scrubs2009
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grease appearing on beakers?
Hey everyone. Alot of my breakers have a film of grease appearing on them after a day or two of being left alone. An example of this would be when
just today I went to pick up a jar of sulfuric acid and it was covered with a slippery peanut-smelling grease. This happens with glass containers,
plastic containers, you name it. I've tried putting them elsewhere but nothing works. Anyone know what this grease is?
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Metacelsus
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It sounds like something stored in your lab might be getting in the air. Do you have anything nearby that smells like peanuts?
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scrubs2009
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Nothing I can think of. A full list of everything I have can be found here.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=54087
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subsecret
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Set up a camera to catch whoever has been making fries in your glassware 
Fear is what you get when caution wasn't enough.
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scrubs2009
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I'm less mad that someone has been making fries on my breaker and more mad that they haven't shared :|
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subsecret
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LOL
I actually had a similar problem to this, but it was with a jug of store-bought hydrochloric acid. Over time, the container would develop a thin,
slippery film, and would have some yellowish spots on it. I figured that this was the acid escaping from its container, and after I put it in 5 gallon
bucket over some sodium carbonate, the film stopped appearing.
I suppose this doesn't solve the peanut smell, but it's something...
Fear is what you get when caution wasn't enough.
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woelen
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Probably it is the nitric acid in your storage room. Conc. nitric acid gives off vapors and I noticed, that when I touch bottles, which become wetted
with this vapor there is some peculiar odour on my skin.
Hydrochloric acid also gives off fumes in storage. You need to store these two acids separately, or in special very well sealing bottles. Storing them
in a plastic box, with a well selaed lid, and having some solid NaOH in a plate in it also helps a lot.
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phlogiston
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+1 on nitric acid being the prime suspect.
I have the same thin slippery film with a very specific smell on all glassware in the vicinity of the nitric acid bottle. It could be mistaken for
grease I suppose, except that it is readily removed with non-soapy water.
I even observed it at my work were we keep a bottle of nitric acid in an actively ventilated drawer in the properly sealed Sigma-Aldrich bottle it was
delivered in, so it is not easy to prevent.
-----
"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer |
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deltaH
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... so basically it's labsmog
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scrubs2009
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Hmm it's strange considering that I only have a very small amount of con nitric acid and 2 bottles of <1 mol nitric acid solution
Ps what's labsmog? 0_0
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gdflp
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It's going to be the conc. acid most likely, <1M nitric acid won't fume too much.
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Praxichys
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I have a factory sealed bottle of cyanuric chloride which leaves a nasty fishy-smelling film all over everything in its vicinity. I generally keep
that one inside a plastic container with a snap-down lid with some boric acid sprinkled in the bottom.
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scrubs2009
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Hmm plastic bags would help alot but they will ruin the science-dungeon aesthetic of my bedroom.....(the ladies love the science-dungeon look) mabye I
should get a box for my acids.
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Zyklon-A
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Red-brown city smog refers to NO2 (and ozone) made from car exaust which hovers over big cities, and contribites to acid rain. So,
deltaH was jokingly saying the NA was making lab smog, which is similar to NO2. "Labsmog" doesn't exsist.
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