Suxamethonium

Yeah, I learnt in high school that it was varying amounts of OH and H terminations at the end carbons in the structure (and that the exact ratio determines the hydrophobicity of the diamond). But I don't really know how accurate that model is- being high school, was probably over-simplified like everything else. Likewise, with a salt. If you put it in a liquid, the 'solvent' would take the place of the missing ions (and in some cases this would initiate solvation). In air, this principal may also occur in the 'hydrates' with water molecules also shielding the edges of the latice- but this is just speculation on my part.

No one else has said this so I am going to out of concern: If you must insist on performing any sort of method to purify this- particularly distillation- do not try to do it in one batch. Best bet would be to do it no more than 100ml at a time, and even then, only 'as needed'. This way (if/when) something does go wrong- its a much simpler issue to deal with (i.e. contain, decontaminate, report) plus your accidental exposure is likely to be lower (in both catastrophic or successful scenarios). Also you are risking your own health, that of anyone around you, the environment and goodness I hope there are no pregnant women or children anywhere near the area. Learn to perform a RISK ASSESSMENT and learn when it's NOT suitable to commence certain lab procedures.

Or pharmacist- they are afterall the experts in medications (I say this because a doctor may not know what other preparations are available at this persons particular pharmacy that can better address the specific issue that they are having- the pharmacist will). Edit: Pharmaceutics is highly involved, such advice should only be given by a PHARMACIST due to the ease in the ability for mistakes to end with fatal consequences. Hence, why I am really stressing the 'go to the pharmacist' point, particularly if you have already been taking your medication like this (do not panic about it- If you are worried about this and live in australia- you can call 13 11 26 - the poisons information centre if not google a number for one in your country) but talk to your pharmacist.

hmmm confirmation methods. Best way is probably google lol. I don't know any specific reactions to try.

I use capitals here because I am trying to stress the very important parts of what I am about to say. THIS IS A QUESTION FOR YOUR PHARMACIST!! There is a reason these meds are prescription, and there is a reason why you have been prescribed the drugs you have been given. Please ask yourself if you have a pharmacist accreditation, and whether or not this makes you more qualified than the pharmacist who approved your medication when they dispensed it to you TO BE TAKEN AS DIRECTED.

There is probably more of a market here for the bio-chemists. Genetically engineering the bacteria involved so as to produce only a certain range of compounds and sequester unwanted products using some abstract way (some chemical version of photosynthesis comes to mind). This is all hypothetical of coarse, but it's probably the more likely route of investigation- why waste energy treating a product if there is the potential to tweak the system manufacturing the product?

The following advice is my own and information is to the best of my knowledge- but I suggest confirming it with your own research anyway. Do NOT remove the drug from its packaged form, unless told to do so by your pharmacist. For information about the drug or dosage from, talk to your pharmacist. Most simple structured drugs are not analogous to proteins/enzymes. Denaturing of an enzyme happens because for some reason it changes conformation (changes shape), unfolds or falls apart. When this happens, it can no longer perform its function. Simple molecules like propranolol however do not behave this way, if they are effected by heat then it is a distinct chemical reaction and how it effects it's medicinal action is dependant on the type of product formed. As for the temperature required to decompose propranolol, I don't know specifically. If you feel that a different dosage form (such as liquid preparation) is required, talk to your pharmacist. As previously mentioned, this has the potential to pose a significant health risk to yourself (or others), particularly as propranolol acts on both beta adrenoceptors in the heart and airways- once again, Do NOT take this medication like this (unless specifically instructed to do so by your pharmacist).

Well, im going to assume its w/w. I work in grams, so I'll just tell you what to do: You need to convert gallons to grams using the density for water. Then calculate 50% of that mass and convert it to pounds. (alternative use a density with units "pounds/gallon")

First of all to address John. "Ammonium hydroxide" is employed as a trivial name so arguing that it is not an isolated compound for the point of making a snide remark is fairly juvenile. Also, here- it is called "ammonium hydroxide solution" anyway so your argument doesn't even hold true in such situations. As for ammonia and aluminium, I have no specific idea- but the presence of hydroxide may account for silimilar reactions as NaOH. If this is true, I don't think I would agree with it being a catalytic reaction (not unless the hydroxide is replaced). It is possible you might produce an ammonium/aluminium complex? So I don't know if you would yeild aluminium hydroxide anyway (note that reaction with NaOH gives sodium aluminate not aluminium hydroxide- maybe a similar reaction occurs (although more slowly)?).

First of all you need to decide if you are calculating by w/w or w/v %. Then its literally just calculating what 50% is. It sounds like a h/w question so I don't want to just tell you the answer.

The point of it is that more can dissolve once the sulfate or carbonate precipitates- thats why it is included as a solid and 'washed' with water. That is also why I proposed my initial procedure to try- its the same principle without the ash (using readily available suflate instead)- I still think its worth a try but its up to you. Kudos if you can be arsed to get the clippings and burn them. Edit- sentence structure.

If you dissolve ammonia in water, you will get some hydroxide ions. The counter ions will be ammonium ions. It may not be much, but it is still present enough to be concluded that ammonium hydroxide is a (marginal) component of the solution- just because the equilibrium lies hard in favour of the molecular species doesn't mean the ions cannot exist at all. I don't see any reasonable way that can be denied without grossly changing acid/base (or even lewis) theories. If you can show -OH can magically exist on its own in such a case I will gladly eat my words.

