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Author: Subject: Whats the most dangerous chemical you've ever synthesized?
Metacelsus
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[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 12:45


Perchloric acid (azeotropic). Not only is it corrosive and oxidizing, it's also toxic to the thyroid.
I thought about making a small amount of the anhydrous acid, but decided against it.




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[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 15:32


I used quite a few very dangerous chemicals, but synthesizing chemicals is fairly tame for me.

The most dangerous ones are
- synthesis and isolation of bromine: http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/OTC_bromine/...
- synthesis and isolation of phosphorus tribromide: http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/PBr3_synth/i...
- synthesis and isolation of white phosphorus: http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/RedP2WhiteP/...

Some other synths I did with nasty intermediate but fairly benign end products: KIO4 (through Cl2, bubbled in alkaline solution of KI and KOH), Na3H2IO6 in appr. same way.

In some experiments I made and isolated very dangerous things, but these I did not keep around. Some examples: chlorine azide, selenium bromide, phosphine, ammoniacal peroxo complexes of chromium(VI) and chromium(IV).




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 16:08



Quote:

KIO4 (through Cl2, bubbled in alkaline solution of KI and KOH), Na3H2IO6 in appr. same way.

Woelen, could I make KBrO4 by in the same way, but with KBr and KOH?




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[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 16:19


Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  

Quote:

KIO4 (through Cl2, bubbled in alkaline solution of KI and KOH), Na3H2IO6 in appr. same way.

Woelen, could I make KBrO4 by in the same way, but with KBr and KOH?

I doubt it. Perbromates are much harder to synthesize than periodates; Cotton and Wilkinson say "Perbromates were only prepared in 1968; previously there were many papers justifying theoretically their nonexistence. ...only the strongest oxidants can form perbromate. Probably kinetic reasons are responsible for the failure of ozone and S2O82- to cause oxidation. Perbromate is a stronger oxidant than perchlorate or periodate; there is no convincing explanation of this anomaly....
Small amounts of perbromic acid or perbromates can be obtained by oxidation of bromate electrolytically or by the action of XeF2. The best preparation involves oxidation of bromate by fluorine in 5 M NaOH solution." (Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, 4th. Ed, p561).

[Edited on 22-3-2014 by DraconicAcid]




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[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 20:00


When I was an undergraduate, I prepared (a very small quantity of) dimethyl peroxide. I was too stupid to realize how unstable it was, but one of my professors stopped by, asked what I was doing, and nearly jumped out of the room, saying "Get that behind a safety shield!"
My research mentor - who was a physical organic chemist, not a synthetic organic guy - had reviewed my process, but apparently didn't fully appreciate the peroxides, either.

BTW, nothing happened. I made it, prepared a solution, and measured the GC retention - all to prove that it WASN'T being produced in a reaction we were exploring.
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[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 21:19


dimethylmercury (micro-synthesized, quadruple gloved)

also, but not synthesized:

TCDD (tetradioxin) - ala Putin
Thallium - ala Putin

What a psychopath that man is. Russia has almost always been on the wrong side of
almost everything. Too bad,,,the world hates them.




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[*] posted on 22-3-2014 at 04:16


Quote: Originally posted by SM2  
dimethylmercury (micro-synthesized, quadruple gloved)

also, but not synthesized:

TCDD (tetradioxin) - ala Putin
Thallium - ala Putin

What a psychopath that man is. Russia has almost always been on the wrong side of
almost everything. Too bad,,,the world hates them.
Is he on the wrong side of history too?! There's only one thing worse than being exposed to propaganda - unknowingly repeating it. It shows a lack of internal functionality.
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[*] posted on 22-3-2014 at 04:28


Also, polonium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvine...





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[*] posted on 22-3-2014 at 05:06


The 3 most dangerous syntheses I've tried and succeeded at :-

Synthesis and ampouling of NaK. (Very scary. It may ignite in moist air and explodes on contact with water)
Bromine. (Toxic vapour. Burns skin immediately)
White phosphorus from red (Obvious dangers)
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[*] posted on 23-3-2014 at 03:13


KCN is not toxic and dangerous until you work with,accidentaly treating the CuSO4 solution and KCN,and smelling the dicyanogen gas!!!
But sulfuric acid,I think is very dangerous,specially for those who don't know about its power of corrosivity and dehydrating,in their mind,thinking that sulfuric is similar to hydrochloric and just can irritate their skins,but...
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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 08:39


I collected and crystallized 1.8 mg of Silver fulminate.... from snap-its... And I've worked with barium compounds, but that's about it.



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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 08:43


Barium compounds are cool.
So far I have: Barium nitrate, barium sulfate, barium carbonate, barium oxide and barium hydroxide.
[edit] All of these can be made from barium nitrate.
That's how I did it. I plan on doing the same with strontium nitrate.

[Edited on 26-3-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 08:53


Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
Barium compounds are cool.
So far I have: Barium nitrate, barium sulfate, barium carbonate, barium oxide and barium hydroxide.
[edit] All of these can be made from barium nitrate.
That's how I did it. I plan on doing the same with strontium nitrate.

[Edited on 26-3-2014 by Zyklonb]

How'd you get the oxide?
I think you can make the acetate by way of reaction of Barium carbonate and acetic acid (Vinegar) to make CO2 and barium acetate (Which I'm pretty sure is soluble).




