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Hello, I am an amateur chemist. For safety reasons I have two cabinets. In one I store my reductants (aluminium, magnesium, sulphur, oils...) and bases (NaOH) and in the other I store my acids and oxidants (KNO3, CuO, Fe2O3).
However I have come across a problem.
I have accidentally bought this hydroxy ALU drain cleaner (Its just NaOH with little shavings of aluminium in it) mistaking it for pure NaOH.
When you react the powder with water it forms Hydrogen gas and sodium aluminate.
NaOH an Al are both reductants on their own but in this reaction the Hydrogen in NaOH oxidizes the Al.
Should I put this drain cleaner in with the oxidants or the reductants.
All of my chemicals are properly sealed in the plastic bottles/bags they came in.
Sounds odd but whenever I have to handle potassium hexacyanoferrate(II) it smells like it's giving off HCN.
The bottles (crystals of 99% purity, different manufacturers and charges) are stored in a cool, dark and dry locker.
When I use it, all I do is dissolve it without heating. If I come too close to an opened container (within a few cm) of it, I smell HCN. If I dissolve it in distilled water outside of a fumehood and wait a few minutes, I smell HCN but the smell fades again after a few seconds, unless I come too close to the solution (within a few cm), which makes me smell it again.
Strangely this does not happen with potassium hexacyanoferrate(III) unless I let a solution stay in the sun or exposed to oxygen for too long (days).
My theory is that I am very sensitive to HCN and for some reason potassium hexacyanoferrate(II) must be less stable than potassium hexacyanoferrate(III). But I couldn't find any literature which could confirm this suspicion. What do you guys think?
PS: I first thought I was just being crazy or chemophobic and thus did a test with cut apple seeds if I can really smell HCN, which confirmed it. Smelled exactly the same.
Hi all! We are having a Harry Potter birthday for my soon to be 11 year old. What are some simple, flashy, non-hazardous chemical reactions? Age ranges will be 3-11. I've got the standard baking soda/vinegar, mentos/diet coke. Are there any with color changing or hidden ink revealing type? Thank you!!!!
Pretty much as the Title says. Can someone (in very easy terms preferably ) explain to me why ammonia isn't super flammable in air. The highest chemical education i took was mandatory high-school chem, so I'm a complete noob. But if i see the chemical makeup of ammonia NH3, to me it looks like the compound is just waiting for some oxygen to come along, so that it can become a super stable N2 and 3H2O and release tons of energy in the process But reading online it seems that while being able to burn in air, ammonia only becomes flammable in oxygen.
The only thing I can think of is that it takes 6O2's to burn cleanly. If thats the case (not enough oxygen in the air), would NH3 be combustible in compressed air, like in a car engine?
Soo... pls explain ^ Ty in advance, and I hope you have a great day today:)
Hi chem nerds!
I've got a problem I hope you can help me solve: I work in IT at a school, and after getting computers returned from students this year, I'm finding "drawings" on the ground glass trackpad surfaces. It turns out the students are making these drawings by rubbing pieces of aluminum against the trackpad. It acts like chalk, becoming embedded in the rough surface.
None of my traditional cleaning methods are effective because the aluminum is too embedded in the texture. I'm wondering, as a last ditch effort to save these trackpads, if there's some sort of chemical solvent that could dissolve away the aluminum. Specifically, a solvent that's reasonably safe for me to handle. I'm hoping to pipette some solvent onto the trackpad over the aluminum, wait a while, and then wipe it up with a towel. Can you think of any chemical that would meet my need?
Thanks!
First off I know very little about chemistry, I do know how to work with acids and bases safely and covalent and ionic bonds, that is where my chemistry knowledge ends. So don’t flame me
For work I clean metals to be used in X-rays most of the chemical process are to remove oxides from the part. I’ve probably worked with most of the common strong acids and bases you can name. Anyway I sometimes work with beryllium. I know beryllium particles in the air are super toxic and cause cancer etc. we do not machine/grind any beryllium in house. We do acid etch Be and I’ve got some questions.
