TheGhostKing
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glass replacement
hi, I'm trying to make hydrogen though muriatic acid and aluminum foil but due to my location i cant get a flask to hold the acid. So i'm wondering if
i can use a glass jar with a lid with a tube connected to it. The jar would be put in a Salt-ice bath so it wouldn't break.
Would that work or would the jar break due to the heat of the reaction still?
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elementcollector1
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You wouldn't need the ice bath - glass is much stronger than that.
Be warned, the production of hydrogen is very vigorous!
How do you plan to capture the hydrogen?
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
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TheGhostKing
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mostly to fill balloons till i find something to use it in
I seem to have difficulty referencing my hobbies as "safe".
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IrC
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This is so dangerous it cannot be over emphasized. The slightest static electricity and you would be engulfed in a nearly invisible blue ball of fire.
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" Richard Feynman
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unionised
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Hydrogen diffuses out through the rubber of balloons anyway, so you can't store it like that.
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bfesser
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Quite quickly,
in fact. Helium does similarly, which is why latex party balloons loose their positive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy"
target="_blank">buoyancy</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /> after a couple of days. <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoPET" target="_blank">Aluminized-mylar</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /> would perform a
little better. As for the danger, particularly with a capacitive metallized balloon, take <strong>IrC</strong>'s warning seriously. We
used small H<sub>2</sub> filled latex balloons in hydrogenations in O.Chem.Lab. at university, but what you propose would be significantly
more hazardous.
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MrHomeScientist
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Also be wary of using any kind of metal lid on your jar - even if the acid never touches it, the fumes will rust it in short order.
Hydrogen will indeed escape from latex balloons readily. It's best to make the gas right when you need it, rather than trying to store it.
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TheGhostKing
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I'm not going to store it in the balloons for later just for me to know the reaction works and the glass didn't break. Only when I'm bored, I MIGHT
fill a few balloons for a laugh.
I seem to have difficulty referencing my hobbies as "safe".
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TheGhostKing
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Thanks for the warning this jar is really large so that shouldn't be a consern if I dont spill any on the rim of the jar.
I seem to have difficulty referencing my hobbies as "safe".
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Random
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Your signature fits you nicely
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hyfalcon
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I feel for him. He's not in a chemistry friendly state.
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bfesser
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He's not in an intellectually friendly state, either. My advice: move out of Texas.
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testimento
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Acids don't eat glass (we shall not discuss about superacids). Just put the aluminium in the flask and make a rubber seal with two lines, one in where
you drop the HCl and other out, where you lead out the H2 gas. The H2 will quickly evacuate the container of air to such level that internal
combustion is rendered impossible. I don't want to pay inhumane taxes of inert gases and don't bother go through the mess of making interts myself(N2,
CO2), so I usually flush the critical systems off air with propane. One must be highly expertized in this though, since the system will turn into
fuel-air bomb for a short period of time as long as there is enough air to combust the gasses inside. This was once a major concern with one system
with 300L internal volume.
The ones who freaked out the idea of using propane to inertize systems may ask how many solvents are actually extremely flammable at vapor phase when
you distill them off from your goods? Yep, if fire leaks into the system, it will go ka-boom just with the contents within.  Systems could be flushed even with steam, though suckback must be prevented when
the steam liquefies, and the heating started to compensate the pressure eventually. This works though only if water is not an issue within.
[Edited on 25-9-2013 by testimento]
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papaya
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Plastic bottles can be used (may not last forever) even the PET if the temperature doesn't rise to boiling - no srapnel in case of explosion.
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TheGhostKing
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well I just tried it with a large pickle jar and it work well. After an hour of tinkering I filled a balloon an inch in diameter of hydrogen. After
that the seal from the hose started to wear off so i couldn't continue, but minor repair and it will be ready! and this time i wont burn my hand lighting the balloon. 
I seem to have difficulty referencing my hobbies as "safe".
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IrC
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Quote: Originally posted by TheGhostKing  | | well I just tried it with a large pickle jar and it work well. After an hour of tinkering I filled a balloon an inch in diameter of hydrogen. After
that the seal from the hose started to wear off so i couldn't continue, but minor repair and it will be ready! and this time i wont burn my hand lighting the balloon. |
"I seem to have difficulty referencing my hobbies as "safe"."
Only as safe as the fool in charge. After reading your posts I have to say yours is the most accurate signature I have ever seen.
SCM lost a young member a few years ago. Unlike you he actually worked hard applying the best scientific methods and safety protocols I think I have
seen for a teenager in high school. Alas he also was not invincible as he believed he was. On his now dormant YouTube channel a person saying they
knew him talked about how sad they were when his phosgene experiment took his life. Unlike your cavalier manner in the posts you have written on SCM,
he was actually trying to use level thought with all due regard for safety at every step. Yet the beast that is a chemistry experiment gone out of
control got him. He was not invulnerable. Neither are you.
[Edited on 11-25-2013 by IrC]
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" Richard Feynman
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