jdurg

Aluminum is a HELLUVA lot more reactive than lead is. As a result, the particles are so fine that they immediately react with oxygen and you form aluminum oxide instead of aluminum metal. Lead metal is non-reactive enough where the lead metal that's formed won't oxidize immediately.

Hehe. I wouldn't have the willpower to store it anyway. The plans are to 'test it' as soon as it is synthed. As for the nitration mixture, it was assumed that one would have it iced down as the formation of the nitration liquid from the two concentrated acids requires an icey temperature as the mixing of the liquids themselves generates a LOT of heat.

Oh I am fully aware of that. Insulin is like a 'key' for the glucose molecules to get into the cells and be metabolized into energy. If there's too much insulin and not enough glucose, then all the glucose gets metabolized and the brain suddenly starts to run out of 'fuel'. I believe that in cases of hyperglycemia, simple diffusion allows some of the glucose molecules into the cells so you don't get the sudden 'oh crap, there's no more fuel' effect you get in cases of hypoglycemia. With both hyper and hypoglycemia, ketones can be detected in the urine from the brain's need to get energy and having fats and proteins as the only available source.

Oh I was fully aware of the nitrating of cellulouse. I plan on doing some of that this weekend with some 100% pure cotton balls that I have in the bathroom cabinet. I'll be bringing those along and nitrating them one at a time. ;D The procedures I've read about have used glass tongs to pick up and place a cotton ball in a nitration mixture. After the nitration, the cotton is dunked into a beaker of ice water, then into a beaker of cold bicarbonate, then into another beaker of bicarbonate to ensure there's no bubbling, then into a final beaker of water before drying.

From what I can find, the HCl/H2O azeotrope happens at a 20.2% (by mass) HCl concentration and the solution boils at 108 degrees Celcius. HCl is actually more effective at breaking down sucrose into fructose and glucose than the enzyme sucrase is. I think the problem with using it is that being such a strong acid, it can have some nasty effects on the brewery that is constantly having HCl added to it, and if there is even a tiny bit of excess in there, it can make the resulting drink far too 'tart' to handle. Citric acid is very mild in that regard.

Again, I'm not sure. Perhaps we can have a mod move this over to the Genetics forum as they can probably answer this a LOT better than I can.

Breaking the intermolecular bonds, not the intramolecular bonds. (I.E. breaking apart the attraction each water molecule has towards the other water molecules. Not breaking apart the attraction between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that make up the water molecule).

After looking at the drawings of the sugar molecule in solution, I wonder if it would be possible to nitrate glucose? There are plenty of -OH groups there just screaming out 'NITRATE ME!'. I just wonder if the sulfuric acid would decompose the sugar before the nitric could nitrate it.

Hey Woelen. Let's say somebody was going to make some red selenium and had the powdered black selenium, a bunch of glassware, a bunch of glass tubing, a working fume hood, nitric acid and time. The one thing he was missing were sulfites and/or bisulfites and he didn't have enough time to order some and have them arrive in time for the plans he has made. On the bright side, this individual does have many tanks of oxygen gas and plenty of pounds of elemental sulfur. Would it be possible to just burn the sulfur in an oxygen atmosphere and direct the SO2 gas into the reaction vessel with the HNO3 and Se in order to ppt out the red selenium?

Phenylketonurics have a genetic condition which does not allow their body to properly breakdown the amino acid phenylalanine. As a result, phenylalanine is broken down into a ketone and passed out through the urine. (Hence phenyl-keton-uria). The problem is, as a ketone the phenylalanine is a pretty nasty poison. So if the phenylketonurics eat ANYTHING with phenylalanine in it, it can cause severe problems. For someone without this genetic malady, there is no problem at all with phenylalanine. (Please note that what I stated above is what I remember from my genetics class a few years ago. You may be better off posting this question in the genetics forum).

Take a look in Wal-Mart as well. I was just looking for a good source of HCl, and while checking out the plumbing department I saw a whole bunch of drain cleaners with the ingredients as follows: Active Ingredients: 98% Sulfuric Acid Inactive Ingredients: Water. So you can get some good stuff there.

If the brain couldn't function without glucose, I'd have died a long, long time ago. (I'm a diabetic). The problem with the metabolism of fats and proteins instead of glucose is that it results in the formation of various ketones and aldehydes which aren't all that healthy for your body. (Does a real number on your liver). So a long period of time without sufficient glucose levels in the brain can cause severe damage to other parts of the body.

That's a HELL of a lot of Calamari!

When I took a picture of sodium metal exploding after being thrown into a lake at night, I got those exact same trails showing up on my photographs too!

Also please tell us where we can get lightning to strike on command and with plenty of warning so that we can make sure everything is in the right area at precisely the right time.

The big problem I've always had when trying to plate something is that I never actually get a 'plating'. I always seem to get a replacement reaction instead. (Like when trying to plate copper onto something. Whenever I'd put the metal into the copper solution, the Cu ions would start ppting out and replacing the metal itself). To get a very good separation, you could also use a hot wax and place the wax over the sections you don't want plated. When you're done, you can heat the rod up and the wax should melt right off.

It's impossible for there to be rust (iron oxide) on a penny as there is no iron whatsoever in pennies. Only in 1943 were pennies made with iron. Every other year has been copper and/or zinc with a teency percentage of tin.