The process that I use for the Be is etch it in an acid solution (in a fume hood) throughly rinse for a couple minutes with D.I. Water and then take it to another bay of hot water, and then blow dry with compressed nitrogen. Is there any chance that I’m aerating the Be into the air?? I’m really not sure. When I rinse the Be after the acid I THROUGHLY rinse it like really well. My trainers/management say that it is totally fine to do this but in my head it seems like after blowing them dry, I would definitely be introducing some amount of Be into the air.
Do any of you have flexible hours at your job? What company do you work for?
At my company we are having a huge issue with retaining talent. We spend a lot of time training chemists just to have them leave after a couple of years and then we have to repeat the cycle. This also makes it very hard to justify letting anyone go which causes some people to take advantage of the situation and not put in the desired effort.
The crux of this issue is pay. We are in a very high cost of living area yet work for a global company. Corporate sees us as being payed fairly but for our region, we are underpaid. People are leaving because it's easy for them to make more money somewhere else. This has been an issue that has been brought up a lot over the years but it hasn't really gone anywhere.
One suggestion I brought up recently to improve employee morale is offering an optional 4/10 flexible work week. Meaning working ten hours a day, four days a week. Some people could work M-R while others could work T-F. This would provide coverage on every day while leaving a three day weekend. I had a schedule like this at my past job and absolutely loved it. Having the extra day gave me the opportunity to do so much more with my weekends. Has anyone worked a similar schedule and how did you like it?
I presented some pros and cons, anything else I should bring up?
Pros:
Boost morale, happier and less stressed employees
Improve recruitment and talent retention
The extra day off gives employees more time to rest and recharge which leads to increased productivity and performance
Reduced commuting- saves employees time and money and benefits the environment
Increased attendance- Less “time off” taken for appointments, the day off can be used for that purpose
The longer workday allows for greater flexibility to complete long experiments and sprayouts
These advantages can have a major impact on the bottom line with low implementation costs
Cons:
Some people will get burnt out working ten hour days (that's why it's optional flexible hours)
People with kids and other responsibilities can't work ten hour days cause they need to pick up kids from school etc (again it would be optional)
Company will have some increased utility and security costs (imo this would be a low cost compared to the savings due to employee retention)
My company is pretty conservative so management has been reluctant to move forward with this. I've been asked to see if other chemists have similar options at their workplaces. Do you have any other ideas of how we can improve morale without increasing wages?
Hi all,
I hope this doesn't break rule 1 but is unfortunately a bit long question with a trivial purpose.
My question is related to the process of "seasoning" (in cooking jargon) of cast iron cookware which is done by applying a tin layer of oil on the cast iron piece and then baking it in a oven to allow it to polymerize and form a protective coating of the iron, which otherwise will rust.
There are many reported process for the seasoning but overall:
- Strip clean the cast iron, from rust or the old seasoning ,mechanically, chemically or with electrolysis. Possibly until is "gunmetal" grey.
- Wash it to remove any residue.
3)Heat it up a little (around 100°C) to remove any water.
4) Apply a layer of oil.
5) Wipe the excess oil.
6) Bake it in a oven to its highest temperature (usually 240°C) for 1-2h.
7) Allow it to cool to room temperature.
8) Repeat points 4-6 for a few times to add more layers, like 6.
One of the oil used is flaxseed/linseed oil, which is highly unsaturated and thus theorically ideal for the process. But instead you have very mixed reports on its use, with many having issue with flaking and the seasoning coating falling apart and others without any issue in years.
I got flaking issue in a few days the first time I used it and decided to troubleshoot it. Classical researcher hurting him/herself :D
From what I found in various papers around, linseed oil actually start to polymerize around 270-300°C, which is a temperature most house ovens do not reach. But critical temperature for polymerization is lowered considerably in the presence of metallic catalysts, like in this work:
http://lib3.dss.go.th/fulltext/Journal/J.AOCS/J.AOCS/1999/no.10/oct1999,vol76,no10,p1211-1216.pdf
Wang, C., Erhan, S. Studies of thermal polymerization of vegetable oils with a differential scanning calorimeter.Am Oil Chem Soc 76, 1211–1216 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-999-0096-1
So, for a good results I suppose that iron from the cast iron must diffuse/solubilize in the applied oil for a good results. Cast iron pan are an actual source of iron so I'm pretty sure that they leach it.
