Pretty Pictures (2)

Mixed chromium(III) waste in the bottom of a 1L beaker. It is deliquescent and has taken on a really glossy sheen.

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk   Not exactly salen, but close enough and with very OTC chemicals! http://www.asianjournalofchemistry.co.in/User/ViewFreeArticl... I see yes, thiourea is cheap but what about salicylaldehyde, where can I get it? Any idea?

Milk and soap

Formates crystals

Quote: Originally posted by Hegi

Quote: Originally posted by Supersonic   Quote: Originally posted by Amos   Copper(II) formate crystals. Their supernatant is the deepest of royal blues and yet the crystals are an icy-looking aqua color. Large crystals have a nice form and beautiful color. It`s a pity that they erodes even in warm air. There crystals were synthesed from copper(II) hydroxide and formic acid. Those are really beuatiful copper formate crystals. Especially, the second one is really big and it seems to be nicely shaped. What technique did you use to grow it? I tried once but there was a problem with hydrolysis mostly and even in acidic environment the salt did not want to crystallize easily.

These crystals were grown with slow evaporation method during about 2-2.5 months. I`ve just put acidic solution into the plastic glassful and voila

It`s a pity that crystals slowly erodes in open air. I tried to save it in packet with zip lock, but after few months it was fully eroded and crumbled.


I also tried some other formates. For example, crystals of calcium formate:

Crystals of sulfanilic acid that I prepared recently:



The light purple coloration is not inherent to the compound, but due to traces of polyanilines.

Distillation of bromine from NaBr, TCCA, and HCl.

@Boffis

Yes, I've grown few crystals of strontium formate. They have beautiful prismatic shape:

But it is hard to grow large monocrystal because of low solubility.

For me, it is more pleasant to grow strontium acetate, which mainly forms monocrystals and have arrow-like shape:

pH paper I got after filtering anthocyanins extract from roses. I just let it dry out and cut into stripes.
It's strong acid on the top then weak acid, weak base, strong base and the bottom is neutral.

Resublimed iodine crystals.

Quote: Originally posted by crystal grower

First crystal of my CoSO4 solution prepared from CoCl2 + Na2CO3, then CoCO3 + H2SO4. I'll try to make prettier crystals when the solution is all evaporated.

Quote: Originally posted by The Plutonium Bunny

Recently, I've been really interested in crystals of pure metals, mostly for my element collection. After being inspired by The Backyard Scientist's video (see his post on page 23 of this thread), I decided to grow some of my own copper crystals. Over a period of six weeks, I used a 40g/L solution of copper sulfate and two copper electrodes with a current of always less than 10mA to grow some truly amazing copper crystal clusters. Unlike nearly all the other experiments I saw online, these crystals are very large and sharply defined - they are not nodules or rounded growths. I think that the extremely low current and the very long growth time contributes to the crystalline nature of this growth. I made a YouTube video about how I grew this, and I also included a 360° rotation to show the entire crystal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZniOJ7swic Also, for those who might like to repeat this experiment (the crystal is truly stunning), I wrote an extensive post on my website with details on the experiment. http://sciencewithscreens.blogspot.com/2016/06/experiment-53-growing-large-copper.html This post also has a link to my experimental data and observations I recorded during the six-week period. Finally, I also included the less-impressive picture of my first attempt. This used currents of around 20mA over two weeks, and I accidentally broke the crystal. It's still pretty neat, though. In the future, I will be trying other metals. Does anyone have experience with growing crystals of other metals? Thank you!

I like those crystals so much that I decided to make some of my own. And on the cheap. I repurposed a plastic take-out food container (that originally had chicken tikka masala in it, thoroughly cleaned) and filled it almost to the top with CuSO4 80g/l (40g in 500ml solution, with dH2O) and a pinch of sea salt. Electrodes made from 14 gauge copper wire (1.6mm) about 1m of it for the anode, short length for cathode. For the constant current source I decided to go as simple as possible: a 5V wallwart, and a JFET+resistor. Essentially this (not my drawing):



Randomly chosen JFET from a big pile of them, measured IDSS=22mA; used a 150ohm resistor which resulted in 9.6mA constant current, perfect.