As far as I personally am aware the morphine is formulated as a salt (HCl etc) to increase solubility in aqueous solution. Passive ions (e.g. Na+ Cl-) would also added to an IV so it is not hypotonic when injected. The dilution of the morphine also allows the dose to be much more accurately controlled/measured and in the case of IV more easily adminsitered over time. If you are interested further, try looking up pharmaceutics to understand why different drug formulations exist for any given drug.

"Calcium hydroxide is practically insoluble, so aqueous reactions don't seem likely." It's actually partially soluble- wiki data says 0.173g/100ml at 20oC. This is significant enough for displacement reactions- CaO or Ca(OH)2 can be mixed with the ash and water drained through (Or you can try doing away with the ash and using bought potassium carbonate. Or try possibly potassium sulfate- but others seem to think that the physical chemistry is different in such a case making it impractical- I have had no such issues with "gel-like" CaSO4 ppts forming so maybe it's worth the try?).

Yeah true, at first I think I subconsciously assumed that it was water. In further posts I considered it irrelevent if the targeted compound only melts and doesn't decompose- so didn't really think to ask. (To the OP): About the 'solution' decomposing, what exactly decomposed (i.e. the solvent or solute?). It would be great to have an idea of the class of solvent and compound you are trying to extract- might be an easy way to seperate it. For example, a possible way to seperate an amine might be by precipitation as the HCl salt (might still need to distill solvent, but the MP of the compound should be higher).

With a solvent boiling at 100oC I would hazard a guess that that method is not exactly practical (unless you have the time to wait). If the compound melts (and doesn't decompose) I don't really see that it really matters that much what temperature/pressure you do the distillation at, but it would be quicker at least.

You have 2 options here: 1) Recrystalise from the current solution. 2) Distill the water away from the product (which will melt) then recrystalise from a more suitable solvent to obtain the required purity.

Potassium carbonate is harder to find (probably because it can be significantly corrosive to plant roots if used wrong) but you could probably find it in agricultural areas. Potassium sulfate is the primary ingredient in most lawn fertilisers (but you can get formulations with >95% pottasium sulfate and will usually say potassium sulfate somewhere on it)- this can often be found in the gardening section in super markets. Alternatively, you can buy KOH (caustic potash) in various places, but concentration and purity may be an issue unless you can find easy access to the pellets. There's been a few posts in the 'how to make sodium' threads about making potassium- these might be useful to you if you havent seen them already. Oh, by the way- if you do go burning stuff- you'll get the best results with hardwood (but it's a bit of a hassle to find and then get it durning hot enough for the best ash, you can buy hardwood but it's quite expensive).

*rolls eyes* Whatever

Potassium sulfate is readily available from 500g to 25kg. It is a standard fertiliser- thats why its shorter- you don't have to burn crap to get it. I've never had a problem with calcium sulfate precipitates, but if it so concerns you you can buy the potassium carbonate, its just not nearly as easy to get as the sulfate. The reason i said i simplified it was because in no way does this method require one to burn garden wastes indefinately to get any reagents- it starts from readily available agricultural chems (which i can even buy from the local super market).

Yeah, that guy is pretty reliable as far as I have known- the reaction should work.

I think the question is maybe talking about interactions other than covalent bonds like the orientation of molecules in respect to their individual functional groups. Why for example, in a lot of the simpler compounds an intra-molecular reaction is more likely than an inter-molecular reaction. As it is a HW qn, I'll give you a hint. Think of what molecules have to do before they can react (molecular level) and how might this be easier to achieve in intra molecular reactions?

I would imagine you can create the plasma (pretty sure thats why fluoro-tubes contain mercury?)- how specifically I cannot say, but any high voltage would cause the breakdown needed, amperage will only depend on what your doing with it (for example, if making a discharge tube you would need sufficient amperage to create the brightness needed). In order to create the mercury gas at cold temperatures- you will need low pressure. The volume dosen't matter so much- make it fit the application- then you just need a little bit of mercury (pretty sure a few milligrams should do) and a good vacuum pump. Remember, Hg discharge spectrum contains significant UV (although this wont matter if you are using glass).

"There's a hint about how to get hold of caustic potash in the name- you causticise ashes." Well yeah, pre-industry. The process is messy- and the alternative of calcium hydroxide + potassium sulfate is cheap (hardwood is expensive and tedious to burn just to get ash). Also potash is potassium carbonate and (who would of thought) is converted to potassium hydroxide by metathesis reaction with calcium hydroxide- so really I have just shortened the entire method to just a metathesis reaction. If the metathesis reaction I proposed doesn't work for the reasons you implied, then why does it work for the method employed pre-industry? Even so, you can buy potassium carbonate easily enough to just employ the alternative metathesis reaction without the mess of ash.

Water boils at 100 degrees, but water is volatile below that temperature. Volatility is a measure of the ability of something to evapourate below it's boiling temperature- and this occurs because the molcules in the sample are not all the same in energy. There is a bell-curve distribution (look up statistical distribution on wiki for more info) for the energy/velocity of molecules at any given time. Most molecules will have energies around what is governed by the sample temperature, but a few molecules will be really low in energy, and some will be really high in energy. At a certain temperature, the high end of the curve will reach the boiling point of the compound, and only the molecules at or above this temperature will 'break free'. Once they leave they are no longer part of the sample and the molecules will redistribute to produce the curve again- as a result the sample slowly evapourates over time. The hotter the sample, the more of the curve will sit past the bp, and more molecules will evapourate at once (increasing the rate of evapouration)- which can become noticable as steam in the case of a bath. This also explains why puddles can"dry up". And the same prinicple explains why washing dries faster in a warm, dry wind rather than a still day of the same temperature (the wind mechanically picks up the water molecules higher in energy and sweeps them away).