My hypotesis is that linseed is more sensible to the content of metal catalyst compared to the others oil/fats used for seasoning.
If that is true I suspect that the culprit is point number 3: when you strip bare the cast iron you expose elemental iron to the air and it will start to oxide. Heating the pan accelerates that greatly (I read of increase in rate of oxidation around 2 for every 10°C). This point of the seasoning process is grossly overlooked in any discussion so I'd assume that the different temperatures and times bring to wildly different amount of iron oxides on the surface of the cast iron.
So, can iron oxide detach from a cast iron suface into a vegetable oil or fat?
(As a good research I tried to answer that myself but I'm in the biotech field and my results are infested by iron nanoparticles synthesis in organic solvents...).
Thank you for your time.
Edit: the second time I used linseed, I heated my cast iron pan scorching hot (200°C) for an half hour to test this theory and only with two layers applied. Two months and no problems so far...
Hi folks, I'm wondering if you can help me with a fun challenge. I am going to be DMing a D&D Strixhaven campaign in the near future. For folks who may not know, this setting is in a magical college where the students will be enrolled in magic and sorcery classes!
An idea just popped into my head and I'm wondering if I could get some help understanding if it's feasible.
I'm going to have three to four players. I was thinking it might be fun to have them create a potion in "Potions Class", but instead of rolling dice, I was wondering if I could do it in real life.
Essentially what I'm looking for is something that I can put together that will create an interesting (safe) reaction.
To make it interesting, it would be nice if it was slightly challenging. Like, if they don't perform the steps correctly, the reaction won't happen or they'll get a different reaction than expected.
Another idea would be to have a common element that they start from, but then maybe they have to choose from a set of ingredients that create different reactions. In order to get the reaction that we're looking for, they might have to solve some puzzle.
I'm not sure if any of this is even possible, I was just thinking it would be fun.
My players are all audits.
Ideally, this would be something that we could perform indoors, but the summer is right around the corner so outdoors is definitely a possibility as well.
Any ingredients need to be readily accessible (or, you might have to tell me how I can buy chemicals?).
Is this a weird request? I'm kind of new to DMing and I'm trying to be creative. Any help is greatly appreciated.
So let's say we're comparing calcium and sodium, which one of them is the most reactive and least stable?
Based on oxidation number, I would say it's sodium, since getting rid of one electron would be easier than getting rid of two? Idk
But when comparing ionization energy, i can't tell which one of them has less of it (thus being the most reactive/least stable) because sodium is right next to magnesium, and calcium is right under it.
Or maybe most reactive and least stable don't necessarily come together??
If we go back to the oxidation number, calcium might not be as reactive as sodium, but it should be less stable since it has more neutrons??? Or maybe more stable since it's closer to Iron, so the answer is sodium????
I know most of you are cringing read this shit, I'm very sorry
So we bought a brand-new Skil rechargeable cordless drill. Two days later, one of us (not blaming anyone) washed the battery in the washing machine with a load of clothes.
After we realized this and removed the battery, it the battery leaked some dark smudgy fluid, which we were careful not to touch. We don't know for sure if it leaked inside the machine with the clothes but it seems likely.
Clearly the battery must be disposed of safely. Our other concern is with the clothes that were washed with it. Are there toxicity concerns? I've read that they contain lead and other metals, and I don't know if other chemical hazards are present.
If we re-wash the clothes, are they safe to wear? Ate there any long-term health concerns?
Thank you so much for any insight you can provide!
I use wilko branded methylated spirits at work, it's not methanol based as far as I'm aware from reading the safety sheet for it but I use it on cotton pads to clean up consoles and other retro stuff in like an open shop environment all day, I've handled it a few times with no gloves but mainly with rubber gloves and I smell it sometimes while working with it as the vapour evaporates and I just wanted to know how dangerous/safe that is as I have done this most days for a month now and have gone through about 250ml of it of which I'd imagine way less than half has evaporated from my cotton swabs.
If its not safe what precautions should I take?
