DalisAndy
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Getting started
I'm planing on geting start with backyard chemistry. I have been looking for kits that have stuff I want. But I'm kinda lost as to what I need, or
should have. I know the three main acids (chloric, sulfuric, and nitric), KI (catalyst), sodium hydroxide, and an oxidizer (possibly potassium
permanganate), ethanol, hydrogen peroxide, (possibly) Silver nitrate, and copper sulfate. I just want to have some fun screwing around, with in safe
boundaries. I also will need some lab ware I suspect, if anyone know any good places to get that, that would make very happy
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
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Pumukli
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"with in safe boundaries"
Hmm, don't forget good books to read first! Otherwise you may stockpile a lot of different things and equipment and start doing fun. Mixing this with
that, heating, etc. and it might turn out to be not safe at all...
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Zombie
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ethanol, hydrogen peroxide
BOOM
They tried to have me "put to sleep" so I came back to return the favor.
Zom.
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Volanschemia
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For starters, I'll reiterate what Pumukli said, make sure you thoroughly research whatever you plan to do.
Second, in your list you mention Chloric Acid (HClO3). This is not the same as Hydrochloric Acid (HCl). Chloric Acid is an extremely
powerful oxidizing agent, as well as being a strong acid.
Below is a list of reagents that I use most often as well as where you can usually find them.
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) - Found in most supermarkets as Caustic Soda or solid drain cleaner
Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) - Found in most hardware stores as Muriatic Acid or Hydrochloric Acid
Sulphuric Acid (H2SO4) - Sometimes found in liquid drain cleaners, although it usually quite impure
Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) - Found in low concentrations at supermarkets and sometimes found in high concentrations as pool
chlorine alternative
Copper(II) Sulphate (CuSO4) Found as the pentahydrate in hardware stores as a root killer
Distilled Water (Essential for synthesis where you want a pure product) - Found in a lot of places. Note that Deionized Water is not the same
as Distilled Water.
Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) - Found in hardware stores as a drying agent.
Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate (NaHCO3) - Baking Soda
That's just a basic list of some essentials. Basic glassware includes beakers, flasks, graduated cylinders, pipettes, stirring rods and funnels.
Some scales of at least 0.1g resolution are also a must and a hotplate stirrer is a fantastic thing to have if you can afford a good one.
If you want to get into organic chemistry, then you will need some more exotic glassware like a distillation setup.
Hope this helps.
"The chemists are a strange class of mortals, impelled by an almost insane impulse to seek their pleasures amid smoke and
vapor, soot and flame, poisons and poverty; yet among all these evils I seem to live so sweetly that may I die if I were to change places with the
Persian king" - Johann Joachim Becher, 1635 to 1682.
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j_sum1
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Have a clear focus of what you hope to achieve. This will give you some direction and help you establish priorities.
It looks like you are interested in element collecting. That was / is my starting point. My lab has grown out of a desire to make those element
samples that I could not easily buy. Last count on the elements I was approaching 50. My lab and focus has diversified a bit since then however.
Other things you might focus on...
Building a copper salt collection
Electro-chemistry
Energetic chemicals
Organic chemistry (quite a lot of specialised knowledge required. But if you have the head for it, you may as well start somewhere.)
Soap or essential oil production
Extractions from natural materials
Interesting esterifications
Growing interesting crystals. (see gleb's posts for inspiration.)
Chemistry of rocks and minerals.
Interesting and dramatic reactions for your youtube channel
There are also certain rites of passage
Purifying gunk from a carbon zinc battery
Your first thermite reaction
Synthesis of sulfuric acid followed quickly by finding a source where you can buy it
Construction of a chlorate cell or perchlorate cell
ATP or nitrocellulose if your bent is energetics. (Like anything in energetics, extreme caution, small volumes and being pre-armed with knowledge is
essential)
Your first distillation
Production of trichloromethane via the haloform reaction
Kitting out a lab
Big topic. Depends a bit on your focus. There are numerous threads and ideas. I am not going to do justice to answering this right now. I suggest
you have a search of similar threads on SM. I can recommend woelen's site and his lists of useful reagents and equipment. http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/misc/chemicals.ht... and http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/misc/index.html
As for where you can get stuff -- a whole lot depends on what you want (see above), where you live, what scale you are considering, how much space you
have for a lab (and storage), what kind of money you are prepared to commit to the project. Here are some thoughts off the top of my head.
Sources of useful chemicals
Supermarkets -- get good at reading labels in the laundry section, medicinal section, gardening section and well everything. There are some
surprisingly easy reagents to get otc.
Pharmacies -- ditto. You can source things like peroxide, potassium permanganate, tincture of iodine, paraffin oil, and many other things. Highly
regionally dependent however.
