Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Chlorine / alcohol bomb

Punk - 7-10-2006 at 03:10

What is happening here and is there a safer [more delayed]way to do this?

Warning this is funny as hell!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4292898733372477540...

Mr. Wizard - 7-10-2006 at 04:26

It's called "Evolution In Action".:o

12AX7 - 7-10-2006 at 07:21

Alcohol is oxidized and/or chlorinated. As you can see, it creates gas...

craynerd - 7-10-2006 at 07:26

Not the most sensible thing i`ve ever seen, i wonder if he still had an arm after that?

ethan_c - 7-10-2006 at 09:05

Sigh.

Here: do it in a glass bottle. The glass is tougher than plastic and takes longer to pop.

Darkblade48 - 7-10-2006 at 10:06

It's the 2006 Darwin awards!

YT2095 - 7-10-2006 at 10:36

just out of curiosity (and no I didn`t look at the link, I`ve seen several before already),
surely there has to be a Cheaper way to do this!?

or is it simply because it`s OTC available?


I can`t Persoanly see the Logic behind it.

mrjeffy321 - 7-10-2006 at 10:47

Quote:
Originally posted by craynerd
i wonder if he still had an arm after that?

I would be more concerned with his eyes....all that concentrated Calcium Hypochlorite solution spraying all over his face.

woelen - 7-10-2006 at 11:36

Idiocy :mad:

Chemguy - 7-10-2006 at 13:36

A much better wat to do it is NaOH and Al, it give you more time to get away so if you do this type of stuff, which I have to say I find rather fun, try be sensible too. Look up on youtube, there are much better bottle bombs there.

Punk - 9-10-2006 at 00:27

lye/acid and foil or even dry ice bombs dont make as loud of a boom as chlorine alcohol in my opinion.

I think the rate of expansion is the reason.

Ive made a few with smaller amounts of chlorine/alcohol and I crush the bottle before capping for more time and I just throw instead of shaking it.

Totaly safe and vary loud.

Its a shame none of you could help think of this simple solution to the first post in this thread.

woelen - 9-10-2006 at 00:53

It's a waste of time to think about this k3wl-stuff. I have better things to do.

Jdurg - 9-10-2006 at 04:35

Rate of expansion has NOTHING to do with the loudness. In fact, a gaseous product that expands rapidly will lower the sound level as the intensity of the sound is based on how easily the energy travels through the air. The less dense the surrounding gases, the lower the sound level. A simple baloon filled with dry ice and allowed to expand until it ruptures will make a frighteningly loud sound because sound waves travel through CO2 VERY easily. This is also the reason why explosions under water can rupture ear drums if they are unprotected. Rate of expansion of the gases really has very little to do with how loud a "boom" is.

YT2095 - 9-10-2006 at 05:06

forgive my ignorance, but in the Alc and pool chlorine reaction, What IS the gas that`s given off to create so much pressure?

woelen - 9-10-2006 at 05:50

mostly CO2 and H2O
traces of COCl2
traces of other chlorinated alkanes

The oxygen from the hypochlorite oxidizes the alcohol and in fact you have a very fast combustion. This is a VERY dangerous reaction and leads to explosions very easily. I can remember the thread, where suckback of ethanol in a chlorine generator, based on calcium hypochlorite leads to an explosion:

https://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5046#...

This really is not fun at all. This explosive reaction is almost immediate, when the amount of calcium hypochlorite is exceeding a certain critical mass.

YT2095 - 9-10-2006 at 06:13

is it safe at test tube level in mg quantities?

and does it work with all alcohols, Glycerine for example?


[Edited on 9-10-2006 by YT2095]

guy - 9-10-2006 at 06:33

Doesn't that reaction form chloroform? Isopropanol ---> Acetone -----> chloroform

That is a very exothermic reaction. Glycerin and hypochlorite is slow to react and not very exothermic.

woelen - 9-10-2006 at 07:05

Quote:
Originally posted by YT2095
is it safe at test tube level in mg quantities?

and does it work with all alcohols, Glycerine for example?

This reaction scaled down very badly. In mg quantities it does not work.

Suppose you take a test tube with some alcohol. If you add calcium hypochlorite to this, then no reaction seems to occur. But when you continue adding solid calcium hypochlorite and you exceed a certain critical threshold then it suddenly does KABOOM. No, this does not work nicely at the test tube level. It either does not react visibly, or it reacts so violently that it becomes too dangerous. I think, that as long as heat can be carried away at a sufficient rate, the reaction remains in control, but once it starts to runaway, then it does so very quickly and badly.

This reaction only produces chloroform, when performed in a controlled way, in an alkaline environment. Adding solid calcium hypochlorite to any lower alcohol just results in complete destruction of the alcohol molecule and does not give chloroform in any reasonable yield.

h0lx - 18-10-2006 at 08:56

Actually I have to confess I have once done it too, at the field for an experimental purpose, with a 200ml bottle and a piece of calcium. Ofcourse no shaking was done, the calcium was placed inside, sealed up, audience was 50m away, grilling sausages over a campfire. It took like 5 minutes before rupture. The report was not loud at all, as expected. I dunno, why people mess with these things.

[Edited on 18-10-2006 by h0lx]

YT2095 - 19-10-2006 at 00:42

actualy I don`t know the bursting pressure required for these types of bottles, but I know you can back a car over one without incident. so the pressure and power of these must be tremendous!
it`s a wonder it hasn`t caused any more Serious injuries than it has.

not_important - 19-10-2006 at 01:01

Quote:
Originally posted by YT2095
actualy I don`t know the bursting pressure required for these types of bottles, but I know you can back a car over one without incident. so the pressure and power of these must be tremendous!
it`s a wonder it hasn`t caused any more Serious injuries than it has.


Which type of bottles?

Standard PETE soft drink bottles are expected to hold three atmospheres of pressure during normal storage and transport; some safty factor over that would be expected. However that rating will be for 'normal' temperatures, 30 to 35 C max; the reaction given generates heat which reduces the strength of the plastic. That's another factor in the runaway effect, pressure builds up as does the temperature, the reaction runs faster as the container gets weaker.

YT2095 - 19-10-2006 at 01:08

I`m not sure what they`re made of in all honesty, I know that they tend to Shatter at the neck and the main body of the bottle will cleave a bit like Mica does.

I can see what you mean about the heating though, Alu in HCl or NaOH behaves in a similar way, slow to start but quite rapid when warm/hot.

tumadre - 19-10-2006 at 21:10

in my experience
I once had a cheap 20 bar air compressor :D

a 2-liter soda bottle will hold about 10 bar, and rupture out the side, split vertically
a 20 -oz bottle will hold 20 bar if wraped in a layer of aluminum tape, and it you strike the cap, it will fail.
if you heat a 2-liter bottle, it will expand at the base first, then the sides, especially if it is upright, but it will tip over and rupture out the bottem as the heated liquid is there, and not....

so if you want a *loud* report, use a steel 1 pound propane bottle, you can drill out a half inch hole through the main theaded valve assembly after empting it, then screw the regulator, blow torch, valve assembly back on, you can even reuse all that as the steel will not rupture at the valve assembly:D

when *they* required upgrades to the overfill preventive tanks, a *lot* of k3wls would take the surpluss tanks and toss them in a fire.....

[Edited on 20-10-2006 by tumadre]