TWJian

I'm conducting a science research on ants to figure out the LD50 arting for them.(headaches). I'm suffering a lot of problems from red ants. They are extremely tolerent to boric acid. Can anyone tel; me why?( I have to use 10 times the dose I use for normal black ants)

Alright, I just burn that powder on a metal spon. The flame changed into green. By the way, could anyone explain why boric acid is toxic? Please explain what it does to the human body. And why are insects extremely weak against it?

I added 5 ml of sulphuric acid(2 mol/litre) with 3.8 g of borax. I heated the mixture in a beaker until the temp. reaches 50 degrees celcius. The solution was neutral(pH 7 right on the mark) so I suspected I added too much borax. I added several drops of H2SO4(still maintaining same temp.) and suddenly a mass of crystal crystallised up and the temp. rose to 60. I let the mixture( now pH5) cool down to 35C(pH rose to 6.4, presumely some of the boric acid have crystallised out) then filtered it, washed the crystals with a little water, and filtered it again. The white crystals should be mostly boric acid right? Could you calculate its approx. purity based on my methods?( theorically)

Your idea is good. However, I'm using a triple beam scale(smallest unit 0.1g) so it might entail some problems for me. Is it possible for me to use a pH multimeter to determine the pH of the solution and stop adding borax to sulphuric acid as soon the mixture reaches the pH of boric acid? Could you help me determine the correct pH for boric acid if I try adding borax to sulphuric acid with a molarity of 2 mol/dm3 The tables could help me in my calculations. Thanks again for your help.

Phosphates makes the calculation hard since there are 3 main ions:phosphate ion(PO4 3-), hydrogen phosphate ion(HPO4 2-) and the dihydrogen phosphate ion(H2PO4 -) since phosphoric acid contains 3 hydrogen atoms for each molecule. I'm rather weak in acidity and basicity.

Huh? We could just insert an electronic pH multimeter and it will tell the pH of the solution. Could you explain what you meant? The pH should be neutral if the reaction is complete.

One main problem that I have to face is that borax also forms pentahydrates. Apparently, my chalky white borax has turned into a crystalline fine powder(on the surface) after exposure. So, should I just hydrate the entire thing anyway and treat the borax as a decahydrate? If so, how can I hydrate it? Dissolve it in water and crystallise it out?

Ca(OH)2 + 2H3PO4 =Ca(H2PO4)2 +2H2O forms in excess of calcium hydroxide CaHPO4 might also form.(similiar to Na2SO4 and NaHSO4) Phosphoric acid is more complex and might form chains. Several salts will form but the main ones will be Ca(H3PO4)2 and CaHPO4

Sigh, anyone know how to make a smoke bomb or gunpowder with KClO3? I lack KNO3.Making flash powder seems to be highly dangerous.

Thanks for your help. I couldn't find the information on the Internet either(colour and preparation). I neglected to mention that I added 5 drops of H2SO4 to the mixture as a catalyst. Regarding borax decahydrate, I suspect the compund is amorphous since it s a fine white powder. Commercial sources seems to be dehydrates but should I factor that into account since I'm adding water to it soon? By the way, H2CO2 + C3H7OH = C4H8O2 + H2O seems rather plausible to me since it resemble a lot of esterfying processes.

How do you calculate molecular mass? I added the atomic weights of Na2B4O7,which is 23x2+11x4+16x7=202. Is it correct? Oh, What colour is propyl formate? I got some amber liquid with an oily liquid UNDERNEATH(odd) by heating 9ml of propan-1-ol with 5 ml formic acid.When the liquid cools down,the oily layer seems to become dirty. I used a makeshift reflux condenser to do this.(conical flask, wet cloth wrapped around the cork and a glass tube leading from it to another test tube immessed in water.Vaccumn will suck the liquid collected at the test tube back for futher reaction)

So I suppose borax decahydrate has a molecular weight of 202 right?So I need to dissolve 404g of borax decahydrate with 1 litre of water right to obtain a 2 mol solution?By the way, how can I separate boric acid from sodium sulphate?Incidentally, sodium sulphate is also a decahydrate.

