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CharlieA
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[*] posted on 21-2-2019 at 18:19


Quote: Originally posted by arkoma  
Squat to do with chemistry, but I be cruising already on my metal/carbon fiber leg. w00t


Isn't science wonderful (better living through chemistry).

I'm glad to hear that you are doing well. In my limited experience (16-yr cancer survivor), attitude is everything, and you seem to have the right one! :) I became much more relaxed when I finally realized that there was no point in obsessing over things that I had no control over.
Regard, Charlie
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mayko
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[*] posted on 22-2-2019 at 21:06


dehydrated some oxalic acid under toluene. It would have been a lot easier to have a Dean-Stark but otherwise it went well



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[*] posted on 9-4-2019 at 18:47


Got some orange peels steam-distilling, no broken glassware yet!



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Herr Haber
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[*] posted on 7-8-2019 at 07:41


I routinely check on the chemicals I have in store.
Some of them are in cold storage for a variety of reason.

What a surprise to be greeted by a strong ammonia smell when I looked at the box containing solid bases (lots of NaOH, KOH even more NaHCO3 etc.).
Culprit was 1 kg of food grade Ammonium bicarbonate. Who would have guessed the decomposition temperature was so low !




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[*] posted on 18-8-2019 at 09:21


Finally completed Potassium Azide synth. What a pain that was. Making the Hydrazine Sulfate was the easy part surprisingly.

I started by making fresh isopropyl nitrite with some old homemade nitrite of dubious quality and of course it failed. Made a new good looking triple size batch which i accidentally fused into the bottom of the beaker. I lazily decided i would not need to dissolve it again because it is so soluble but it ended up getting coated with Potassium Chloride and it failed again. New batch again, takes a day to boil down all the while my hotplate keeps failing triggering the fuse of the apartment repeatedly. Because i poked a hole in my wide steel container i have to use a taller one than ideal for the batch making it extremely difficult to get the water out. I had to use up all the fuel of my two burners. After two days work i get my isopropyl nitrite.

Azide synth goes really well until the ***************** hotplate fails again. Luckily it worked out anyway though my product is an embarassingly yellow moist powder. In the end i think i used too much nitrite. At least now i can go to uni with my mind at peace having got my fill of chemistry for some time.
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Ubya
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[*] posted on 18-8-2019 at 13:31


Quote: Originally posted by Σldritch  
Finally completed Potassium Azide synth. What a pain that was. Making the Hydrazine Sulfate was the easy part surprisingly.

I started by making fresh isopropyl nitrite with some old homemade nitrite of dubious quality and of course it failed. Made a new good looking triple size batch which i accidentally fused into the bottom of the beaker. I lazily decided i would not need to dissolve it again because it is so soluble but it ended up getting coated with Potassium Chloride and it failed again. New batch again, takes a day to boil down all the while my hotplate keeps failing triggering the fuse of the apartment repeatedly. Because i poked a hole in my wide steel container i have to use a taller one than ideal for the batch making it extremely difficult to get the water out. I had to use up all the fuel of my two burners. After two days work i get my isopropyl nitrite.

Azide synth goes really well until the ***************** hotplate fails again. Luckily it worked out anyway though my product is an embarassingly yellow moist powder. In the end i think i used too much nitrite. At least now i can go to uni with my mind at peace having got my fill of chemistry for some time.

tine to get a better hotplate :')





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mayko
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[*] posted on 28-12-2019 at 20:04


Currently dissolving some copper wire in dilute perchloric acid + peroxide :cool:



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[*] posted on 29-12-2019 at 01:17


Am experimenting with boric acid catalysts in Fischer esterifications, I have seen too many people mention how it may work and haven’t seen anyone try it.



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--------------------------------
Elements Collected: H, Li, B, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, I, Au, Pb, Bi, Am
Last Acquired: B
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John paul III
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[*] posted on 29-12-2019 at 16:19


Made some calcium peroxide from calcium acetate and 3% H2O2 to see if it worked. Will upscale with 60% H2O2 I left in my rental apartment and see what this thing does mixed with sugar
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[*] posted on 30-12-2019 at 09:16


Quote: Originally posted by mayko  
Currently dissolving some copper wire in dilute perchloric acid + peroxide :cool:

mayko you certainly had / have / will have interesting ideas which I'm missing due to my limits, but why didn't you react CuO + HClO4?
Did you want to prepare Cu(ClO4)2 ASAP and avoid waste of time to prepare/buy CuO?
Was it an attempt to prepare very pure product (metallic Cu of high purity is more available than similar grade purity CuO)?
Or did you want to dissolve Cu in anything else than already well known, boring, stinking ways HNO3, hot conc. H2SO4? HCl + H2O2 would stink too so that's why you used HClO4? Also Na2S2O8 is used for dissolving Cu layer of PCB for electronics and another etching reagent for Cu PCB is FeCl3.
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[*] posted on 1-1-2020 at 17:34


I did an ethanol extraction of some camphor laurel leaves. This was more an excuse to use the soxhlet than anything else. But given that my street is lined with these trees, camphor extraction has been on the list for a while. I doubt my efficacy. I seem to have a lot of chlorophyll even though the leaves are dry and brittle. I will leave my bag of leaves a month or two more and try again. Probably a different method too.