Will check again on it in a month or so.

We shall see. The author of the post I quoted (from 2 years ago) has had nice results with a similar setup. The electrolyte is quite concentrated and has a low resistance (on the order of 0.5ohms) and the distance between anode and cathode is fairly large compared to the exposed surface of the cathode (8cm vs 0.5cm) so I hope that the variations in current density at the cathode will be minor enough to not make a difference.

Again we shall see. It's an experiment; if it doesn't work I will try to change its conditions for the next time until it does.

Edit: here's what the cathode looks like after 2 days.

[Edited on 23-6-2018 by stamasd]

Uranium concentrates from various mines (mostly on and about the Colorado Plateau)

(ed: ?? has tweet embedding turned off ??)

[Edited on 7-7-2018 by mayko]

Boiling water off of copper (ii) acetate

My small copper collection. Belonging to me, ABROMINATION and not my backup account that im stuck with.



EDIT: of course I forgot to name them. From left to right:
Tetraamminediaquacopper dihydroxide, copper acetylsalysilate, copper acetate, copper borate, copper carbonate, copper sulfate and copper metal.

[Edited on 16-8-2018 by ThatBenzeneRing]

[Edited on 16-8-2018 by ThatBenzeneRing]

Snails love ether

Its a bit rainy today so I went under the balcony and It seems that snails love ether. Two more were on the pot and two more on the way

Quote: Originally posted by DrScrabs

Its a bit rainy today so I went under the balcony and It seems that snails love ether. Two more were on the pot and two more on the way

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

Quote: Originally posted by DrScrabs   Its a bit rainy today so I went under the balcony and It seems that snails love ether. Two more were on the pot and two more on the way How come the snail don't have a shell?!

I´m sorry I used the wrong word, acually in english it´s called a slug or directly from german "nacked snail"
I do not know if you can find them on every continent but if you dont know how it feels to step barefoot on them, you didn´t miss anything in your life
Edit 1 I´ve added another pic so you can see where the beasts were coming from, guess the wind direction
Edit 2 Just went looking and added the secon snug pic...no more words...




[Edited on 24-8-2018 by DrScrabs]

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Abromination, that's a nice little collection going there. I like the vials you're using there - not quite 'chemistry lab spec' but I think they give the collection a nice look - good photo.

Thanks! I got them from a special store called "The Natural Pantry." It has a DIY section for making plant salves and stuff. I saw these vials for making lip balm and thought they would be perfect for vials. They are quite small (and not cheap) buy I got nine of them in a package and they are perfect for displaying chemicals. The bottle was also from Natural Pantry and the vial of copper was full of sand (which I dumped out) when I was on my schools symphonic band's trip in California.
I just made copper oxide and I also have copper tannate from tea, although there isnt enough to fill even a quarter vial.

UV fluorescence of beta-carbolines harmine and dihydroharmine (harmaline) extracted from P. harmala

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

That's crazy - Never heard of that. Was it done in a professional lab?

No the fluorescent harmala alkaloids, namely harmine and harmaline, have been extracted from Peganum harmala seeds. It's a simple A/B extraction followed by recrystallization from brine. It can be done at home lab.

I have also isolated harmaline and sythesized tetrahydroharmine hydrochloride based on this paper - tetrahydroharmine glows faintly blue under UV (see picture - I have used it as a eco friendly dye for body painting on a party ).



[Edited on 6-9-2018 by nimgoldman]

Donut reaction

I made some 4-amino-5-nitrosouracil recently, by nitrosation of 4-aminouracil with NaNO2/AcOH. The product precipitated and made a nice pink slurry that looked like a glazed donut

The preparation of the compound is given here (german), as an intermediate in the synthesis of caffeine. Btw the site is a great resource for amateur organic chemistry.

