos easier if all you have to do is lay your camera on top of a tube cut to focal length.

Try it on a telescope with self timer (no shake from button push):





that was taken with a cheap kodak with NO zoom, but i had it taped to this:

Nice telescope

Homemade crystals of manganese(II) sulfate, purified from cheap pottery MnCO3 that gave a foul reddish-black solution on acidification. Very rewarding to make!



[Edited on 2-24-2023 by Amos]

I happened to have some dry ice, so I made some dinitrogen trioxide to show my students.

Picric Acid Recrystallization



The only yellow chemistry I'll do.

Neodymium sulphate octahydrate. I was rather surprised to see these- they grew from the filtrate after collecting and washing the same substance with near-boiling water.

Unknown mineral

Found this deep purple colored layer (2mm thick) in south eastern united states.
Adjacent layers are sandstone quartz mixture this lots of pyrite



Daylight

UV light

[Edited on 25-4-2023 by Rainwater]

There be gold in them industrial controllers

Got me about 1/2 a beers worth here