Good and bad chemical smells, list yours

[aj47]

Limonene has to be one of my favourites, mmmm orangy.

After using it in the lab i was genuinly tempted to taste it.

[YT2095]

a new one to add to the bad smells list has to be Allyl Isothiocyanate, it`s not so much the smell as the effect it has, your eyes stream with tears and the back of your throat burns right down into your lungs, and it`s almost impossible to function without trying to hold back the RUN AWAY response at the same time.

 

if you want to try this yourself, get a half pound root of Horseradish and blitz it up in a blender until it`s fine, take the lid off and have a have a sniff, you`ll not go back for a second helping

 

Plants are Truly the masters of Chemical Warfare!

[Glider]

Yeauhuh...sounds like a lot of fun

 

I love the smell of ether in the mornings. It smells like victory Vs

[Ferdinand]

woelen, by HN3, you DO mean ammonia(NH3) right?...or is there something else that has the formula HN3??

[Ilja]

Bad ones:

 

C4H9 COOH <= smells like an old dirty billy goat

Butyric acid also smells terrbile

 

 

Good ones :

 

Benzoeacid

Benzene

[jdurg]

woelen, by HN3, you DO mean ammonia(NH3) right?...or is there something else that has the formula HN3??

 

Nope. He means HN3. HN3 is hydrogen azide which is also known as azotic acid. Azides are VERY toxic compounds, but like cyanides they have a very "distinguishable" odor.

[silkworm]

Isoamyl acetate smells like bananas and so do I.

[Ferdinand]

thank you jdurg...my repertoire is increasing thanks to this forum.

 

Ilja, one of my students once left the top off a reagent bottle with butyric acid in it. We got complaints from classes next to us and above us.

[Ilja]

thank you jdurg...my repertoire is increasing thanks to this forum.

 

Ilja' date=' one of my students once left the top off a reagent bottle with butyric acid in it. We got complaints from classes next to us and above us.[/quote']

 

 

 

haha

[spudpeel]

Naphthalene, the smell of moth balls.... that has to be one of my favourites, anything oily - unburnt diesel, engineering oil, etc.

[The_simpsons]

have new ones on my list of good smells: ethylformiate(mm Rasperries...),several essential oils which i don't know so much about chemically, (only that they smell lovely and are volatile). and some new to the bad smells: Chlorine, strong smell, yet small amount(during a chemistry lesson where we made an electrolysis on copper(II)chloride solution). Yuck! smelled like pure concenrated swimmingpool-smell.

[KFC]

Good

Oxygen O2 :Smells like a pool not bad at all

[Airmid]

Nice subject and a good read! A good thing this thread has been revived.

 

Most heavenly smells: cinnamon, cumarin, freshly brewed coffee, freshly baked bread.

Interestingly, last year I had a bad flu, and my smell was really impaired. Now usually the result is you can't smell anything at all, but this time I found I was strangely sensitive to certain odours. I couldn't stand the smell of coffee, fried egg, toast, or anything else that contained heated or burnt organics. I was almost choking as soon as anyone turned on the toaster! Did anything like this ever happen to any of you?

 

Great smells: anything that reminds me of my childhood, like paper, kid's glue, watercolor paint, clay, ink. That's more psychological than chemical, of course, but if you folks mention gasoline and the "new car" smell and the "new electronics" smell, I guess I can mention these *grins*. Also great: freshly ironed cotton. I wonder what makes it smell so nice.

 

Very nice in small doses: anything really, as long as the dose is small enough.

 

Most horrid smell: autoclaved bacteria (like rotten chicken soup, but much much worse)

 

Airmid.

[gothchemist]

Good: Acetone, Valinol (smells like bourbon biscuits), t-Butylbenzene, Cyclohexanecarbaldehydes, Diethylether, Menthols, Toluene

 

Bad: 2,4,4-Trimethyl-2-oxazoline (smells like rancid cooking fat), Acetophenones, Halophenols, Ethylacetate, PCl3, PhPCl2, Ph2PCl, SOCl2, Acid Chlorides

[wpenrose]

Good: geraniol, cinnamaldehyde, methyl salicylate, amyl acetate:-p

 

Bad: lutidine, collidine, hexyl sulfide, nonanal (? C9-aldehyde - nauseating:eek: )

 

Dangerous Bill

[rthmjohn]

you know... I like the smell of kentucky fried chicken, whatever the chemicals are the give it its smell

[gcol]

I love the smell of:

 

An approaching rainshower following a long hot dry spell (caused, I have read, by awakening soil organisms)

 

Ozone from electric motors.

 

Iron, from cutting, filing, polishing, etc.

 

A thundering good curry (not the smell of the after-effect!)

[BeYeu05]

BAD: hydrochoric acid, concentrated NaOCl (bleach!!), ammonia, hexane/toulene.

 

butyl seleno-mercaptan from SKUNKS and man-made ethyl mercaptan are equally horrible.

 

But in my opinion, nothing beats METHANE(g), especially when it has just escaped a human, hahahaha. =)

 

GOOD: umm, can't think of one right now. But

[BeYeu05]

dang it I need to learn how to post stuff. =(

[jdurg]

BAD: hydrochoric acid' date=' concentrated NaOCl (bleach!!), ammonia, hexane/toulene.

 

butyl seleno-mercaptan from SKUNKS and man-made ethyl mercaptan are equally horrible.

 

But in my opinion, nothing beats METHANE(g), especially when it has just escaped a human, hahahaha. =)

 

GOOD: umm, can't think of one right now. But[/quote']

 

Methane is actually 100% odorless. What you smell in a fart is not methane, but sulfur containing hydrocarbons. In methane gas that you use to power a stove or bunsen burner, you're smelling the sulfhydryl gases added as an indicator in case there is a gas leak. Methane itself has no odor at all.

[aj47]

BAD: hydrochoric acid' date=' concentrated NaOCl (bleach!!), ammonia, hexane/toulene.

[/quote']

 

Strangley enough, I love the smell of bleach. mmmmm

[xeluc]

i hope it hasnt been mentioned, but I find that wormy smell that permeates the outside after a heavy rain in the morning repulsive.

[YT2095]

well I just made some Bromine today, and contrary to everything I`ve heard about it, I actualy Like the smell, today was the 1`st time I`de ever smelled it (so I though) and it`s one of the same smells that used to be in old Labs at School, it`s not at all unpleasant

 

I still can`t make my mind up about pyrocatechol though, it`s Very distinctive and quite strong, part of me likes the smell, another part says it`s dangerous.

[GutZ]

If it can be just a plain element, I vote strontium for Bad. Maybe it's strontium Oxide...

 

Only smell really that angers me.

[YT2095]

Huh? Sr or even the oxide or Hydroxide has no smell!?

 

in fact I would go so far as to say that NON of the metal elements have a smell exactly (nor their oxides), the NON metal elements can certainly be VERY smelly as Oxides however (or even as the element itself).