Today I got my 8y old son to help me distill and recover the ethanol. It was a chance to use my Graham condenser: the cool appearance surpasses its functionality in most situations but it performed beautifully in this instance. Distilling ethanol is so satisfying: it just pours out of the condenser. My son enjoyed it too. Good times.
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 00:02


j_sum1 - steam distillation?
as you have plenty of material for free, maybe you can build some medium scale apparatus from an old pressure cooker
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 00:56


Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  
It was a chance to use my Graham condenser: the cool appearance surpasses its functionality in most situations but it performed beautifully in this instance. Distilling ethanol is so satisfying: it just pours out of the condenser.



Yup. Only use i've ever had for my Graham. LOL




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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 13:57


Well for all of those who have wondered, boric acid does not catalyze fischer esterification alone. Ill add a dehydrating agent to see if that can drive it away from hydrolysis.



List of materials made by ScienceMadness.org users:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmJ8uq-h4IkXPxD5svnT...
--------------------------------
Elements Collected: H, Li, B, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, I, Au, Pb, Bi, Am
Last Acquired: B
Next: Na
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 14:45


I have been looking around on the webs today a bit after finding some publication describing use strong acid ion exchange resin as a catalyst for esterfications...

After being done you only have to filter and the catalyst is gone and reusable.

Appearantly any old "Brita" kitchen drinking water purifier can be opened to get the resin which can be regenerated by soaking in acid.
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DraconicAcid
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 14:46


Really? I thought the Brita filters only had activated charcoal.....



Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Tsjerk
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 16:30


At least not the Dutch ones.. I haven't taken one apart yet but the brand Brita cartridges should have a resin compartment next to the charcoal compartment.

Edit: as long as it states to de-harden water it should have the sulfonated styrene resin.

[Edited on 3-1-2020 by Tsjerk]
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 18:34


Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk  
At least not the Dutch ones.. I haven't taken one apart yet but the brand Brita cartridges should have a resin compartment next to the charcoal compartment.

Edit: as long as it states to de-harden water it should have the sulfonated styrene resin.

[Edited on 3-1-2020 by Tsjerk]

That sounds awesome, I have one I can use!
EDIT:
Heres the box, it contains both activated carbon and ion exchange resin, which I assume is a sulfunated styrene.
In a bit I will take it apart and attempt an esterification with it. I have never tried using a sulfunated resin but I have heard they are excellent catalysts.

[Edited on 1-3-20 by Abromination]




List of materials made by ScienceMadness.org users:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmJ8uq-h4IkXPxD5svnT...
--------------------------------
Elements Collected: H, Li, B, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, I, Au, Pb, Bi, Am
Last Acquired: B
Next: Na
--------------
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[*] posted on 2-1-2020 at 18:49


Sorry for the double post, wouldnt let me include pic

D8B48D44-3311-4827-B3E1-2703E14B4BFE.jpeg - 3MB56A049A6-9009-43DE-B354-719356AF532D.jpeg - 2.6MB




List of materials made by ScienceMadness.org users:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmJ8uq-h4IkXPxD5svnT...
--------------------------------
Elements Collected: H, Li, B, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, I, Au, Pb, Bi, Am
Last Acquired: B
Next: Na
--------------
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[*] posted on 19-1-2020 at 12:58


Isopropyl nitrite. Per Rhodium.

IMG_20200119_132211.jpg - 927kB

*edit* photos of yield


IMG_20200119_185613.jpg - 880kB IMG_20200119_185755.jpg - 865kB

[Edited on 1-20-2020 by arkoma]




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[*] posted on 6-2-2020 at 12:34


We happened to get some dry ice in with a sample the other day, so I did a Grignard reaction with benzyl chloride to get phenylacetic acid. I messed it up, but still managed to get a small yield of white, clean-looking product. I've washed my hands a dozen times, but I can still smell it.



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[*] posted on 11-2-2020 at 21:29


I ran out of concentrated ammonia solution a while back and I've had some crappy cold-pack ammonium nitrate languishing on the shelf, so I'm liberating the gas with lye and redissolving. The sodium nitrate will go back on the shelf until I run out of nitric acid. I was surprised at just how much NH4NO3 it took (~360 g) to make so little ammonium hydroxide (~250 mL)!



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[*] posted on 12-2-2020 at 18:00


Do you know the purities of your starting materials? My calculations (always iffy), show that 4 mols of ammonium nitrate should yield 4 mols of ammonium hydroxide. 4 mols/250 mL = 16 M which seems to be high. Did you titrate the ammonium hydroxide solution to determine its molarity?
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[*] posted on 12-2-2020 at 18:42


I based my calcs off this passage from Wikipedia:

Quote:

At 15.6 °C (60.1 °F), the density of a saturated solution is 0.88 g/ml and contains 35.6% ammonia by mass, 308 grams of ammonia per litre of solution, and has a molarity of approximately 18 mol/L. At higher temperatures, the molarity of the saturated solution decreases and the density increases.


So it looks like your math is as good as the starting numbers were! I haven't titrated, but most of the expected mass increase is there, and I haven't had the huge cloud of excess ammonia gas I'd expect if there was too little water. Apparently ammonia is just ludicrously soluble! :o



Attachment: ammonia_concentration.xlsx (5kB)
This file has been downloaded 413 times




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[*] posted on 13-2-2020 at 18:18


quote: So it looks like your math is as good as the starting numbers were!

What do you know! Apparently it is true that a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then! Obviously I should have checked the solubility of ammonia in water. I suppose an accurate pH measurement of the solution would allow a calculation of the concentration also. I am very gratified to see someone report a result that they have checked against theory. This doesn't seem to be the case as often as it should be, and I confess that I am guilty of this too often.

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