The reaction:


A typical donut:

Quote: Originally posted by nimgoldman

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist   That's crazy - Never heard of that. Was it done in a professional lab? No the fluorescent harmala alkaloids, namely harmine and harmaline, have been extracted from Peganum harmala seeds. It's a simple A/B extraction followed by recrystallization from brine. It can be done at home lab. I have also isolated harmaline and sythesized tetrahydroharmine hydrochloride based on this paper - tetrahydroharmine glows faintly blue under UV (see picture - I have used it as a eco friendly dye for body painting on a party ). [Edited on 6-9-2018 by nimgoldman]

Thought this was kind of cool, its the solvent extraction of chlorophyll from willow bark.

Try to shine long wave UV light on that chlorophyll solution: you'll get a very nice red fluorescence. Speaking of fluorescence I tried some europium(III) oxide recently:

Quote: Originally posted by SWIM

Quote: Originally posted by nimgoldman   Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist   That's crazy - Never heard of that. Was it done in a professional lab? No the fluorescent harmala alkaloids, namely harmine and harmaline, have been extracted from Peganum harmala seeds. It's a simple A/B extraction followed by recrystallization from brine. It can be done at home lab. I have also isolated harmaline and sythesized tetrahydroharmine hydrochloride based on this paper - tetrahydroharmine glows faintly blue under UV (see picture - I have used it as a eco friendly dye for body painting on a party ). [Edited on 6-9-2018 by nimgoldman] Any central effects from all that skin contact? If so, I hope they weren't serving Fava bean dip at that party.

Nope, it's not absorbed through the skin and even if it was, given the dilution factor the dose would be in the range of tens of micrograms, really not something to MAO enzymes (even the oral dose must be huge to fully inhibit MAO).

We just made few dots and lines here and there

Quote: Originally posted by Heptylene

Try to shine long wave UV light on that chlorophyll solution: you'll get a very nice red fluorescence.

My 'new' 14/23 thermometer

Maybe not a particularly pretty picture to most, but it is to me
my old 10/19 (0 to 250 x 2^oC) thermometer
next to my 'new' 14/23 (-10 to +350 x 1^oC) thermometer



(the readings are different due to environmental changes)

Thanks to DrScrabs
I can now get on with Hg and H₂SO₄ and kerosene distillations at atmospheric pressure.

(I previously needed a thermocouple in a thermometer pocket/well/adapter, which is OK,
but I like the look of 'real' thermometers,
even though more expensive and less useful)

I have not checked the calibration of the 14/23 thermometer yet.

This is a picture of a sulfur containing mineral I found while walking on the beach. I was looking at the cliff and noticed a large vein of this brown rock with sulfur in it.

Quote: Originally posted by Abromination

Quote: Originally posted by Heptylene   Try to shine long wave UV light on that chlorophyll solution: you'll get a very nice red fluorescence. I shined some UV light on it and it dimly flouresed red but it wasnt much. I don't think the light I was using was quite the right frequency though, it was only a few bucks.

VIDEO!

I needed more nitric acid to continue my experiments with plating, so I've got the still going. Noticed KNO2 and KNO3 precipitating out of the hose leading to my scrubber (traces of KOH solution in the hose used to load the scrubber).



Jackson, that's a nice looking specimen there! Congrats on the find. Do you live in a volcanic area?

[Edited on 26-9-2018 by weilawei]

Quote: Originally posted by weilawei

Jackson, that's a nice looking specimen there! Congrats on the find. Do you live in a volcanic area? [Edited on 26-9-2018 by weilawei]

Recrystallizing some ammonium nitrate from solution in tap water. I used this as a demonstration of temperature change, by "dissecting" cold packs, for students, and throwing it away seemed like a terrible waste.


I've been steadily boiling off the water and the solution gradually turns yellow for some reason. I also notice cubical crystals starting to grow on top of the nice long rods:



What are those? Does ammonium nitrate have several different crystal habits (is that even possible?)? I wouldn't think tap water has enough impurities to make so many large crystals.

Some sulfur i recrystalized from garden sulfur.