I need help making boric acid. I have borax decahydrate(Na2B4O7) and sulphuric acid(2 mol/litre). Can anyone help me? Please include ratios. I also need help making propyl formate from propanol and formic acid(ratio please again). What kind of solvent should I use to extract scents and pheromones from ants? Apparently alcohol don't work well since it will react with formic acid.

This is plain blatant boasting and degradetion of another's post.If you want to disprove his equations,you should present yours.So much for being a scientist for 42 years.You should know how to disprove someone politely. Here's my view,The universe could be pictured as a flat sheet of rubber with infinite area,and therefore infinite stretchabilty.If mass is placed upon it,it will cause an indention.With the absence of friction,any other mass placed near the indention will travel down it in a rotating fashion.Hence,gravity could be interpreted as geometrical distortion. If we could push the indention back in place,the indention would become smaller,and therefore reduce the effects of gravity.A strong enough electro-magnetic force should be able to partially nullify gravity.However,I think that true anti-gravity cannot be achieved because the 'rubber-sheet' needs to be stretched to an infinite stiffness(hence infinite energy) for that to occur.Someone needs to come up with a working unified field theory to work out antigravity.

Right,guess I have to reread blackholes.

Oops,I forgot to mention that the electro-magnetic shield equipped could be rather variable and even,consists of two layers.(Ie: and outer one taht's activates automatically or manually to deflect projectiles precisely,and a low powered, constantly changing and fluxating one that's jams signals and such.

Blackholes generate aniti-matter,which collides with matter,generate energy and radiates it,and eventually lose mass.Btw, the big bang theory suggests the universe is originally the singurality of an unstable blackhole.

I got another suggestion.One guy posts his shielding and defence technology here.Then other people post their weaponry here.Then more advanced shielding technologies are discussed.his goes on and on and the ideas we get get better and better.

AHA!I got it.Use drones and planes to protect the ship.Drones can intercept projectiles and help scouting.An outer electro-magnetic shield could deflect homing weapons,jam signals,convey stealth,etc. An outer plating of the laser-absorbing material I mentioned earlier could be used to defend against lasers.A strong enough hull armour is also important.In case an enemy raid party penetrates,you got marines,security system,etc.The reactor core,bridge,and other important parts of the ship needs to be shielded internally as well.

Strictly speaking,a strong enough electro-magnetic field could repel almost anything(including photons).Electro-magnetic field could even be used to outset the geometrical distortion(gravity) of mass applied on the universe.Picture the universe as a thin sheet of rubber with infinite elasticity. If you place an object on it,it will cause an indention on it(geometrical distortion)A strong enough electro-magnetic field could therefore bend space and cause anything which is directed to it to be deflected away. The main problem is that they are severe side-effects if the shields aren't directed well and you have to deal with massive energy requirements for your shields. A suggestion:Place strong metal plates coated with reflective materials.The metal plating would block conventional weapons while the reflective sueface would block lasers.Perhaps nanobots could be implemented to repair the reflective surface. A simple electro-magnetic shield would be raised to block heavy weaponry(ie:missles) Another suggestion: It would be better to absorb the lasers(photochemicals anyone?) instead of deflecting it if it could be changed to usable energy.The energy would be used to repair and maintain the ship(haha, bye bye puny lasers).

Hydrogen sulphide(H2S) is comparable to hydrogen cyanide(HCN) in terms of toxicity,but it's not rather hazardous because it's easily detectable.Btw,no offence,but your thread isn't rather good.Since they are a lot of hazardous chemicals around there, you cannot determine which one is the most dangerous.They are no benchmarks for it.

The neurons in the brain works by firing off electrical and chemical messages.Therefore,it WILL NOT exceed the speed of light.