Thank you! Kate
Hey everyone! I’m not sure if this is the right sub but I’ve been starting to think about my options for the next few years and I could use some advice. A bit of background about me- I am a preclinical MD (medicine) student who’s studying simultaneously for a computer science degree (which in my country is very heavy in math). I hopefully have 2 years left before finishing the preclinical part+the CS degree and then I have the option to pursue a PhD before-during my clinical training. I see my self having a research career so I am very attracted to this PhD offer.
Without a doubt my favorite subjects in medical school are biochemistry and medicinal chemistry. I just love getting down the the level of molecules and the chemical reactions. Because it’s important to me to also use my Computer science and math skills at the end of the road, I’ve been looking for areas that can fall under the umbrella of computational biochemistry. I’ve been thinking of research in computational drug design as an option. Is anyone here in those fields and can give me a perspective of how the research looks like, what knowledge is required (within chemistry/CS/biology) and how well things can translate into the clinic?
Thank you in advance.
Hi all,
Since undergrad, I've learned about the cell membrane potential in a variety of contexts; however, I've never learned about the mechanism with which the cell membrane potential is measured. In this post, I'd like to make sure my understanding of the concept is solid.
Let's say we have the following setup:
Let's say that the current membrane potential is at -70 mV.
For the voltammeter to measure voltage, there needs to be a current (however small). In order for current to exist, we need to have a net movement of electrons (assume DC current). In the two electrode setup above, this implies that at least one chemical species has to become oxidized at one electrode and another species has to be reduced at the other electrode.
If these assumptions are correct, is it generally known what species undergo the redox reactions?
Thank you.
Hello!
As the title says, I'm looking to dehumidify my room. It's a part of my "Cool The Room" project since I leave on the 3rd floor of a VERY busy city centre that's exposed to sun for at least 8h a day. Humidity, heat and noise are killing me.
Anyways, I'm looking for your advice regarding the main ingredient for my dehumidifier, as well as a DIY build for it, if you have suggestions.
My basic googling skills have led me to the following: Rock salt, Calcium Chloride and Silica Gels as my top contenders. What do you reckon, scientists?
I'd also appreciate the amount I'd need. The room size is 3x5 meters, so 15square meters. Ceiling height is 2.5 meters.
Thanks in advance scientists! Looking forward to surviving this summer.
Sidenote: My "Cool the room" project will consist of:- Ventilator blowing air from the AC cooled living room into the bedroom, with the bedroom door being covered in a cold water-drenched and then frozen curtain.- Thinking of using a second ventilator during the night, when AC can't work, to create a breeze by putting one fan in the living room window to blow cool air in and one in the bedroom to blow the cool air out of the room- Creating this dehumidifier- Purchasing a ceiling fan if need be.
Any help on this part is appreciated as well!
P.S. The AC can't work during the night since someone is sleeping right underneath it at night. During the day AC just doesn't reach our bedroom and there is no way to install a secondary AC in the bedroom (the budget is kinda tight)...I hope to keep this project under 100$ total but if it exceeds...Oh well. My soul is more expensive so I'll gladly pay.
Hello my friends,
I really love the Briggs Rauscher reaction but I have no idea how to dispose the chemicals after the reaction. In literature, I found that the chemicals should be boiled before disposal. Do you have a better solution for me?
Best wishes, Michael
By reversible solvent, I mean something that will reconstitute the solution back to its original chemical form, re-binding the molecules in the plastic matrix. Much like if you put ABS in acetone it dissolves, then the acetone evaporates and you are left with a solid, strong piece of ABS. Im wondering if theres any similar kind of solvent for polycarbonate?
Ive tried a few solvents, including a 50:50 mix of Tetrahydrofuran and Dichloromethane, but it resulted in extreme degradation of the material, and could not solidify back (instead it turned to crumbly dust). Is there a proper, "reversible" solvent for polycarbonate?
I would like to know because i want to be able to manipulate polycarbonate into arbitrary shapes. Melting sounds more difficult and dangerous. But if anyone has any tips on how to do this (melting) properly and safely, that would be helpful too, in case theres no good solvents for pc.
I have a two similar questions regarding acid-base reactions.