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 09:01


I decomposed the nitrate, about 5 minutes at 600°C will do it.

Quote:

I think you can make the acetate by way of reaction of Barium carbonate and acetic acid (Vinegar) to make CO2 and barium acetate (Which I'm pretty sure is soluble).


Yep, that's the great thing, as soon as you get the hydroxide or the carbonate, almost any anion in easy to make by reacting it with the corresponding acid.
I made the hydroxide like this:
Ba(NO3)2 (aq) + 2NaOH (aq) → Ba(OH)2↓ +NaNO3 (aq).

[Edited on 26-3-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 09:14


Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
I decomposed the nitrate, about 5 minutes at 600°C will do it.

Quote:

I think you can make the acetate by way of reaction of Barium carbonate and acetic acid (Vinegar) to make CO2 and barium acetate (Which I'm pretty sure is soluble).


Yep, that's the great thing, as soon as you get the hydroxide or the carbonate, almost any anion in easy to make by reacting it with the corresponding acid.
I made the hydroxide like this:
Ba(NO3)2 (aq) + 2NaOH (aq) → Ba(OH)2↓ +NaNO3 (aq).

[Edited on 26-3-2099 by Zyklonb]


Thanks! I'll try that.




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 09:16


Your welcome, I too, will make some Sr(OH)2 today.



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[*] posted on 26-3-2014 at 11:35


Quote: Originally posted by The_Davster  
People, keep it on topic.

Lots of things. Azidotetrazole, silver fulminate, anhydrous HN3, distilled primary explosives, H2Se, phosgene, NI3, hydrazine

edit: oh and pure Mn2O7.

[Edited on 21-3-14 by The_Davster]

How did you make the pure manganese heptoxide?
[edit] I think I found it. Is this where you made it?


[Edited on 26-3-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 30-3-2014 at 11:44


Recently I've been interested in reducing metal oxides with hydrogen. As a variation, I've been thinking about doing it with carbon monoxide. Apart from the fact that CO is poisonous, I learned by doing some research that in CO + Ni produces nickel carbonyl, which is much more dangerous than CO by itself.

The lesson for me was that just randomly trying things can be dangerous. This is sort of obvious, but it was interesting to run into a specific example.




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[*] posted on 30-3-2014 at 17:13


The most dangerous work was making fluorine chemicals, most of which started with fluorine, HF, SF4, or similar compounds. The products were often quite safe and stable, but some of the intermediates are quite dangerous.

I have also worked in a lab where phenyl-piperidine analogs are made. They are the class of compounds known for causing a Parkinson like disease due to their neurotoxicity. The best known one is MPTP (N-methyl-phenyl-tetrahydropyridine), which was an impurity in a designer drug.

Also made Fremy's salt on a large scale once, an oxidant with a stabilized free radical used in oxidations of hydroquinones. I left it drying for a while and when I came back, there was a nice hole in the rather large watch glass it has been sitting on, and some ash. That was exciting.

Another fun one was potassium hydride, which I used for a series of reactions where sodium hydride just did not work. I weighed it in a glove bag, then ran the reaction and any time I exposed the spatula, vial it was weighed into, or gloves to air, they would often ignite from the nice humid air in the south. So I learned to just have a metal pan to put everything into so it could safely just burn off the KH.
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[*] posted on 30-3-2014 at 22:25


Glove bag... I've used one of those before, so frustrating to use. I eventually gave up, How did you make yours?



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[*] posted on 5-4-2014 at 05:45


Chromyl chloride, too much chlorine, bromine, KMnO4/Mg mixture, white phosphorus (only a tiny amount though :( ) HMTD, nitrogen triiodide, does manganese heptoxide count?



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[*] posted on 5-4-2014 at 12:10


A little while back I attempted to make ethyl hypochlorite outside (it was winter and the temp was cold) by bubbling chlorine gas through a solution of sodium hydroxide and ethanol in water. I guess I didn't regulate the temperature well enough, and the solution grew hot, resulting in the ethyl hypochlorite boiling off :(. That would have been one of my more dangerous syntheses.

The first time I synthesized fuming nitric acid, I underestimated the violence of its reaction with copper. I added a bit to a test tube, dropped a piece of copper in, and added a drop of water to break the passivation... In short, NO2 is not a pleasant substance by any means...

Chromium trioxide is probably one of the more dangerous chemicals I have in my possession with its crazy
oxidizing capability and its toxicity. Its ability to set organic solvents on fire on contact is awesome!




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[*] posted on 6-4-2014 at 00:57


Well, it depends how you define "dangerous".
I have made alcohol.
I suspect that more people have died from the effects of alcohol than from all the compounds mentioned in this thread put together.

On a similar note, I have burned hydrogen and made water.
I imagine more people drown each year than are killed by things like Mn2O7 or nitric acid.
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[*] posted on 6-4-2014 at 04:17


Where did you get barium nitrate zyklonb?



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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 6-4-2014 at 06:36


I got mine at Skylighter.
http://www.skylighter.com/barium-nitrate-powder.html
This is where I get all my pyrotechnic chemicals.
I think you'll need your dad to order it, as they will check your age, before you can buy anything that can be used in fireworks, ect.

[Edited on 6-4-2014 by Zyklonb]




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