Applied Chemistry

Using microbes like acetobacter xylinium it is possible to engineer polymers like paper from cellulose. Can the reverse be achieved? Imagine if we could break the polymer bonds and get back the raw material. It would create a natural factory with no toxic by-product and benefit to both the producer and consumer. Can this be achieved by using natural agents like biocatalysts? Please advise. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I was amazed to learn that boron has been considered as a means of storing energy to burn in car engines. Apparently when 'charged' it is really easy to store. It also bypasses the chicken-and-egg problem of local hydrogen garages not having enough customers to sell to, while drivers might be nervous about not having enough hydrogen suppliers. Having just one boron recharger in the USA, it is claimed, would mean people could have a few 'tanks' of boron stored at home, and just mail the stuff to the recharger. It's so inert and easy to store the paper suggested people could store boron in the garage for winter, and then that would run the car and power the house i…

In a typical textbook electrochemical cell (e.g. Copper electrode in CuSO4, zinc electrode in ZnSO4), are the two electrolyte solutions at the same voltage?

Appealing Products, INC started selling this rapid formaldehyde test swab that can used on solid food. I tried searching for how it works or even just the msds, I couldn't find anything. Does anybody know how it works or what's in the swabs? Is it the same as the old test kits for liquids (10036 EM Quant® Formaldehyde Test Kit) which uses purpald reagent? Thanks in advance!

Hi folks, I finished an Environmental Science degree in the summer of last year. I've since started a post-grad certificate which will enable me to teach. In my placement, I am currently teaching biology, chemistry and some maths bits and bobs the details of which aren't relevant here. I am going to introduce ionic bonds in a few weeks' time. I like to throw in plenty of practical work, because, well, best way to keep people engaged innit. So my initial thought was to do an electrolysis experiment. Graphite electrodes in a copper sulphate solution, that sort of thing. That said, the risk assessment / health and safety side of things could get messy, what w…

i thought an idea graphite is a conductor of electricity .....how about making a circuit by drawing with a graphite pencil

Hi there, I'm trying to find a spectrometric way to measure Fe(IV) in solution... can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

Special situation, car rust on door, thought of hydrochloric acid, brush on , wait, then rinse with bicarb, then water, then dry asap. But, HCl attacks the "good clean" steel next to rust, so is there a better alternative? Oxalic? isnt oxalic slow reacting? Phosphoric just converts the rust to iron phosphate, and does not "remove" it. Id rather remove it, dissolve it, rinse it away, but afraid of further good/intact steel digestion in the process. Tips appreciated.

i have some dry corns so how can i make popcorn from them??please help me

I had a question on neutralizing a strong acid with a weak base. I'm not much for chemistry and I've always hated it more or less due to the tedious mathematical aspects and rules. As I understand it, generally a lower pH means a strong acid, and a higher pH means a strong base, but this only talks about the molar concentration in a logarithmic scale. From this information alone, I can't extrapolate a good sense of the actual ability of an acid and base to combine and neutralize each other or the rate at which they donate their respective ions. If I have pure baking soda and it donates an OH- ion, why exactly would that not be enough to neutralize the same amount of moles…

I knew of heating pads that released heat when moistened and had to be regenerated by heating them for a certain time in an oven in order to be re-used endlessly. Today I bought one * that does not instruct to 'regenerate' but seems to work the same every time it is re-wetted. Is there two kinds, or am missing something ? * Cliking the picture allows ~reading the instructions----> http://www.armysurpluswarehouse.com/survival-disaster/reusable-chemical-heating-pad.html By the way, what is the chemical, if known ?

I came across a article my friend sent me about liquid body armor. It was essentially sheats of kevlar dipped in a Shear thickening fluid (or STF) which hardens almost instantly when force is is applied. Well i was interested in experimenting with this the STF is polyethylene glycol and silica nanoparticles the silica is supposed to be 500nm but I dont know what type or consitency the polyethylene glycol is supposed to be. I know Sigma aldrich has the silica but polyethylene i really am clueless about.

Evening all. Basically my intention is to remove the oxygen from a stream of air, either cheaply or preferably with the materials I have to hand. After doing a bit of research and writing off expensive options like pyrogallol, I think I have put together a design which might work. I wonder if you might give it a once-over for me? Basically it would be a cylinder filled with steel wool and finely powdered calcium chloride, well packed and interspersed within the wool. The idea is that the calcium chloride will remove moisture from the air (a handy side-effect) and, in doing so, provide the moisture and concentrated electrolyte environment to allow the iron in the steel…

I am trying to run a Gaussian calculation for TD-DFT of a complex with 55 atoms. Its optimization is done and I am proceeding for TD-DFT. But, after running for 17-18 hrs the program terminates with error stating "set minimum memory %=45 MW". I have tried several times with 55 MW, 65 MW, 95MW and alternatively 250MB? How to correct the problem.