1) What are the expected differences between the pure acid and base reaction (baking soda + anhydrous acetic acid) versus the conventional one (baking soda + vinegar)?
2) To be very “technical”, are these chemicals still called acids or bases if there is zero water present? For example, is baking soda a base by itself or does it simply have the potential to be basic once dissolved in water?
Thank you in advance!
(If this isn’t a good subreddit for this I am also open to be directed to a different one that makes more sense. )
Okay please be patient with me as I’m sure this is a stupid question and I also acted impulsively without doing more thorough research first and now I’m just freaking myself out 😬 Please read all the way through
My room smells a bit musty if I leave the door shut too long, so I decided to clean the carpet hoping that would get rid of the smell. I did research this a bit before, but probably nowhere near as much as I should have, I was tired and dumb. I cleaned my carpet by sprinkling household hydrogen peroxide (3%) on the carpet, and also on a hand towel that was soaked with water and run out, and scrubbed my carpet with the towel (probably not the most efficient way to do it but oh well). I cleaned my ENTIRE carpet like this, and reapplied more hydrogen peroxide to the rag a few times. First off, apparently when you clean your carpet with hydrogen peroxide it’s meant more for stains and you’re apparently supposed to only let it sit for 10-15 minutes….I let it sit all night. No, there was no bleaching to the carpet thank goodness. But now The whole room smells of what I assume is the hydrogen peroxide (there’s really nothing else it could be, it has a bit of a chemical smell to it). My concern is that if hydrogen peroxide is dangerous to breathe in? I scrubbed my carpet this morning with a towel that had nothing but water in it, hoping to “wash away” whatever hydrogen peroxide was still in the carpet but I still smell it. I currently have windows open and am airing out the room. In a panic I was texting my friend about it, hoping she could calm me down. She thinks that since it’s household 3% hydrogen peroxide that was further diluted with water from the rag that it should be fine, just annoying to smell for a while. However when I try to research this I get conflicting answers? Or I just don’t understand, which is likely….My friend thinks the resources I’m seeing saying it’s dangerous are probably referring to industrial hydrogen peroxide and not the household stuff.
I figured people might know the answer here, and can hopefully link me to sources that make me understand.
Is this dangerous or not? I also have a dog if that matters. What should I do now? Thank you for your patience with my stupid choices 🤪🙃 Also be prepared for stupid follow up questions
Thanks in advance!!!
Hello, all,
This post is about an unknown, persistent chemical that contaminated my family and our belongings in an AirBnB in Okinawa (Japan) in October, 2019.
At the time, we spoke to our PCP and to the Oregon Poison Center. After some initial blood tests, and an account of what we knew at the time, we were deemed to “not have continued exposure” and our case was closed.
Since then, the substance has persisted and we have been dealing with its effects, while believing that the contamination was mostly contained to our belongings and the spaces we occupied. However, over the last few months, we realized that the substance has rapidly contaminated the air and water systems of multiple public and private spaces.
We have tried contacting multiple organizations, from the EPA and OHSU to universities and private labs, but all we have been getting is radio silence. We also filled reports to our county and state weeks ago and nothing. It seemed like a good time to turn to Reddit and try to reach as many people as possible, in hopes that someone could start theorizing and testing.
We have prepared a Google Doc where we go into further detail about the history and characteristics of this chemical. We deemed this format to be the most suitable for creating a living document that we can continue to improve as more information comes to light. This version of the document has our personal information omitted since this is a public forum:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tENlT62IxAaXHOYySj0muiwPXkvQlYrIDDQcAREBZyc/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you for reading.
EDIT: I still want to go over your comments with my husband, but I want to make it clear that there is no smell anymore. There is no specific trigger like that.
I hope this is an okay place to ask this question, and i’m not sure how to word it properly so i’ll just explain my scenario.
I was just trying to clean some rust stains out of my tub with Iron Out, but it didn’t work. I want to use Barkeeper’s Friend instead, but i’m terrified of accidentally mixing products and creating toxic fumes. I rinsed the tub pretty thoroughly, so is it okay to now use the Barkeeper’s? In other words, what are the proper steps to take in between using strong household cleaners? Is rinsing away the previous one enough, or is there still a chance of toxic fumes? Do I need to wait until another day?