Not really chemistry but still interesting to look at. Some still pics I found on an old device from when I started making larger aerial shells and was experimenting with the top-fusing method.
The quickmatch fuse lights the delay on the top of the shell in the first pic which in turn lights a second piece of quickmatch piped down the side of shell and ignites what would be the lift charge in the second photo.

[Edited on 15-10-2018 by greenlight]

A small amount of bromine in aqueous solution.

Freshly deposited iodine crystals.

Quote: Originally posted by VSEPR_VOID

Nice iodine, but if you really like halogens you would have posted bromine

Here you go:

Quote: Originally posted by Gooferking Science

Quote: Originally posted by VSEPR_VOID   Nice iodine, but if you really like halogens you would have posted bromine Here you go:

Nickel Sulfate crystals

These are some nickel sulfate crystals I made using Nimh batteries.

Copper sulfate that crystalized onto some nickels that i was trying to get nickel sulfate out of.

Also quick question: does nickel sulfate form co-crystals with copper sukfate?

Quote: Originally posted by Jackson

Copper sulfate that crystalized onto some nickels that i was trying to get nickel sulfate out of. Also quick question: does nickel sulfate form co-crystals with copper sukfate?

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

Quote: Originally posted by Jackson   Copper sulfate that crystalized onto some nickels that i was trying to get nickel sulfate out of. Also quick question: does nickel sulfate form co-crystals with copper sukfate? Sad, you contaminated the crystals with dirt and oils on your hand...

Quote: Originally posted by Jackson

Should i cover them with a varnish if i want to use them as a display piece and preserve them? I assume i should but im not sure.

Quote: Originally posted by Jackson

Should i cover them with a varnish if i want to use them as a display piece and preserve them? I assume i should but im not sure.

I mostly made this on accident trying to recover a partially decomposed compound.
The compound was iron (iii) salicylate which acts strange under acidic and basic conditions. It seems to me the reactions between it, acids and bases is in equilibrium because it is all reversible. First, I added acid to give it a clear, yellow appearance and then base to turn it back to its original purple color. I added slightly to much base, however and a green solution and brownish precipitate formed, as well as some purple. Nothing had been mixed, so it formed 3 layers of different colors and was absolutely beautiful.

Quote: Originally posted by Jackson

Also quick question: does nickel sulfate form co-crystals with copper sukfate?

Iodine I made for my element collection: My first halogen!
I'm going strong with my collection, I am working on synthesizing boron this weekend.

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Nice iodine, Abromination. Before you do boron, make sure you ckeck out MrHomeScientist's videos on it. Both the old and the new. Old is good for procedure. New also mentions yield and purity issues (significant).

Good luck! I'd love to see the results.

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

Good luck! I'd love to see the results.

Quote: Originally posted by Abromination

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist   Good luck! I'd love to see the results. We shall see, my magnesium came in today.

source:
https://twitter.com/elysetwilliams/status/102774533204456243...

I'm not sure how pretty this is, but it is interesting IMO. This is a saturated solution of iron acetate. It had about 2" of solid in the bottom and about 2" of liquid above it and it was allowed to sit out for about 2 months. About 2 weeks in I noticed a little "puff" on the lip of the bottle and it steadily grew. I'm guessing that as the water evaporated the crystals grew up the side of the bottle and wicked the other solution. It grew faster and faster, I'm guessing b/c there was more surface area for the solution to evaporate.

This puff ball was very light, probably weighing about 7-8 grams, which is very little considering the size.

On another note I've found something odd when making the acetate. I used vinegar and allowed nails to sit in a bottle exposed to the air. Rust/acetate would form above the surface on the nails sticking out of the vinegar and it would be brown/orange. If I added some H2O2 I would get a nice pink/purpleish solution like a mix of maganese sulfate and KMnO4. Can anyone explain why I would get this color temporiarily as I've never seen any iron compounds those colors except for some very odd oxides (specially made pigments).

Calcium oxalate crystals inside plant cells.

