Hephaestus

Here is an interesting site on the development of the fumehood. http://www.saai-svc.com/technotesarticles/evolution.htm Got any others on other bits of chemical hardware?

May we please dedicate this thread to my colleague, friend and former fellow student who decided to access the cyanides at work and end his depression earlier this month. God rest his soul. Security has since been increased...

HCN is used to synthesise nitriles from aldehydes, and is available for extraction from many commonly existing plants in the form of a 0.1% solution. From a very famous book of 1911. Do not try any of this... "veterinary surgeons frequently employ it as a stimulant to animals in danger of death during anaesthesia. It is used in therapeutics on account of its depressing effect on sensory nerve-endings. Thus, dilute solutions (about 1 in 20) may be applied to the skin to relieve ittiration and itching in such conditions as lichen and urticaria. Taken internally its action exerted on the stomach is especially usefule in gastrodynia, the vomiting of pregnancy, and other forms of vomiting." Also used at the time to treat coughs. Dose - 0.1 to 0.4 mL Stronger HCN, 4% soln "is employed chiefly for poisoning animals. It is seldom used in medicine."

Silica makes for an awesome solid support for postassion permangenate and dichromate in the solid-state oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes without over oxidation of the aldehyde to the carboxylic acid.

Since the details on the properties are so sparse, there is no investigation of the properties of the pure substance, or computational modelling of the IR spectra, we can only make judgement upon citation and analysis of the document by other chemists. I'm investigation hydrogen storage, breakdown and formation. Can this "HHO" be stored in a nanoporous material or magnetic trap, thus stabilising its configuration, for investigation? Is it possible to send a sample? Our magnetometer and SQUID would soon tell you whether the molecule is magnetic or not.

C'mon enough of this SO3 in H2O. I want my fingers and eyes. It's as bad as acetone peroxide. I tried the synthesis of H2SO4 with sodium bisulfite, HCl and H2O2. It works a treat. Expensive though. 100mL of 98% H2SO4 cost me $AU10. Not worth it. Any advances on what "mineral acid" is. I know it can be either HCl, H2SO4, H3PO4 etc. I'll check it next week if you have no ideas. Thanks for the forklift idea. My cousin's a mechanic, he'll fix me up. Sticking to the thread, any other means of preping H2SO4?

Try buying conc H2SO4 OTC in Australia! The rules are ever increasing each day. HCl fine, bisulfite fine, NMP fine. Acetone, methanol, permangenate, H2SO4, S, grrr! Pb imputies are not acceptable. Is conc "mineral acids" H2SO4? It's the only stuff that seems close. I thought I'd ask before purchasing

Visit a car wrecker and find yourself some high performance engine valves. Cut each open to reveal several grams of nice, shiny sodium. Be careful!

Dear All, a useful source of interesting chemicals are found "locked" up within the plastics we consume each day. Is there a simple and clean method of extracting say terepthalic acid and other derivatives from these?

cellulose can be dissolved in some new ionic liquids such as 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride where solubility is better in the first solvent. Try the sigma aldrich catalogue for ionic liquids.

dude your 13??

I cant seem to find a semiquantitative test for nitrates in solution when in prescence of nitrites. The only one I can find involves Hg. Any simple solutions (no pun intended)? This is for my fish tank. No need paying the fish shop for chemicals if I can do it myself.

vanillin dissolved in alcohol is synthetic vannila esscence

What are you using vinyl pyridine for? I wanted to use it for suzuki coupling reactions (via the alkyne) hence some experience. Can only find it in technical grade. You need to store the vinylpyridine in the fridge where it appears to be stable over several years. Use in fumehood without respirator. More info?

dissolve in HF if you are crazy. coat them in NI3 and leave them lying around the place

good 1,4-diethynylbenzene smells like aniseed Bad pyridine, ozone, ethanethiol,bromine

luminol cold light rection uses: Na2CO3, luminol, NH4HCO3, CuSO4, NaHCO3, H2O2. Luminol is pricey but if you have access to it, play. Solution A 4g Na2CO3 in 500mL distilled H2O Add luminol, 2g Add NH4HCO3 0.5g, CuSO4 0.5g, NaHCO3, 25g. When all dissolved, dilute to 1L. Solution B 3% H2O2 solution, 50mL - fresh. Pour two solutions simultaneously into a flask slowly in the dark for pretty blue lights.

The halflife of bismuth was determined late last year, being several magnitudes greater than the expected life of the universe. Bi is considered the last stable atom in the periodic table. No radiation to worry about. Got any granite at home? Granite is a much much greater source of radiation...

Greetings from Hephaestus, Greek God of fire and the arts. Interests: Chemistry, alchemy, transformations. Australian. No website yet, but introduction to my namesake. http://www.freewebs.com/hephaestus

yes, only slight heating needed.

If you enjoy sushi or are near the sea, grab some seaweed. Dry and burn. Gather the ashes which contain plenty of I- and oxidise with bromate, permanganate, dichromate, cupric salts or chlorine. Place a watch glass over the beaker with ice on top. I2 forms on underside of watchglass. If react with sodium NaBrO3 get nice NaBr too. Reaction with NaOH: I2 + 2OH- = I- + IO- +H2O Ive always wanted to use IO- for something...

Never make Bi crystals in a beaker - it expands on cooling, cracking the beaker. I will try the oven. I find using the same batch of Bi several times degrades it due to the formation of oxide. To get rainbow coloured oxides need 4N grade, else oxide tends toward blue.

Greetings. Has anyone tried making mega-huge bismuth crystals? I have tried following the methods of theodore gray (cf his website) but I don't want plain old crystal clusters on the bottom of a pan. Some fellows on ebay are selling beautiful large crystals such as http://stores.ebay.com/BISMUTH-CRYSTALS-UNLIMITED_W0QQssPageNameZl2QQtZkm My single crystals exhibit faces of maximum 1cm square edge. Has anyone acheived larger than this, and if so can you describe scale and methods used. What metals doesn't Bi alloy with? How do you minimise formation of oxide and hence degradation of your 99.99% Bi? I try growing crystals in a stainless steel beaker, approx 500mL Bi, heating with a bunsen until just molten then dipping in a coathanger. Cheers.

Why dont you try chicken bones. A lot more Phosphorous in the form of Ca3(PO4)2. Same experiment but use bone and carbon as the source. No annoying ammonia smell.

Yeah, the first time i did it in glass. Idiot. I then used an old earthenware jug with a convenient spout (not so convenient to find). It cracked just as the phosphorous was coming over, but held together long enough. Big problem was disposal. The jug caught alight after I turned off the heat and opened it up to air. Tried dousing with water - more fire. Tried throwing dirt on it - more fire. Phosphorous is very very flammable. I had smoudering in my backyard for a week. The grass has grown amazingly in that area. VERY DANGEROUS