I work on fire extinguishers, and I've just had something happen I can't explain. A customer of mine had a pretty bad fire and the fire extinguisher mounted to a forklift (which burned) exploded--blew out the side of the extinguisher. Fire extinguishers are pressurized with nitrogen to 195 psi. Assuming that the o-rings on either the valve stem and/or the neck did not melt first and allow the pressure to escape, and knowing that there is no "escape valve" on a fire extinguisher, and assuming that the aluminum head did not melt prior to the steel shell warping and allowing the pressure to escape--all of which do not seem to have happened......the question is: How …

Hello everyone, I was looking for a great science forum and I finally found this.. This is my first topic on this forum and I am sure that I will enjoy being with you guys. My question is: what must the pipe specifications be if we have a Hydrocarbon flow, compressed at 40 brag with a temperature of 220 C? Let's consider that 90% of this gas is C1 and 5% of it is Nitrogen. ,,,,,,Thank you,,,,,,

Hi, I'm looking for an organic solvent that is stable up to 800C in an inert atmosphere under high pressure 10-15MPa. Would anyone have any ideas? Thanks. Also, is a liquid at room temperature.

How perfect is the best adhesive with broken glass? (imperfection approx zero) and is it possible to have a perfect restoration?

Hallo, I am currently assisting on a project which deals with the decarburization of steel alloys (Fe-C-Cr) and a repeatedly occuring problem is the oxidation of our spezimen during the actual decarburization treatment. Initially, carbon dioxide was used as decarburization gas (at 1000°C) but it lead to the formation of an oxidation shell that interfered with our measurements (via CO sensor) to such a degree that the collected data became useless. The system was purged with argon before the actual treatment started so that the oxygen solely originated from the reaction gas itself. We replaced the carbon dioxide with hydrogen in the next step and the parasitic oxid…

How efficient is organic alcohol produced from yeast fermentation as compared to distilled alcohol from crude oil as a bio-fuel? Is it a viable alternative?

Hello I would like ideas... or contacts with very low cost products... that will give me a measure or indication to the possibility, of the presence (or not).... of diesel fumes within my car. I would like to measure one or more of the main diesel chemical components found within fumes CO, NO2, NOx So far..... I have bought a CO detector from DIY store..... it seems to be basic, in having 30, 50, 100, 300 ppm.... and that is it. Results so far = 0 most of the time and 30 occasionally. There is an USA company that offers beermat size "pads" for NO2..... these tyrn yellow if NO2 present.... any UK equivelent... or other low cost method / ideas Thanks for your time

Hi I've been trying to make agar-agar jelly sticky like glue but using natural materials..to quote from Wikipedia Agar consists of a mixture of agarose and agaropectin. Agarose, the predominant component, is a linear polymer, made up of the repeating monomeric unit of agarobiose. Agarobiose is a disaccharide made up of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose. Agaropectin is a heterogeneous mixture of smaller molecules that occur in lesser amounts, and is made up of alternating units of D-galactose and L-galactose heavily modified with acidic side-groups, such as sulfate and pyruvate I know that there are loads of -OH groups on the sugars, and I've been t…

An unusual battery is proposed in the experiment below. The particularity of this cell is the fact that both electrodes (formal cathode and anode) undergo oxidation phenomenon. The experiment is very simple: put a piece of Fe and a piece of Zn in a sulfuric acid solution and connect these pieces of metal to an ammeter. Although both metals are oxidized, an electric current is generated in an external circuit. The detailed description of the experiment is presented at www.elkadot.com A video is posted too, showing that bubbles of hydrogen develop at both metallic electrodes. It cannot be accepted that electrons are generated at both electrodes and these electrons are…

Hi all, I'm planning to do some experiments involving Microcapsules and Microspheres in Bioreactors and was wondering whether there are any analogues to them with similar dimensions and densities. Thanks!!

Hi So I have a question regarding Ag/AgCl as a reference electrode. Why do we use KCl solution in this type of electrode? Because I have read that for reactions that do NOT involve Ag+ or other species that react with Cl-, the salt bridge usually contains KCl electrolyte.