kclo4
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Registered: 11-12-2004
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Need incentive or true expirments
Well to begin with; i am probably not the most determined chemist for home chemistry, nor the most knowledgeable in chemistry. I haven't even had a
chemistry class, just been studying it on and off since 6th grade.
I have decided it is time for me to buckle down, and really start learning chemistry, faster, and more then i have recently. I understand a lot of
the basic concepts, along with some kinda out their ones i believe. I seem to learn in what i study, but this often leaves a rather week foundation,
and probably doesn't build the best understanding of concepts, etc.
Anyways when i start to do experiments, once i fully understand them, which is often way before i even start to do them. I really start to lose
interest in doing them, because they are not really experiments at all, they are just practices.
So, i need to find actual experiments, or find an incentive to do some chemistry practices.
I have extracted some alkaloids, working on a protein extraction thing from beans, but some part of me is really not happy, because their is just no
reason to all the waisting of chemicals, and glassware.
I do, however have a really nice lab with a decent amount of chemicals in it. I have, or have had things from S2Cl2, CBrCl3 (which i made by
accident  ), AminoNapthalene, and a bunch of other things, and a lot of, if not
all the things you can get in the store.
I plan to become a pharmacutical chemist in the future, or possibly a Genetic engineer... I'm torn between the two for which i want to be, but
naturally this makes me interested in plants, drugs, poisons, especially cellular poisons, psychology, biology, and pretty much anything along those
lines.
So, i was wondering if guys could not just suggest things that you think I'd like to do, but something that i just don't feel absolutely pointless
in doing?
Maybe i could work on trying to make a novel compound? how hard is that to do? i could imagine it being fairly easy if you extracted some complex
terpene out of plant and oxidized/methylated parts of it
Anyways, i hope i was clear about what i am asking and that its not to much to ask,. it does seem kind of a weird question in my opinion but any
comments or criticism would be appreciated 
Thanks in advance
- kclo4
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DeAdFX
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Well I would think doing reproducing a well know chemical synthesis would be a good start. Obviously something more advanced than baking soda and
acetic acid. Perhaps the synthesis of Acetanilide might be a descent start? From there you could see what adding more aniline or aceticanhydride
might accomplish. Naturally adding an excess of one chemical will help with reaction rate and yeild but measuring these differences in reaction rates
will require a little thought.
You could make learning the basics interesting by turning it into a project. For instance a lot of people making perchlorate cells here are having
trouble creating PbO2 anodes perhaps you could try different things that others haven't tried before? Sure making a perchlorate cell is simple just
stick a couple of wires in a salt solution and apply electricity is easy as pie but understanding why this works is a different story. In other
words just because something has been done already don't restrict your self from experimenting. Dink around with the variables see what you come up
with.
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12AX7
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Lately I've been producing things.
My thing is making things, even rather mundane things, from more available chemicals.
Obviously, I've been making gobs of chlorate. Since April, I've produced about 50 pounds of stuff. It's not very hard to do: it keeps itself going,
I just feed it, change its water and clean up any crud. It's like a hobby.
I love copper, so naturally, I torture a lot of copper, such as with fire, electrolysis, acid, etc. In fact, I've sold two pounds of copper
oxychloride, made by corroding copper in a neutral CuCl2 solution. It turns brown (from dissolved, complexed Cu(I)) and oxidizes on the surface,
producing a pastel green precipitate. The process goes very slowly without a bubbler, so it takes me a few months to collect a pound.
I also have a few pounds of copper sulfate, beautiful blue that it is. Lately, I was thinking of dissolving it all in water for electrolyte and
melting down my copper scrap to cast fresh anodes, electroplating them over as either purified copper or useful coatings and shapes.
Tim
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chemkid
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I like to repeat a lot of the famous synthesis (and the not so famous ones). I don't know why, but i do a ton of pointless synthesis. I don't think
you can really internalize what your working with until you have really done it. I also enjoy making batteries. But mostly synthesis: I like to
explore the different ways each chemical can be produced and the interactions between different chemicals. For example, i didn't stop at making
methane directly from coal, i also made it from sodium acetate and sodium hydroxide. And i am always looking for new ways to synthesize old chemicals,
just because i like too.
I hope that flowery paragraph gave you some ideas,
Chemkid
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woelen
Super Administrator
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Registered: 20-8-2005
Location: Netherlands
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Mood: interested
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For me, the pleasure of doing home chemistry comes from the remarkable properties of so many common reagents.
I always try to find very peculiar compounds, which are not well known at all, but which can be made from common reagents. I already have found many
mysterious compounds, unfortunately many have them have not been characterized:
- iodide/SO2 adduct
- copper(I/II) mixed oxidation state complexes
- nitrosyl thiocyanate
- decomposition products of thiocyanogen
- diverse metal salt complexes under unusual conditions
- ....
Another thing which makes home chemistry (but also physics) interesting to me is to exploit very well-known or common phenomena in order to obtain
special results. Even simple alcohol flames and some glassware can be used for nice special effects. Thinking about this and combining well-known
things into something "magic" is one of the things I really like. I try to write about that on my website.
Sometimes, I also like to do some interesting synths, and use those chems for nice new experiments.
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kclo4
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Registered: 11-12-2004
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Well thanks for replying
i have done a few of those experiment like things such as making trimethyl borate, hydrogen balloons, NH4Cl clouds, etc for the magic of it.
But I'd like to do some more complicated experiments i think. Not necessarily more complicated experiments because of whats required or how hard the
experiment is to do, but for the knowledge that is needed, as well as the concept.
I have some carbon rodes for making (per)chlorates, but i never got around to it unfortunately, i need a good energy source, i should probably
calculate how much is needed sometime.. and do it. I remember their was a great descriptive site with the formulas and all sorts of stuff involved.
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