chemhero

Try looking in journals for some novel compounds - do you have access to Web of knowledge? Matt

Ouch, not sure about that one (im a uni student too). The only thing i can think of is it goes via a tri-substituted intermediate or something. The ring is electron rich of the top of my head Matt

I did some more reading around, and also found that the polycarbonate is most likely to be based on bis-phenol. Given that, I'll test my visor against a sample and see how closley it matches to the known. The more i think about this project of mine, the more excited I get. Mmmmm chemistry Matt

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I have an idea for my final year chemistry project involving the surface modification of motorcycle helmet visor material; I understand that it is a polycarbonate of sorts, but how could I investigate what the repeat unit structure is? I need to find out before I start on the chemical modification I guess an infra-red spectrum could yeild some information, but are there any other methods? What about some way to break down the polymer to its monomers, and then investigate that? Matt

Why do you need a dedicated test? A good thing about science is if you do lots of tests and they all turn back negative results for what they are ment to test, then you only have one thing left! In your case, this could be the tertiary alcohol. Matt

Try looking for books on polymer chemistry; its a heavily researched area (obviously!) so there are lots of great dedicated texts out there! This is also safer than relying on internet information, which may or may not be correct as it is not as heavily regulated like a book is! Good luck! Matt P.S. have a look for electrically conducting polymers, this is a really interesting area - plastics that conduct electricity!!!! Madness!

Its for an assignment; how to prepare these compounds. I realise getting potassium hexacyanoferrate is easy, thats why I had to figure out its formation myself! I wont be making it, but its still intresting to know how to make one of the basic pigments from scratch Fun stuff! Matt

Does anyone have a good scematic of this peice of apparatus? It seems quite unusual (not as common as the faithfull rotary evaporator) and I can't find a good diagram or picture. The one on wikipedia isnt very clear, and other google search results show nothing really usefull. Matt

Ah, ok then - leave the acid! I was a little unsure as what little literature I've found has suggested the use of an acid to help along, but this idea didnt sit well with me because of the HCN formation (as you say) and also the possible formation of H4[Fe(CN)6], not the potassium salt. Thanks for your help, I just needed to bounce the idea off someone! Matt

Hi everyone I'm planning an experiment to make prussian blue, from scratch. The part going from K4Fe(CN)6 to prussian blue is easy peasy, I can find alot of literature on this. But going from iron (II) sulphate to K4Fe(CN)6 is a little harder for me to find information on. Anyway, using my mind (a dangerous thing!) i figured that FeSO4 in water, then add KCN and some acid, with some heat(90 deg.C ?) and then letting it cool, the cyanoferrate i want will fall out of solution. Would this actualy work? Or am I barking up not even a tree, let along the wrong tree? Matt

Good point, what is the opposite word for "inert"? I usually use "reactivity" as a measure, since nothing is truley inert - everything will do something! Except maybe helium... Matt

Uh oh Matt

Woof! Matt

I'll go with zinc reducing aswell - its used in the lab all the time in inorganic reactions as a reductant (itself oxidised! OilRig!). Matt

For part Two of your enquiry: I think the first is right; as we go down the group, the orbitals are more diffuse - there is less chance of finding an electron in an overlapping "bonding" region. This then coincides with atomic radius, so yea, option 2 is right like you say. Option three...well, it has something to do with bonding, but nothing that fits in here. Have fun, Matt