Applied Chemistry

I'm a science teacher buying supplies for this year and was wondering how much of a difference 95% ethanol would be from pure. I am planning on primarily using it for flame tests. I am also going to use it as a substitute for liquid nitrogen by putting it in a beaker with dry ice. I suppose it might not be quite as cold as pure ethanol, but that's the only drawback I can think of. I almost feel silly posting a question like this, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask- maybe I'd get some insight. If any of you have any suggestions on where to buy ethanol, that would be great too. The best price I've found so far is at carolina.com. Thanks.

I have a flask of ferric chloride which was used to etch some copper -- and, inadvertently, some hardened steel. At this point, I believe the solution contains [ce]FeCl3 + FeCl2 + CuCl2[/ce] I'd like to salvage as much etchant as I can. Is there any way to Remove the cupric chloride? Perhaps by converting it into something that isn't water-soluble and hence will precipitate out? Oxidise the iron(II) chloride back to iron(III) chloride? Thanks!

I was talking with our good friend Insane_alien this morning in IRC, and he mentioned to me the fact he synthesised some disilane in the lab. I myself have made silane from magnesium, silica and HCl before, and I was thinking how a good demonstration could be made out of using a hydrocarbon and its silicon-based analogue, showing that the hydrocarbon requires additional heat to reach the activation energy for combustion but silane or whichever silicon-based analogue I choose doesn't. the trouble is ideally i'd like to use analogues, ie methane and silane or ethane and disilane. It's not entirely neccessary but It'd add to the level of comparability. any suggesti…

I work at a coal fired power plant. My supervisor recently mentioned that to further reduce NOx emissions (beyond our current boiler modifications) we could add a urea reagent into the air quality control system. As a joke I wanted to ask him where we got the urea from (the bathroom? haha). Seriously, to the point...how is urea manufactured? I've tried to research my answer and all I get is pee-related stuff and vendors that sell it for ag fertilizer. But how's it made? I'm just curious about the basics. I don't want to make my own or anything. So if anyone knows, just please give me the "Urea for Dummies" version. hehe thanks in advance

Anyone know of a reference for labratory glassware? Hopefully one that gives names and uses. I'm helping inventory a lab and there are drawers upon drawers of old mysterious glassware. Google failed me. Help is appreciated. Cheers!

So basically this is the situation. Gonna be acid treating some starch with some dilluted hydrochloric acid solution, then before we pitch it we gotta neutralize it with baking soda, sodium bicarbonate. I think baking soda's pH ~8? Anyways, just need to figure out how many normal NaHCO3 vs how many Normal of HCl to add. Solution is gonna be: 25 mL H20 (heated) 30 mL HCl (added) = 55 mL total If I could get some help in how to approach this that would be great, I'm still a little ambiguous. If I'm missing details sry, just maybe give me an overall idea of how to do it lol I'm supposed to use Normality too, of HCl in comparison with normality of the Na…

In the reaction HCl (aq) + NaOH (aq) --> NaCl (?) + H2O (l), is the phase of NaCl going to be solid or aqueous?

Hi, I've been looking for some small experiments to do to occupy my time while I wait until I have enough money to afford the distillation set I want to do more interesting things. While browsing around online I came across bubble solutions and realized there's quite a bit involved. Bubble artist Keith Johnson has a pretty basic page about the construction of bubble mixes located http://homepage.mac.com/keithmjohnson/soapbubbler.com/page2/page8/page8.html. He also has a page listing a lot of patents involving bubble mixes at http://homepage.mac.com/keithmjohnson/soapbubbler.com/page16/page17/page17.html. I'm curious what could be changed around to improve upon …

Dear friends... Could you shed some light on this? If we have [math]K = \frac{y}{x}[/math] would it be correct to say that such an equation could be applied to calculations involving either ideal gas or real gas? Can we have (????) [math] K_{i} = \frac{y_{i}}{x_{i}} = \frac{\phi^{vap}_{i}}{\phi^{liq}_{i}} [/math] [math]\phi[/math] = fugacity coefficient are they always interchangeable? Thank you. Marcio

Hello. Do you know of any inorganic compound in powder form that becomes gas when triggered by an 'stimulus' like light, microwaves, heat... Like every particle of the powder release or turn to gas ? I want to make bubbles, megazillions of them... How is styrofoam made? Is it by mixing two chemicals or by external stimulus ?

Just then I dipped a piece of wood into a magnesium sulfate solution within a glass. First off is there any chance of the combination of the solution and the wood causing damage to the glass? Anyway, I'm doing this to get the wood to soak in some of the magnesium sulfate solution like how it does with water. I'm guessing that it would soak in some of it, though not much of it. My reason for THAT, in turn, is to have a magnesium sulfate soaked piece of wood to burn on the fire, because I tried burning magnesium sulfate in the fire before by placing some magnesium sulfate onto a piece of wood and putting the wood in the fire; I didn't see the white flame it's supposedly…

