Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Chem Stock organisation

YT2095 - 16-3-2007 at 07:06

Technicaly a Trivial question,

but my Lab stock room is organised as: Oxidizers, Reducers, Acid, Bases and Metal salts.

but I keep copper carbonate in the Metal salts section, but Strontium or Barium Nitrates/Chlorates in the Oxiderzers section?

shouldn`t I really have the Copper Carb in the Bases section?

and Sr/Ba salts in the Metal salts section?

Im only asking because this kept me up quite a bit last night thinking about it :(

pantone159 - 16-3-2007 at 10:08

I put chlorates/nitrates with the oxidizers, personally.

Sauron - 16-3-2007 at 10:26

I concurr. The carbonates can go either way. But obviously strong oxidizers need to be segregated.

YT2095 - 16-3-2007 at 10:32

well I keep the Sr and Ba and Ca carbonates and hydroxides in the Bases section as well as the Alu hydroxide.

Cu, Mn, Co, blah blah blah goes in the metals section?

so I can`t even say groups 1 and 2 are free, as I have Alu hydoxide in there too.

and as for Fetish Sauron, that`s not my thing mate, I`ll defer that side of things to You.

woelen - 17-3-2007 at 11:39

What counts is safety. So, keep acids and bases separated, keep oxidizers and reductors separated. I use this rule only to assure that no energetic reactions can occur with adjacent chemicals.

I have a cabinet for liquid acids (H2SO4, HNO3, HCl, HBr, CH3COOH, HCOOH).
A cabinet for strong bases (NaOH, KOH, conc. NH3)
A cabinet for strong oxidizers (e.g. chlorate, bromate, permanganate, iodate, dichromate, persulfate, TCCA, hypochlorite)
A cabinet for strong reductors (e.g. metal powders, sodium dithionite, sodium, sulphur, red phosphorus)
Hydrogen peroxide (30%) I store separately, not in a special cabinet.

All other chemicals are stored in convenient order, sorted by frequency of use. This mixed storage also contains moderately strong oxidizers and moderately strong reductors. Only the really reactive/energetic materials are stored separately.

[Edited on 17-3-07 by woelen]