Chemistry Labs

[Lance]

I am doing a home school chemistry course over the summer where I will basically teach my self from a college chemistry book. I have already gone through the book and written down labs that I would like to do and the chemicals that I will need.

 

My parents do not think its safe because they say I do not have the knowledge to know what I am doing, and they want more structure.

 

Does anybody know where I can find/buy a lab manual that has instructions in it?

 

Some of the things I would like to do are:

 

Burn Sulfur

Potassium chlorate + Sucrose

Burning Magnesium

Ammonium Nitrate +water

 

I have only written down the more dangerous ones.

 

I really need to convince my parents that I am not going to:

A) Blow the house us

B) Blow My self up

C) Burn our lungs by filling our lungs with sulfuric acid

D) Blind my self and in the process burn off half my arm

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

1: Buy safety goggles and a fire extinguisher. It'll help.

2: In the quantities you could use, you can't blow much up.

3: If they do it in college, do you think you can do it?

4: Safety goggles. As I said, no college teacher can watch over perfectly, so I think you'd be as safe as the students, as long as you read it carefully.

[YT2095]

burn sulpher outside (it stinks!)

powder the chlorate and sugar SEPERATELY! and diaper it to mix it (put both on a big sheet of paper and mix it with a feather).

don`t look directly at burning magnesium and hold it in forceps or tongs, do NOT panic when it lights, keep still and let it burn.

Ammonium Nitrate in water is interesting, it would be a good idea to take temperature readings before an after, and note the change per amount used.

goggles as mentioned above is a MUST!

have fun

[Sayonara]

You should refer to chemical safety cards before planning any experimental design you are not already intimately familiar with:

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/cis/products/icsc/

 

Be aware that conventional fire precautions such as fire extinguishers might actually make some situations a lot worse depending on the chemicals you are using, so be very aware of which chemicals react in what way if there's a risk of fire.

[YT2095]

Good point, I use a Dry Powder extinguisher in my Lab, CO2 is also good, Halon comes a close third

[Sayonara]

They don't make halon ones any more, but the replacement (can't remember the name right now) is absolutely fantastic.

[wolfson]

I must advise you, as I have been around, and working in Laboratory's for a long time, that chemical restrictions apply, to above A3 standards, meaning you cannot purchase A3 standard material, and yes like YT said (he knows what he is talking about), BUY a fire extinguisher, and try NOT to do un-reported chemical science experiments, only carry-out experiments after you have done some research.

 

To your parents, aslong as you follow the General Laboratory Rules, you should be ok, when I mean ok, i mean supervised at first by your parents, this will be good, as to educate and get your parents involved in Chemistry, if you can do that then you will have the best results.

 

Laboratory rules:

 

http://www.chem.uky.edu/courses/che450g/safety/welcome.html

[Sayonara]

Wolfson, do you know what the replacement extinguishers are for Halon? I cba to google it

[fafalone]

Mix phosphorus and iodine and a couple mLs of water and apply heat, they will react violently and produce huge amounts of green gas that smells like rotten eggs (but don't smell it: it's hydriodic acid, iodine vapor, and phosphine gas.. all of which are quite toxic)

Always a fun experiment. (to stop the reaction, remove from heat, add water, and shake)

[blike]

Yea, you probably don't want to make toxic gasses at home without proper hoods and ventillation.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Like that person who wanted to make chlorine gas?

[SmokingSkillz]

hmm I didn't 'want' to make chlorine. I was just interested in why none was produced. Really i wan't to make some Dynamite!

[YT2095]

Dynamite is such a LOOSE term nowadays, modern dynamite has little to nothing in common with the original dynamite. you`de have to be more specific, and also. I could give you a metric Ton of modern dynamite or TNT, and you`de never be able to do a thing with it anyway. secondary explosives are quite inert and require special methods to make them useful as an explosive. good luck

[wolfson]

As far as I know its halocarbon streaming agents (such as FE-36, Halotron I, FM-200), tell me if im right???