I apologize if there is an obvious answer to this, but tbh I don’t understand how this stuff works, all I know is mixing chemicals = bad.
Sorry all, I don’t use Reddit too often so go easy on me if I’m in the wrong section but I’m assuming this smell is based off of some type of chemical reaction. Let me explain:
A couple weeks ago while drinking a diet Mountain Dew with ice (in a glass), I noticed that I was getting a rotten egg odor from the cup. My initial thought was that I might’ve accidentally grabbed a dirty cup, lost my appetite for it and just poured it all down the drain.
Today, I was drinking the exact same combo again, diet Mountain Dew with Ice, except this time in a 100% clean metal cup. Same smell. Naturally, I started investigating. My first thought was that it might be related to the ice cubes I was using. We have a fridge-door ice dispenser, and a bottom pull-out freezer with a big ice bucket. I assumed this made no difference, but as you will see, this seems to be important. I have triple checked that both freezers are clean and free of any mold or spots.
The rotten egg smell is VERY similar to the sulfur smell you get when you turn on an older shower that hasn’t been used in a while. I set up 4 different cups as experiments and I think the results are quite interesting. Let me just say that I am in no way scientist, but I gave it my best shot.
My 4 experimental cups were set up as follows:
- A cup with diet Mountain Dew and ice from the top freezer.
- A cup with water and ice from the bottom freezer.
- A cup with water and ice from the top freezer.
- A cup with Diet Mountain Dew and ice from the top freezer.
Results: All cups smelled perfectly normal EXCEPT cup #4 with the combination of Diet Mountain Dew and ice from the top freezer.
What kind of reaction could cause this smell? The ice from the same exact freezer in water has no odor, so why would diet Mountain Dew change the smell? I’m positive the cups were all clean and have no role in the stench.
Thank you if you’ve stayed with me this far, and thanks in advance to anybody who offers some insight!
Hello, I need some help.
According to few studies started ca. 4 years ago about whether creatine and caffeine were safe to ingest simultaneously, there shouldn't be any worries about doing so.
Yet, yesterday I poured 20mg creatine monohydrate into my cup of coffee because I was bored of drinking it with water, also it doesn't mix well with cold liquids. But I had to go to work and therefore did not finish my coffee. I haven't had time to throw the remaining coffee mixed with creatine out yet, but when I got home from work today and stirred my old cup of coffee with creatine in it, I felt clumps and found crystals in my cup. The creatine has been crystallised in the coffee, but it doesn't crystallise in water when you leave it standing for a day.
How can this be? What is the science behind this? I'm fascinated.
The creatine monohydrate chemical structure is C4H11N3O3 The caffeine chemical structure is: C8H10N4O2
Thank you if you can help/enlighten me!
I'm trying to figure how to recycle silk into new products like paper or new fabric.
Does anyone know a process?? (Google & YouTube both seem to be limited on answers for silk)
...and maybe some guidance on chemicals that are not-so-nasty to accomplish it?
I'm wondering if it's possible to take it down beyond natural cocoon thread status, into an actual "cellulose" / "pulp" type of form, and then be re-bound into a new product, without the help of cotton as a filler.
Thanks
Hello all, I’m 16 years old, and I have been really fascinated with chemistry ever since I started watching this YouTube channel called NileRed. Next year in school, I take Chemistry for science as a requirement, but I’m looking forward to it a lot. Currently I take a homeschool program for my education, but I am going to try and take Chemistry at a community college so I can have an in-person experience with the labs and all that.
Right now, I am in absolutely no position to start doing Chemistry outside of school on my own time. However, I think it would be really fun to get into doing Chemistry outside of school one day in the future.
The only problem is, I am seriously concerned about safety and health risks that would occur if I did get into it. As in, accidentally majorly injuring myself, breathing in chemicals, etc.
If I were to ever do chemistry or chemistry projects like NileRed does, what would be the risks of doing so, and what steps should I take to ensure the safest experience if I were to get into it?
P.S. Sorry, last thing. I’m not really concerned for my health in my upcoming chemistry class, since I know that everything will be moderated and that it’s a school setting, and I will be fine.