You can't. You either have to buy it, or you have to set up a very expensive (I.E. in excess of 100,000 dollars) generation apparatus. If your parents won't let you buy it, then they sure as hell won't let you build the apparatus, and neither will your town.

What do you collect?: I collect the elements on the periodic table, Topps Baseball Card Complete Sets since my year of Birth (1980), NY Yankees yearbooks since my year of birth (1980), Coins from the year 1880 and any type of coin currently in circulation (I have a sample of every single year and mintmark of Roosevelt Dimes including the proofs. It's the only one I have that's 'complete'). Why do you collect them?: I collect the elements on the periodic table because I love chemistry and in my younger years I collected coins pretty heavily. I also liked making certain compounds where pure iodine was needed. One day, while looking through my coins, I saw that I had silver, gold, platinum, copper, zinc, etc. all in a pretty pure form. I then found E-Bay and realized I could get a bunch of different elements and wondered what it would be like to have a collection of the elements. I then found Theodore Gray's website (which I am a contributor to ), and some other collectors I met through E-Bay. I now have a complete collection of the elements (well, as complete as reasonably possible) and just upgrade samples every now and then. (A picture can be seen in the periodic table section of http://www.chemicalforums.com). For the coins, I just thought it was neat seeing all these old coins in circulation and seeing the different designs and metal compositions. There's no way I could/can afford the really expensive coins, so I decided to just collect the ones in circulation (Lincoln Cents, Jefferson Nickels, Roosevelt Dimes, Washington Quarters and Kennedy Halves). Some of these sets will still cost a lot, but it's neat to look through my book of dimes and see that I have every single Roosevelt Dime, including proofs, that they've ever made a version of. For the coins from the year 1880, it's neat seeing how they are 100 years older than I am, and all of the coins are completely different than they are today. Back then, silver was used in coins as was gold. It's neat holding onto a 100+ year old chunk of gold and have it look as fresh today as it did when it was first made. In addition, many coins that year were made in mints that are no longer functional today (Carson City, Nevada; New Orleans, Louisiana). The Yankees yearbooks came along because they had them at a grocery store when I was about 12 and thought they were neat so I picked one up each year. Since getting each year since they were made is next to impossible, I decided to just start with the ones in the year of my birth (1980) and move on up. As a Yankees fan, it's a fun thing to collect each year and see how the team has changed. I've collected Baseball Cards since I was a young lad. It was always fun going into a store, spending 50 cents and hoping you'd get a good card. I always liked the Topps cards and tried to get a set completed each year. Then in the early 1990's the companies got greedy and started jacking up the costs of each pack. They also made these 'uber-rare-super-special' cards that were next to impossible to find, but caused the packs to dissapear into the hands of the wealthy. I wasn't going to let the card makers rape me like they did everyone else, so I stopped collecting. I just decided to buy the factory sets each year and that's it. So I now have a complete set of Topps Baseball cards starting in the year 1980 and moving up. I'm in the process of putting them all into albums so I can look at them as I want, but 25 years worth of cards is a LOT of baseball cards. One minor collection I have that is nowhere near completion and probably never will be since I don't plan on ever adding to it are Spiderman comic books. I collected those because I liked Spiderman, but it soon got too expensive to keep up each month with the five different comic books you'd have to buy. What makes you keep adding to your collection?: For the elements, I keep adding if there's a form of an element that is just interesting to me, or if there's a way of storing the element that keeps it fresh looking and 'new'. I'll add to a sample if I think the sample I have isn't big enough or in a good enough condition. Eventually, all the air/moisture sensitive samples will be sealed in a glass vial like my halogens are to prevent them from oxidizing away. For the Coins, I add to my collection if a new version of an existing coin comes out. That's pretty easy to do because all I have to do is buy the mint sets and proof sets put out by the US Mint every year. For other coins, it's all a matter of how much money I can afford to spend. (Which lately has been zero. ) With the baseball cards and yearbooks, I continue to add because I see no reason to stop. It's only one purchase each year so it's something I can easily afford to do.

My bad. I can't believe I goofed on that part there. It's been a rough week. Anyway, the best method would be through the chlorobenzene route, or even the bromobenzene route as I believe bromine can substitue for chlorine in that step.

Because you're calculating it wrong. -LOG(0.5) = 0.3 and not a negative number. Also remember that the pH scale doesn't stop at 0 and 14. It's very possible to have a pH higher than 14 or lower than 0.

Also, don't forget that carbon dioxide is VERY soluble in water. Any that is formed will not be leaving as a gas. If it did, then every time you put NaHCO3 in neutral or basic water, you'd see bubbling almost immediately. In reality, the CO2 remains in the water and never leaves the system, so the equillibrium doesn't shift in any measurable way.

Sodium benzoate is the exact same structure as benzoic acid, it's just that you have a sodium ion in place of the hydrogen ion. So in a sense, you still have the exact same problem with sodium benzoate as you do with benzoic acid.

Not too sure about that. (Organic was never a major strong point). I'm sure that just heating strongly with NaOH and some water would work just fine. The gist of it is, you need to heat the chlorobenzene with NaOH in order to replace the -Cl with an -O:Na+ group. Then neutralize that with acid to get the phenol. Perhaps 'reflux' wasn't the word I was looking for.