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Author: Subject: My first little incident
Keras
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[*] posted on 23-7-2022 at 01:53


Quote: Originally posted by ManyInterests  
I bought a new 2 liter mantle and boiled some acid with it, only for it to spit out acid and almost cause a repeat to what happened to my previous mantle.


How the heck did acid spit out? You mean that you boiled acid with the neck of the flask open?
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ManyInterests
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[*] posted on 23-7-2022 at 09:12


Quote: Originally posted by Keras  
Quote: Originally posted by ManyInterests  
I bought a new 2 liter mantle and boiled some acid with it, only for it to spit out acid and almost cause a repeat to what happened to my previous mantle.


How the heck did acid spit out? You mean that you boiled acid with the neck of the flask open?


This was the confusing part. I've boiled sulfuric acid many, many times before without incident. I went by NileRed's method of first cleaning the drain opener with 30+% H2O2. and never filling the flask with to more than 50% capacity.

Normally I would use 500ml of drain opener (plus 60ml of H2O2) in a 1 liter flask. After cleaning it, adding boiling chips, and setting everything up. I would turn the heat up to maximum and let it boil for an indeterminate period of time to make sure that it is on or near the 98% azeotrope.

Like I said, I did this many times with no incident. But this time I decided to put in 1 liter of acid in a 2 liter flask and just did everything the same. In the beginning everything was working just fine until about an hour into boiling when I checked on it and I saw acid stains everywhere. I shut off the power immediately.

After waititing for everything to cool down and the fumes to die. I moved the setup back inside and started to wipe everything with sanitary wipes and bicarbonate water to clean up any acids. I think the bicarbonate water is what caused the short to start since I didn't know it was an electrolyte. When I hgave it a quick test run after washing and drying. I heard hissing and some redness started to flare beneath the sleeve. I shut it down right away and all of the noise and flaring immediately stopped.

With a discord group I am talking to, I washed out the inner sleeve (like poured over 1.5 liters of distilled water) into the sleeve and turned it upside down to hopefully get all the bicarbonate out of there or gone so it won't cause any more shorts.

I left it for 14 hours to air dry and I am using a hair dryer to dry it out further. I plan on washing it out with more water and drying it again before testing. I DO NOT WANT TO LOSE THIS MANTLE!

Sorry for the emotionality of all this, but this is a new mantle, of excellent quality, and rather expensive. I don't want it to be broken in such an inane and stupid manner.

Also I will never boil more than 1/3 acid in my flask ever again. I can do multiple runs. No need to be impatient.

Edit: I believe I managed to repair my mantle and avoid a disaster. I did a final test with some sulfuric acid and I am glad about the result. It worked to boil it. No issues or anything funny. I am very good and very happy.

[Edited on 24-7-2022 by ManyInterests]
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[*] posted on 25-7-2022 at 00:42


Playing with sodium

https://youtu.be/mNWTpfHovHM
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[*] posted on 25-7-2022 at 01:05


Quote: Originally posted by ManyInterests  
I think the bicarbonate water is what caused the short to start since I didn't know it was an electrolyte.

Every ionic compound conducts electricity when dissolved in water. If you want to avoid this kind of thing, use distilled water + alcohol. But really, acid conducts electricity too (iirc, sulphuric acid is more more conductive than water), so I’m not certain what's best to clean acid (though, up to a point, acid + alcohol will esterify, and esters are not ionic thus non-conductive).
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[*] posted on 26-7-2022 at 00:23


Lesson well learned. Thank you. My mantle is still safe and I plan on keeping it that way.
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