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Author: Subject: Chemicals that are expensive to buy but easy to make
Phosphor-ing
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[*] posted on 2-4-2017 at 17:28


3A molecular sieves are the way to go dehydrating ethanol. Not very fast but really cheap considering they can be regenerated hundreds or thousands of times.



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NedsHead
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[*] posted on 2-4-2017 at 21:51


Distilled water, that stuff is pricey but easy to make
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LD5050
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[*] posted on 3-4-2017 at 06:03


Quote: Originally posted by NedsHead  
Distilled water, that stuff is pricey but easy to make


Distilled water is pricey? last time I checked it was like 70 cents a gallon
Not sure if it was mentioned yet but benzaldehyde it hard to come by (depending on where you live) yet there is like 5000000 different ways of making it and a lot are quite easy.

[Edited on 4-3-2017 by LD5050]
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Melgar
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[*] posted on 4-4-2017 at 08:32


Lactic acid? We make it just by running, but it's stupidly expensive. Also, pyruvic acid. Not sure why those two are so expensive, since they can be made without much difficulty via the oxidation of propylene glycol.
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[*] posted on 4-4-2017 at 09:15


Quote: Originally posted by Melgar  
Lactic acid? We make it just by running, but it's stupidly expensive. Also, pyruvic acid. Not sure why those two are so expensive, since they can be made without much difficulty via the oxidation of propylene glycol.


Lol. How might you extract the lactic acid produced in the body?
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Melgar
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[*] posted on 4-4-2017 at 10:36


Quote: Originally posted by anewsoul  
Lol. How might you extract the lactic acid produced in the body?

With your liver, of course.
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symboom
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[*] posted on 4-4-2017 at 14:05


Compounds in milk
And extracting this is not my video
He extracts compounds from milk including lactose

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BV8aFRII1M4

Also
Racemic lactic acid is produced in industry by addition of hydrogen cyanide to acetaldehyde and subsequent hydrolysis of forming lactonitrile. Hydrolysis performed by hydrochloric acid and ammonium chloride forms as a by-product of lactic acid. Excerpt wikipedia lactic acid







[Edited on 4-4-2017 by symboom]
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Melgar
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[*] posted on 4-4-2017 at 15:00


Quote: Originally posted by symboom  
Compounds in milk
And extracting this is not my video
He extracts compounds from milk including lactose

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BV8aFRII1M4

Also
Racemic lactic acid is produced in industry by addition of hydrogen cyanide to acetaldehyde and subsequent hydrolysis of forming lactonitrile. Hydrolysis performed by hydrochloric acid and ammonium chloride forms as a by-product of lactic acid. Excerpt wikipedia lactic acid

If you kept reading, you might have noticed that only one company in Japan still makes it this way, and others all start with cheaper precursors like glycerol and propylene. However, lactic acid is a chiral molecule, which could make it harder to synthesize. And I doubt there's that much demand for it either.
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Fantasma4500
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[*] posted on 5-4-2017 at 10:22


ive seen styrene sold towards 100 dollars for half a litre, metal plastic or something, stabilized with 1% methanol, supposedly polymerizes into polystyrene when left out in air
this stuff can be made from pyrolysis of polystyrene, which can then be oxidized into benzaldehyde

one could go about making formate salts by tossing carbon monoxide, possibly from NaHCO3 electrolysis cell through calcium hydroxide, it then forms calcium formate
some very hefty solvents springs to mind, SCl2

one guy claimed to having been able to run a very neat manufacturing of oleum, 185% H2SO4, using sulfur, air and a catalyst, as well as drying agent for air (again sulfuric acid), cant remember what oleum cost last time i even had a chance to see price of such, but extremely expensive

colloidal silver through silver oxalate decomposition controlled in water and / or glycol mixture

guanidine carbonate! or well guanidine salts in general, recall AN and UNitrate heated together for some hours would create a bunch of guanidine nitrate

