DalisAndy
Hazard to Others
Posts: 129
Registered: 8-5-2015
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Common lab reagents
I'm just stating out with home chemistry. I have no idea what reagents I need.... I have lab ware and chemicals but no reagents. I know BaCl2 and
NaSCN are two I will need. What else is good to have on hand?
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6326
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: At home
Member Is Offline
Mood: Most of the ducks are in a row
|
|
Wow! Barium chloride and sodium thiocyanate. I have a reasonably well stocked embryo of a lab and I don't have those two. They aren't top of my
list. (A thiocyanate is on my short list and I can make BaCl2 if I need to. But I have never had a need to.)
The best way in is to work project by project. Have a plan of what you want your lab to do and stock it from there. Start with easily available,
cheap and OTC reagents and equipment. Buy new stuff when you start a new project that you don't have reagents for -- or when you break things. Read
labels on everything. Or take photos of products at the supermarket/hardware store and look up the MSDS later. Read lots here and collect ideas of
what you want to do.
There is no one sensible answer to this question because it is so dependent on what your actual interests and pursuits are.
I was fortunate in that I was able to scavange from the throw-out pile of a high school lab that was doing a stock-take. That got me quite a lot of
reagents that I probably would not have bothered to purchase. But those are the only things I have acquired without having a specific purpose in
mind.
|
|
|
Oscilllator
National Hazard
Posts: 659
Registered: 8-10-2012
Location: The aqueous layer
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
One thing I would suggest doing is taking a thorough tour of your local hardware store, looking for anything that seems to be a resaonably pure
chemical. In this way I have found many strange and exiting chemicals such as lanthanum chloride and lithium hypochlorite. Doing this will also enable
you to fin staple chemicals any chemist would be well advised to have, such as Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrochloric acid.
While you're there you may want to pick up a whole bunch of funnels. They'll come in useful, believe me.
|
|
|
DalisAndy
Hazard to Others
Posts: 129
Registered: 8-5-2015
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
As a barium sulfate and sulfite are insoluble in water. That's why I need it
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
|
|
|
Oscilllator
National Hazard
Posts: 659
Registered: 8-10-2012
Location: The aqueous layer
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
This is indeed a good reason to have Barium salts on hand. But depending on your intended use, it may be acceptable (or even preferable) to use a
reagent that is more easily obtained. What were you thinking of using the barium chloride for?
|
|
|
DalisAndy
Hazard to Others
Posts: 129
Registered: 8-5-2015
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
I was planning on doing some test with Cherval's salt and sodium metabisulfide
Elements Collected: 19/81 (Excluding all radioactive, using placecard for those)
Any tips or good sources are welcome.
|
|
|
Sulaiman
International Hazard
Posts: 3698
Registered: 8-2-2015
Location: 3rd rock from the sun
Member Is Offline
|
|
I second the hunting around hardware shops etc.
For most qualitative chemistry the impurities in commercial drain cleaners (such as here in UK) are negligible and have typical concentrations of
HCl = Muriatic Acid = Spirits of Salts, usually 20% to 36%
H2SO4 = Oil of Vitriol, 92% to 96%
NaOH = Caustic Soda = Lye, 99%
There are many OTC chems. available, check out the other posts on this forum
e.g. H2O2 = hair bleach, 10 vol. = 3%, 100 vol = 30% etc.
Most chemicals though I have ordered via eBay,
partly to obtain 'purer' chemicals
here you need to plan ahead a little, order for several planned experiments to reduce overall postal costs.
The hard part is having a plan !
P.S. tap water may cause a false indication with barium chloride
you may want to buy or make a little distilled water
or buy some de-ionised 'battery top up' water
and remember, BaCl2 is classed as 'highly toxic', a couple of grammes will kill you.
and sodium thiocyanate if mixed with hydrochloric acid will produce the even more toxic hydrogen cyanide gas.
Reasons why so far I avoid barium and cyanate salts ?
[Edited on 12-10-2015 by Sulaiman]
|
|
|
Volanschemia
Hazard to Others
Posts: 340
Registered: 16-1-2015
Location: Victoria, Australia
Member Is Offline
Mood: Pretty much all of them!
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  |
[...]
and remember, BaCl2 is classed as 'highly toxic', a couple of grammes will kill you.
and sodium thiocyanate if mixed with hydrochloric acid will produce the even more toxic hydrogen cyanide gas.
Reasons why so far I avoid barium and cyanate salts ?
[Edited on 12-10-2015 by Sulaiman] |
Barium Chloride is no more toxic than Silver(I) Nitrate or soluble Lead salts. Just don't be an idiot and take a spoonful. Same with Thiocyanates,
use commonsense and it's very unlikely you'll end up with a faceful of HCN. I've worked with Potassium Thiocyanate many times without any problems.
"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.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
