hermanntrude

you could explain all you like but if a policeman was looking to get some extra arrests he'd still arrest you for it. because it's illegal, you see...

theo, Uncle tungsten is my favourite book in the world. Max is correct in that the "[ce]H+[/ce]" part of [ce]HNO3[/ce] doesn't react with copper, but the [ce]NO3-[/ce] surely does. My students did the reaction the other day in the fume hoods. It's a very violent reaction which gives off copious quantities of both heat and very nasty gases. At lower concentrations of acid you get NO instead of NO2.

why do you want to use such dangerous chemicals anyway? what's your plan?

acids are just acids, not magic. There wont be many which will deal with the carbon fiber

i'm wondering what the lids are made of. They may react with the unholy mixture of halogens in there

max, these chemicals can very seriously harm you, and you're not even sure what they are.

max, for crying out loud try to be careful. And if you can't be careful, please don't tell us anything about your experiments so we don't bear any responsibility when they find you, blue lipped and with blood filling your lungs, dead on the floor.

read this

i'd venture to guess that Cl2 will be the favoured product since the bond between a Cl and a Cl is stronger

peanut butter might have been the issue. Most institutions won't permit peanut butter on the premises. However, food should be allowed in libraries and librarians shouldn't.

I was browsing the internet and came upon this fantastic quote from Ira Remsen: source

Also, these topics will be in any chemistry textbook. Go to a library, choose one you like the style of and get studying. We can't tell you everything in ten seconds

my chemistry class did this reaction yesterday [ce]Cu(s) + 4HNO3(aq) -> Cu(NO3)2(aq) +2NO2(g) + 2H2O(l)[/ce] It results in thick clouds of brown NO2, which is exceedingly toxic. Don't try this at home!

bromine IS one of the most dangerous naturally occuring elements. it is frighteningly reactive and incredibly bad for the lungs

there are other intermolecular forces than just H-bonding and dipole-dipole interactions (the forces which arise from polar molecules getting close)

skulldude, please don't expect an answer immediately after posting. This forum is slow but precise. We make our answers good but not quickly. Have patience :0) I figure you're probably doing some homework right now and haven't entirely read your textbook. My advice is that it's easier for you to look up the phrases you're asking about on wikipedia, which has diagrams and well-written explanations than it is for me to try to explain it to you. Your textbook will also have explanations and diagrams. Let me know if you're having difficulty after you've done that.

personally, I believe that attempting to isolate metallic sodium is too dangerous to be attempted at home.

the only two remotely viable ways i know of to get sodium by electrolysis (which isn't magical or simple like every beginner seems to believe), are as follows: 1) use molten sodium chloride and try not to burn yourself to death 2) use a liquid mercury cathode with a concentrated solution of NaCl to give a very high overpotential for the chlorine and oxygen gases, making the sodium the most likely product, which conveniently dissolves in the mercury. All you have to deal with then is the separation of a highly toxic metal from another metal which causes burns and explodes on contact with water.

and another factor to remember is that the kinetics may be much slower for a different fuel.

be careful, max, you're messing with some heavy chemistry. no idea if your idea would work, but the thing about the peroxodisulfate ion (which i assume is the one you have... persulfate refers to several different ions), is that it has a strong tendancy to undergo homogeneous cleavage... in other words it follows radical pathways, due to the peroxo group in the centre of the ion.

just because calcium oxide reacts with water to form hydroxide, it doesn't really mean that it's more reactive or that hydroxide "makes a better ion". What drives a reaction to happen is more complicated than that.

buy some chalk

hazmat is short for hazardous materials. here is the link a good source of power is a plug socket :0)

generally it's best not to try and make these things too powerful, since you're entering the realm of making explosives at home, which is often frowned upon by authorities. Check our hazmat policy out (it's stickied in general chemistry)

it's possible it's related to their names in another language