I'm now in my own apartment for the fall, and I noticed that the oven's dial goes up to 500 degrees fahrenheit. According to twn.ca's conversions, that's 260 degrees celsius. And then I remembered when I read recently about tin, and recalled that it melts below that temperature. So theoretically, I could use my home oven to melt tin and reshape it... such as by placing a tin can (with the paper removed and the remains washed off, if I can) onto some baking sheet and making a sheet of tin. Or adding some spoons and forks or whatever and melting imprints onto it or whatever. Of course, I have a few safety-centric questions about doing this. 1. Is there any chance th…

Hi, I was thinking of trying electroplating at home. From what I recall from chemistry back in high school, electroplating is like the voltaic cell, except that voltage is applied to reverse the direction of the reaction, plating the more reactive metal onto an electrode, while corroding the less reactive one. More specifically, I was considering electroplating magnesium from epsom salt, and using one close to it on the activity series (like aluminum) so as to save on electricity use while doing it. The problem is, I only have access to magnesium sulfate, not magnesium, so I can't use a magnesium electrode. And I don't know how to get access to sulfates of ANY metals …

Hi. My father once told me that in those days of early automobiles with fail-prone windshield wipers, applying a raw potato cut surface to the glass exterior forms a sheet of water allowing decent vision; was a common resource then, and it is confirmed to work well. What goes on and what chemical from the potato is the acting agent, and equivalent 'modern' chemicals? Miguel

i took an aluminum tube, 1/4 inch dia. and 2' in length, filled it with KNO3+sugar+sulfer at a ratio of 63:27:10, made a nozzle with some putty stuff that i had, and then i took a BBQ scure and stuck it down the middle, forming a cone shaped core. my experience with this type of rocket building is limited, so i had no idea how the rocket motor would perform. i straped it to my homemade scale(regular scale with an aluminum V spot welded to it, and a hose clamp attached. so i threw it into the hose clamp. due to its length i figured it would probably get in the 5+ second range for burn time...well, i clocked it at 6.35 seconds of burn time, and get THIS, 14LBS PEAK THRUST!!…

Is it safe for me to turn a lecture bottle of CO2 upside down and release it into a pillow-case so as to get some dry ice out of it? I know the technique works with fire-extinguishers but I wonder if the same things apply

What acid(s) could be used for the dissolution of FeO and/or how would I go about figuring this out or writing it chemically?

I was wondering, but out of interest, is there any means, (reaction, process, etc.) by which one could break the linkage amine- phenyl group linkage, within the molecule of acetaminophen? I was thinking of it as a different route to produce an amino acid, as it wouldn't be difficult, consecutively, with a strong oxidiser, to convert the methyl group, to a carboxylic acid group. [ce] OH-C6H6-NH-CO-CH3 [/ce] (Acetaminophen) [ce] 2NH2-CO-CH3 + 3O2 -> 2NH2-CO-COOH + H2O [/ce]

Hi all, I am hoping someone can help me out. I am looking for some audio podcasts/audio books on the basics of Chemistry... Like a audio "Introduction to Chemistry" text book. I have found a lot of "introduction to Chemistry" lectures from Yale and Berkeley and on Itunes. While I appreciate these, the problem with them is that they don't edit out the ramblings of the professors at the start. And mostly, the quality of the recording is poor and quite difficult to listen to on Public Transport. I have done fairly extensive searching on and off over several months to no avail. Is anyone aware of where i could find what I am looking for, either for …

hey knowledge seekers....i ve a basic doubt in chemistry. it goes like this..... suppose i give u a liquid sample. and assume you cant find out what it is from either its color or odor. then can u write an algorithm to find out its chemical formula?? any clue where can i get a better answer?

(takes deep breath) ok. i've read some of the threads posted here..and you guys look like the real deal..in chemistry i mean..my knowledge in chemistry is average..and i'm working on a multi-disceplinary project and need the consultancy of guys like you.. i don't know were to start..but i'm sure anywhere will do, so here goes: on what basis are materials with fast "burning" -or energy release-..are chosen to be explosives or fuels?? i mean both are used by the method of igniting them and using the kinetic shock-wave for destruction(warheads) or repulsive force(fuels)..right? so why isn't C4 used in jet planes and why isn't solid rocket fuel used as bombs?? second…

...out of curiosity, in a molecule, how does the polarity of a molecule determine the type of intermolecular force present?

I'm hoping this does not come across as woo-woo. I'm well aware of the dangers of spon. com. in coal and some other materials having worked in the coal industry. Couple of years ago I glanced out the window to see a neighbour's "pencil pine" or "Roman pine" tree on fire on one side, the side away from the street as it happened. The flames had only just broken out and there was nobody about. By the time I got out of the front door the neighbour was dragging a garden hose toward the tree. As I recall the weather was cool rather than hot. While mulch can show spon. com, there was no mulch about the area, the tree grew straight out of a well trimmed lawn. I decided…

I need to stabilize wine with Co2, the purpose is to fill plastic bags with wine. But the problem is that the CO2 increases the bag with temperature and the bags burst, I would like someone help me in this situation.

Hello everyone. I was just doing a chem lab involving the composition of the CuSO4 hydrated form. after doing all of the math involved (anhydrous mass subtracted from hydrous mass, division by H2O's molar mass, etc...) and got: CuSO4 (dot) 3 H2O. but i read online that the only hydrated form of cuso4 was with 5 H2O. Does the one i calculated exist, or did I make an error? thx