chloroacetates, simply chlorination of acetic acid

cyanides

acetaldehyde, mostly because its pretty difficult to get around? a bonus is that one can combine different things with the reaction vessel that then further reacts with aldehydes, amines and what not

chromate and dichromate from stainless steel - HCl + Me(tal) = MeClx -> MeClx + NaHCO3 = MeCO3/OHx -> Cr(OH)3 + NaClO = NaCrO4 -> NaCrO4 + HCl = Na2Cr2O7, excess HCl forms chlorochromate which has some potential use as oxidizer for organics, also serves as a neat little continous chlorine generator for whenever you feel like pouring out a bit of chlorine on burning steel wool or what not

oxalic acid from sugar and nitric acid
nitric acid

methanol distilled from wood

got a hint laying about saying butyl alcohol oxidation turns into methyl ethyl ketone?

"ketene lamp" (sort of build technical of what i understand, you want high temperature, high resistance kiln wire, can produce acetic anhydride i think?)

piperine, but very high risk reaction using sodium metal, cant recall procedure but its quite expensive stuff

ethyl chloride from Cl2 + ethanol

phenol from decomposition of salicylic acid, it can be tossed a bit back and forth in aromatic solvents with some patience

fine zinc metal powder from sodium zincate electrolysis

oxalic acid and glycol forming allyl alcohol (was it allyl?)

bunch of these things are either watched or barely possible to buy, others i wrote down simply for how useful they are




~25 drops = 1mL @dH2O viscocity - STP
Truth is ever growing - but without context theres barely any such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_table
http://www.trimen.pl/witek/calculators/stezenia.html
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[*] posted on 8-4-2017 at 07:27


Hey, I don't think iodine should be in the list up there. You can buy 10 grams for 20-40 dollars on ebay, but making some from tincture (are there other sources?) costs 10-15 dollars a bottle, and has about 1-2 grams.
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[*] posted on 8-4-2017 at 07:50


Chromate and dichromate from stainless steel is not particularly cost effective. Assuming 100% yield, I can actually buy chromates for slightly cheaper than I can make them, and when I make them, the yields aren't 100%. Of course, there is an extremely wide range of prices for [di]chromates... they are typically sold to chemists at exorbitant prices. But they are also used extensively for industrial purposes, so if you shop around, you can find technical grades at low cost. That's good enough for almost all purposes. And of course, you can also purify them yourself if you want some expensive grade stuff....



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[*] posted on 8-4-2017 at 11:52


How about benzene? Nigh impossible to get outside of chemical suppliers, but easy enough to make from benzoic acid if you have the patience.
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[*] posted on 9-4-2017 at 08:10


Quote: Originally posted by Booze  
Hey, I don't think iodine should be in the list up there. You can buy 10 grams for 20-40 dollars on ebay, but making some from tincture (are there other sources?) costs 10-15 dollars a bottle, and has about 1-2 grams.


LOL! 100 bucks for a kg (!) os KI or NaI + drugstore H2O2 + hardware store HCl = All the I2 you want.
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[*] posted on 9-4-2017 at 09:34


Quote: Originally posted by PirateDocBrown  
Quote: Originally posted by Booze  
Hey, I don't think iodine should be in the list up there. You can buy 10 grams for 20-40 dollars on ebay, but making some from tincture (are there other sources?) costs 10-15 dollars a bottle, and has about 1-2 grams.


LOL! 100 bucks for a kg (!) os KI or NaI + drugstore H2O2 + hardware store HCl = All the I2 you want.

100 bucks for a kg of potassium iodide? Pass, i'll buy some pure iodine on ebay. Besides, who needs a kilogram?

[Edited on 9-4-2017 by Booze]
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[*] posted on 9-4-2017 at 10:10


There's probably no easier chemical than iodine to purify.
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[*] posted on 9-4-2017 at 10:30


Quote: Originally posted by Melgar  
Quote: Originally posted by A Halogenated Substance  
Quote: Originally posted by Melgar  
but who has a crucible?


