Does slow evaporation, or even assisted evaporation (sun, low heat source, hot water bath, but NOT boiling), releases ions into the air?
I frequently slow evaporate (warm sunny room) to dry/crystallize salts like nickel and hexavalent chromium. Am I poisoning myself slowly?
According to nilered (11:15 mins) during the evaporation of acetone from his denatonium benzoate solution, he can taste the bitterness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOw_I42eUpMSulaiman - 6-2-2021 at 21:05
I think that'
technically speaking, some dissolved salts will be carried by evaporating solvents,
partly by weak bonding/mechanical means,
and partly because all salts have some vapour pressure,
but it is negligible for non-boiling situations so I doubt that you are poisoning anyone.Fyndium - 7-2-2021 at 02:17
When bubbles are formed, aerosol is created which carries some ions with it. I've witnessed this multiple times, at most simple way by noticing a
smell of impurities in a distillate.
Slow evaporation without bubbling will generally emit extremely little ions. This is how ultra-pure reagents are distilled, anyway.Fluorite - 7-2-2021 at 03:58
I love these kinds of questions vano - 10-2-2021 at 11:02
For example when i add sodium carbonate in selenous acid solution and when dioxide is generated it has smell. The smell is not pungent, though
unpleasant. I can not describe the smell accurately but it feels different when you inhale. Maybe ions are to blame and therefore do not look like any
other smell and that is what causes such a feelingFyndium - 10-2-2021 at 11:25
Effervescence indeed carries over ions, as it's not gas that comes over, but aerosol particles, which can carry over anything that a liquid can, as
far as I'd believe. Make lead acetate from lead carbonate, inhale lead, or boil it down, inhale lead. Doing it in closed setup or still or evaporating
it is the safe method.
They make ultra-pure reagents by sub-boiling point evaporation, likely in molecular distillation with a system that moves the input liquid and output
condensate very close to each other to make the transfer rate reasonable, as evaporation would be prohibitively slow in passive mode.vano - 10-2-2021 at 11:43
I think it is possible. Because there is not much distance between the person and the flask.There will usually be some research or this process is
mentioned in some books.
[Edited on 10-2-2021 by vano]pneumatician - 22-8-2021 at 17:45
of coursezed - 22-8-2021 at 22:57
Awww, I remember making NaOH solutions as a lab tech. You can't see the NaOH getting into the air, but
your respiratory system can surely detect it. Nasty!happyfooddance - 23-8-2021 at 11:26
Awww, I remember making NaOH solutions as a lab tech. You can't see the NaOH getting into the air, but
your respiratory system can surely detect it. Nasty!
It's less immediately noticable, but I believe your eyes are what take the hardest hit with NaOH and family:
Sodium hydroxide did a number on my eyes, always take care when working with bases. The effects were not immediately noticeable, I only realized in
time that my eyesight had been shot.
macckone - 24-8-2021 at 11:56
Any sort of evaporation can include dissolved substances.
Nickel is not nearly as toxic as chromium (VI) salts.
I would suggest covering the evaporating dish with something to reduce the amount that gets into the air and using good ventilation. Keeping in mind
that hexavalent chromium salts will readily oxidize pretty much anything including dna.theAngryLittleBunny - 12-9-2021 at 09:05
Any sort of evaporation can include dissolved substances.
Nickel is not nearly as toxic as chromium (VI) salts.
I would suggest covering the evaporating dish with something to reduce the amount that gets into the air and using good ventilation. Keeping in mind
that hexavalent chromium salts will readily oxidize pretty much anything including dna.
Dissolved salts don't evapourate at all, as long as there aren't any aerosoles from boiling it there is nothing to worry about. You'd be more likely
to breath in nickel "evapourating" from a penny then a nickel salt solution.
However, you should be careful with evapourating acidic solutions of hexavalent chromium and maybe also pentavalent vanadium. With chloride ions in
acidic conditions some hexavalent chromium could react to chromyl chloride (CrO2Cl2), which is a volatile red liquid. I had this happen once when I
poured some HCl to a somewhat concentrated solution of dichromate, which caused some red vapour to come out of the solution. Vanadium is probably less
likely to do that, but it can form similar compounds like vanadyl chloride (VOCl3).
[Edited on 12-9-2021 by theAngryLittleBunny]SWIM - 16-9-2021 at 10:38
So why wouldn't a dissolved salt, such as mercuric chloride, evaporate at all?Fantasma4500 - 11-3-2022 at 14:10
yes it does. aerosols can carry toxic, heavy and even insoluble substances. i found out this the hard way when i acquired myself a whole day of
tremors, shaky hands. it was incredibly frustrating using a computer mouse
i was working on seperating stainless steel using iron-chrome-nickel oxalate. i also ran into my old friend chlorine and after that decided i didnt
like that method after all.
i got poisoned by nickel while it was precipitated as nickel oxalate in solution, it was carefully simmering down and i went to check up on it every
now and then with fumehood going
so, were talking- a quite insoluble nickel metal salt, in a large steel pot, going maybe 60*C with no stirring, and a weak fumehood going over it
i remember one SM member mentioned that ice can evaporate without melting first, he referenced having worked as bartender or something similar where
he would see the ice cube trays left in the back became more and more empty
this would essentially also translate into lead- quite possibly if your entire room was full of lead you would at some point be able to measure this
as for science theres no such thing as 100%, working with toxic substances the least amount of exposure possible is the only acceptable range, some of
them can be very tedious to excrete and end up as a curse.
i have however watched pigeons being fumed, all day long in a large hall with plastic and heavy metal fumes. the pigeons did appear to be a bit extra
stupid, surprisingly they could reproduce. sometimes their offspring took a month or longer to learn to fly. you can adapt to much but it will hinder
you in many different ways. with lead salts it can make it more difficult to learn new things, while cobalt can target reproductive organs and
aspiration, having also felt fluoride firsthand (possibly calcium/iron fluoride) from welding smoke the main part is acute ignorance/carelessness
while some poisons can be much less forgiving, video linked below is great nightmare material.
