bmays
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Anything besides heat that reliably destroys organic compounds?
Breaking them to their base elements, or just breaking all carbon bonds.
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AndersHoveland
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Lasers tuned to a specific frequency can sometimes selectively break chemical bonds.
There is also oxidation, Carro's Acid and Base Piranha. Persulfate, either heated or catalysed with some iron salt, will also completely oxidize most
organic compounds.
I'm not saying let's go kill all the stupid people...I'm just saying lets remove all the warning labels and let the problem sort itself out.
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Adas
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Sulfur trioxide. 
Rest In Pieces!
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Tsjerk
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Bleach will also oxidize a lot of organics, or chlorine when you slowly add acid to the bleach/organic mixture.
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woelen
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Making bleach/organic mixtures can be quite dangerous, especially if the bleach is concentrated. Such mixes easily can get out of control completely
(e.g. think of mixes of alcohol and hypochlorites). Using bleach for cleaning organic remains (e.g. stuff, sticking to glassware) is perfectly safe
and indeed can be quite succesful in many cases.
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12AX7
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Hmmm...
- Laser ablation (technically cheating: the plasma pulse is locally very hot)
- Oxidizers (as said above)
- Strong acids; worst case, HSbF6, which can protonate methyl groups (forming CH5(+) carbocations!)
- Sulfuric acid, P2O5 (if you can make a mixture): dehydrating agents
- Ionizing radiation (takes a humongous dose to literally destroy small compounds, though)
- Although oxidizers are useful, reducing agents aren't as much; organics tend to be fairly reduced to begin with (you can't really reduce alkanes and
further). That said, a solution of lithium in ammonia, or n-butyl lithium, or something like that, would make a strong reducing agent and base,
enough to thoroughly gum up most functional groups.
- Mass spectrometry with the ionization cranked up (similar effect to regular ionizing radiation, but potentially more quantitative)
Etc.
Tim
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zed
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Ozone. Yup. Ozone! Seems to me it is used for water purification in parts of Europe. It can convert water containing sewage....into sweet drinking
water.
Removes most organics completely. You end up with H20, CO2, and zip. Won't remove heavy metals or halogens though.
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Metacelsus
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Chromic Acid! It oxidizes the crap out of most anything. However, hexavalent chromium is notoriously toxic . . .
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AJKOER
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OK, I think an obvious one has been omitted.
"Electricity"
which will decompose/break apart many organic compounds. Exceptions include good conductors (like Carbon itself).
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AndersHoveland
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Ozone is a more powerful oxidizer in in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The two react with eachother, generating transient hydroxyl radicals in
solution. This is a good way to destroy organics like chloroform that are otherwise very resistant to oxidation by ozone alone.
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mr.crow
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Also don't forget Fenton's Reagent. Hydrogen peroxide and iron salts. More hydroxyl radicals
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble
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phlogiston
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Are you trying to clean glassware, purify water, perfom elemental analysis or yet something else?
-----
"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer |
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AJKOER
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Caution: In line with the above comment, if you are cleaning up some organic compounds with strong oxidizers, some very toxic products can result. For
example:
Cr2O3 + 3 CCl4 –––> 2 CrCl3 + 3 COCl2
[Edited on 4-1-2013 by AJKOER]
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bfesser
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Quote: Originally posted by 12AX7  | Hmmm...
- Mass spectrometry with the ionization cranked up (similar effect to regular ionizing radiation, but potentially more quantitative)
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I laughed so hard I cried! Thank you.
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