They're not exactly a rarity to me:

https://www.homesciencetools.com/50-ml-crucible-and-lid-low-...

You can always use a can from canned food as well.

Hey, why'd you quote me as saying that? I have plenty of crucibles, and can get them from the jewelry supply store in many different shapes and sizes. But then, I can get potassium cyanide for $20 / lb OTC there too, so that may not be a good comparison.

@altking: that's where desiccants are your friend. You just need to find one that's inert to ethanol but sucks up any water that comes near it. You tend to need to leave it overnight though. I've heard that potassium carbonate works well for this, but that's kind of expensive and reacts easily with anything acidic. Silica gel would probably be a good bet though.

[Edited on 4/3/17 by Melgar]


Better off using 3A molecular sieves.
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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 09:58


Extracting Sodium needs at least molten sodium hydroxide! (which is obtained at temp above 400°C) or molten NaCl (above 800°C). Na & K can not easily be obtained.
I still don't have acces to any bromide compunds, so i'm planning to extract it from sea water later.
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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 10:21


Quote: Originally posted by bluamine  
Extracting Sodium needs at least molten sodium hydroxide! (which is obtained at temp above 400°C) or molten NaCl (above 800°C). Na & K can not easily be obtained.
I still don't have acces to any bromide compunds, so i'm planning to extract it from sea water later.


Only half true. Yes, sodium is pretty difficult to prepare in a home setting.
Potassium on the other hand, is much more easily prepared via this:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=14970
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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 10:29


Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat  

ethyl chloride from Cl2 + ethanol



Um that's how you make chlorohydrate
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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 11:19


Quote: Originally posted by bluamine  
Extracting Sodium needs at least molten sodium hydroxide! (which is obtained at temp above 400°C) or molten NaCl (above 800°C). Na & K can not easily be obtained.
I still don't have acces to any bromide compunds, so i'm planning to extract it from sea water later.

I made sodium metal once. I used sodium hydroxide and magnesium powder and lit the magnesium. After that I added the mess to a beaker with water and a layer of mineral oil over the water. The sodium stayed in the oil mixture as the magnesium hydroxide sank to the bottom.

It was kinda easy, but then I melted the sodium into a nice blob.
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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 15:35


Quote: Originally posted by XeonTheMGPony  
Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat  

ethyl chloride from Cl2 + ethanol



Um that's how you make chlorohydrate


Lol found this funny - perhaps because I use the same tone to correct people about chemistry in general...

I can't recall if Chromyl Chloride was up there, or Dioxane, but doug's lab makes those synths look pretty easy. Not that either are exra-ordinarily useful.

Nathan




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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 15:52


There are safer reagents for this purpose, but chromyl chloride can be used to oxidize primary alcohols to aldehydes. It's rather dangerous stuff, but at least the boiling point isn't terribly low.

Dioxane actually looks tremendously useful... I'm not sure why it isn't more popular.




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[*] posted on 11-4-2017 at 17:19


Quote: Originally posted by JJay  

Dioxane actually looks tremendously useful... I'm not sure why it isn't more popular.


Carcinogenic, low yield when synthesizing from ethylene glycol and sulfuric acid, difficult to dry and purify, forms peroxides on storage...

[Edited on 12-4-2017 by Cryolite.]
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[*] posted on 12-4-2017 at 00:51


Quote: Originally posted by Booze  

I made sodium metal once. I used sodium hydroxide and magnesium powder and lit the magnesium. After that I added the mess to a beaker with water and a layer of mineral oil over the water. The sodium stayed in the oil mixture as the magnesium hydroxide sank to the bottom.

It was kinda easy, but then I melted the sodium into a nice blob.

I've already seen at least one video about this method, but i just forgot to mention it. Anyway, i don't have any Mg powder so it's somehow difficult to make it since i only have MgCl2 & MgSO4
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