Quote: Originally posted by crystal grower

Calcium oxalate crystals inside plant cells.

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

Quote: Originally posted by crystal grower   Calcium oxalate crystals inside plant cells. So that means plants also get "stones" right?

Liquid acetylene:



How I made it: video.

Quote: Originally posted by mayko

Hot off the press, a never-before-published photograph of plutonium tetrafluoride! This was obtained by nuclear anthropologist Martin Pfeiffer via FOIA. It's a little disappointing (it is known as 'pink cake'; this is apparently misleading.) but upthread there are some very nice pictures of exotic things like plutonium trichloride If you're on twitter and interested in nuclear history/technology/sociology, definitely check him out!

Martin has a new batch of pictures, probably the only of this plutonium compound in the public record.




Announcement:
https://twitter.com/NuclearAnthro/status/1107414103499276288

More here, under My FOIA Responsive Documents/PuF4 Plutonium Tetrafluoride Pictures/
https://osf.io/46sfd/

Some chemical background:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/829rbeoruo3a78w/Preparation%20plut...

100%?! did they really manage to remove every atom of impurites?!

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

100%?! did they really manage to remove every atom of impurites?!

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

100%?! did they really manage to remove every atom of impurites?!

yesterday (a few hours ago) was my birthday, my best friend gave me this as a gift, Autunite sample, i've been looking for one one ebay for years, this made me so happy
(crappy photos taken with phone, i'll take better photos with a real camera in the morning, just came home after the party hahahhaa)

Wow, that's a beautiful sample, I'd love to len one, too .

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

100%?! did they really manage to remove every atom of impurites?!

Here's some Trifluoroacetic anhydride and bis(2,4,6 Tribromophenol) Oxalate

KMnO4 solution

[Edited on 26-3-2019 by greenlight]



[Edited on 26-3-2019 by greenlight]

HgCl₂ after a broken mercury thermometer dissolved in an excess of HCl left for a month.

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

Yikes greenlight, you really should neutralize stuff like that instead of pouring straight down the drain! I know it probably wasn't much, since KMnO4's color is so intense, but in this case it's easy: just add sugar!

some iodine in an evauated and sealed test tube (while cold it is transparent with solid iodine on the walls)

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

Yikes greenlight, you really should neutralize stuff like that instead of pouring straight down the drain! I know it probably wasn't much, since KMnO4's color is so intense, but in this case it's easy: just add sugar!

I found a picture from years ago from my first reaction ever, I must have had no clue what I was doing. I had seen a video showing copper sulfates reaction with bases and figured since baking soda was a base, it would react with the copper sulfate. I must have been about 12. Now that I think of it, the beautiful colors of copper compounds are really what got me interested in chemistry all of those years ago.



[Edited on 4-7-19 by Abromination]

By-product of Neodymium Sulfate purification. Enjoy!! It was about 3" across.

Quote: Originally posted by Wizzard1

By-product of Neodymium Sulfate purification. Enjoy!! It was about 3" across.

Sometimes the simple things are most satisfying.



It is nice to be back in the lab.

Polycrystal of 5-MeO-DMT freebase :3



This beauty weighs about 380 mg

Made it from melatonin (1. hydrolysis; 2. reductive amination with formaldehyde / NaBH4).


[Edited on 21-4-2019 by bipolar]

Quote: Originally posted by bipolar

Polycrystal of 5-MeO-DMT freebase :3 This beauty weighs about 380 mg Made it from melatonin (1. hydrolysis; 2. reductive amination with formaldehyde / NaBH4). [Edited on 21-4-2019 by bipolar]

Amazing crystal and job. Can you please provide full procedure? I would love to get back to organic chemistry as I have access to NaBH4 now.

Some crystals of salicylic acid, grown from toluene/hexane. i was *trying* to make butyl salicylate, but I got these instead.

Quote: Originally posted by DavidJR

Are you sure that's salicylic acid? When I recrystallised some of mine, I got needle-like crystals. Admittedly, I don't recall which solvent I used.