Adas
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How to clean this? Help!
Hello,
Today I tried to make my own soap, so I took EM flask and poured some oil in, I heated the oil and added some NaOH.
But shit happened - the soapy layer started to grow so I had to turn off the heating and stop the experiment. After a while I realised, that it is
extremely hard to remove the mess that got stuck on the glass. I removed like 95%, but the 5% is still there and I have no idea how to get rid of it
Any advices? I tried hot water, saponates, even HCl. But nothing seems to work.
Rest In Pieces!
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Bhaskar
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Hmmm.... try concentrated H2SO4,it should reduce the organic material to carbon and probably etch it out of the glass, you should also probably boil
it in the flask(I don't know the safety measures for sulphuric acid when exposed to organic materials at high temperature, so proceed with caution
with adequate safety measures!).
[Edited on 06-10-2011 by Bhaskar]
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Endimion17
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Turning it to carbon is exactly the thing he shouldn't do because only piranha solution could remove it at an appreciable rate.
Basic bath and 2-3 days worth of waiting. It will come off.
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Bhaskar
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Quote: Originally posted by Endimion17  | Turning it to carbon is exactly the thing he shouldn't do because only piranha solution could remove it at an appreciable rate.
Basic bath and 2-3 days worth of waiting. It will come off. |
whats piranha solution?
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ScienceSquirrel
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You really do not want to go there!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piranha_solution
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Adas
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It is almost all gone now after I let it stand on a warm place and then washed it again. There is still some insoluble mess, but that's negligible.
Thanks for all help, though 
Rest In Pieces!
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Endimion17
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If you don't know what it is, you better don't try to make it. Really. The name was chosen appropriately. For your own good, stay away from it.
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madscientist
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Thread cleaned.
I weep at the sight of flaming acetic anhydride.
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AndersHoveland
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Detergents are usually used to clean soap deposits. Borax can help if there are also calcium salts present.
I would think that HCl mixed with 90% alcohol might clean it.
DMSO or propylene carbonate would be the most ideal solvents to clean it, but this is likely unnecessary and impractical as these solvents are rather
expensive.
After you have cleaned the glassware, you can remove the last trace deposits by boiling with persulfate solution. Persulfate (in the form of
peroxymonosulfate) is available at many pool supply stores. The addition of some iron salt can help promote this oxidation, but this could potentially
leave rust stains if the glass is not polished smooth. The fact that you boiled NaOH solution with glass is not good. This could potentially etch the
glass, meaning it will remain foggy even after it has been completely cleaned, hence the concern about rust stains.
Another environmentally friendly oxidizer is sodium/potassium ferrate, but this is not yet commonly commercially available. (ferrate has an oxidizing
strength of 2.20v as it is being acidified, this is even stronger than Carro's acid which is "only" 1.81 v)
Hydrogen peroxide acts as a strong oxidizing cleaner if boiled with a strong alkaline solution, or if mixed with concentrated sulfuric acid (which is
extremely dangerous, also called "Carro's acid") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peroxymonosulfuric_acid
[Edited on 9-3-2012 by AndersHoveland]
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Adas
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I know that NaOH can etch glass, but I think that the oil hydrolyzed faster than this could have happened.
Rest In Pieces!
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peach
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Adas, have a look on youtube for soap making.
As I mentioned in this post, there are many, many videos of girls cooking it up.
They don't use lab glassware. It's all kitchenware. It's an example of where using lab glass is going to be needlessly expensive and the stuff is
going to end up caked in there.
<iframe sandbox width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gquIFE0r5VQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Soaped on cake? Have a peruse through the videos, there must be at least a few hundred users uploading videos about what they've made that week.
<iframe sandbox width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vxjRmtjwMOs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
[Edited on 10-3-2012 by peach]
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Bhaskar
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| Quote: Originally posted by Endimion17 |
If you don't know what it is, you better don't try to make it. Really. The name was chosen appropriately. For your own good, stay away from it.
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No big deal, I don't want to make it!
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niertap
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What kind of oil was it? If it has a lot of unsaturations it may have polymerized. As long as it wasn't linseed oil it probably wouldn't polymerize
to an appreciable amount.
Ignorance is bliss
Outliers in life are modeled by chemical kinetics
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