Hardware stores -- Here is a list of some things I have purchased recently from my local stores: pool chemicals -- cyanuric acid, dichlorocyanuric
acid, trichloroisocyanuric acid, sodium bisulfate, calcium chloride, calcium hypochlorite, lanthanum chloride, graphite powder, oxalic acid, sulfamic
acid, denatured alcohol, xylene, toluene, paraffin oil, sulfur powder, gypsum (calcium sulfate), hydrochloric acid and probably a bunch of stuff that
I can't think of right now.
Pottery suppliers. Look out for copper sulfate, chromium oxide, lithium carbonate, titanium dioxide, nickel oxide, vanadium pentoxide, manganese
dioxide, strontium carbonate, cobalt oxide and others. They tend to be relatively cheap and high quality. Then you can feel like you have a
well-stocked lab while you work out some interesting things to do with them.
Ebay -- good for some chemicals depending on location and shipping restrictions. Also good for some element samples. can get pricy quickly so shop
around.
Let me add a need for aluminium powder to the list. Essential if you are going to do thermites. I began with Al foil from the supermarket and ground
it down in a repurposed food processor. It takes a while but it can be done. You need a fine sieve also.
probably more I could add but i need to go right now.
[Edited on 23-5-2015 by j_sum1]
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DalisAndy
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One of my objectives is to identify the compostion of a magnet, and extract various metals from magnets and batteries
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
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Zombie
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Hot stir plate to speed up reactions, and a couple of beakers.
Vacuum pump, filter flask, Buchner funnel. That's kind of the "must have" IMHO. Oh... If your experimenting with metals, a fume hood or some source of
positive ventilation, and a good respirator/safety glasses or shield.
If you go to a good home supply place or paint supply house you can find PVC aprons for 5 bucks. I haven't started experimenting in my incomplete lab
yet but I work with chemicals every day for a living (marine, and engine work). An apron will save you a LOT of grief.
The other guys can list reagents.
They tried to have me "put to sleep" so I came back to return the favor.
Zom.
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szuko03
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No offense but judging by your age you really need to start with the basics. I am not saying getting a lab isnt a great idea but you need to make sure
you understand the basic stuff. Do you know terms like Mole and how to balance an equation? That right there is the basis of a lot of stuff because
you cant just add 1g of this and 1g of that and assume you have the same number of atoms.
Personally I love the post by j_sum1 that is awesome, I never thought of chemistry in terms of milestones, I am going to do all of that stuff first
once I get my home lab lol I did some of it in college but not at home.
I think its great you are starting young but dont forget about the very basic stuff. I know basic chemistry isnt exactly the "fun" stuff but PKa and
PKb shouldnt be left out 
Chemistry is a natural drive, not an interest.
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aga
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The first thing is to learn to balance equations.
That gives you the recipe for the reaction.
From that balanced equation you can calculate the Amount of Stuff you need to use.
For example, make some table salt.
NaOH + HCl = ?
It may seem simple, yet this reaction generates a hell of a lot of heat, so Care is required.
Work out how many g of NaOH reacts with how many g of HCl, then how many mls of HCl you need to completely react say 5g of NaOH if your HCl is 20w%
concentration.
The devil is in the detail, always.
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j_sum1
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Magnets. I should have spotted that.
I think you have picked a hard target. You will quickly run into the difficulties of extractung rare earths. See the "trouble with neidymium" thread
for details.
I recommend expanding your focus to include batteries and start with reducing a lantern battery to its constituent elements. You could
use electrolysis to deplate nickel from the external electrodes
collect copper wire
dissolve the solder in an appropriate acid as the first step in separating lead and tin
empty the zinc cups. wash and filter the cintents to get zinc chloride solution
use that solution as a starter to electrorefine the zinc cups
collect the graphite electrodes
separate the graphite powder from the manganese dioxide in the paste
purify the manganese dioxide. I know of three methods
recrystallise your MnCl2 or MnSO4 salt
Devise a way of reducing that salt to Mn metal. Thermites work but the yield is low due to vaporisation of the metal.
Pyrolyse the PVC case to get HCl and amorphous carbon.
By the time you comolete that you will have the knowledge base and practical skills and equipnent of the right scale to tackle magnets.
And if that wasn't enough fun you could perform similar processes on NiMH batteries, Li batteries (some contain cobalt), alkaline batteries, and maybe
drag out an old Nicad. (Then you can make sure you have the right practices to work with toxic materials).
Not to belittle your ideas with magnets. I think it is a fantastic project. But you are likely to hit a wall unless you develop your skill set first.
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