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Author: Subject: Good experiments suited for winter?
PeeWee2000
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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 07:24
Good experiments suited for winter?


Hello fellow mad scientists, my work decided to lay me off so as of now I have nothing but time on my hands and have been bored to death. That being said its freezing cold out so I haven't had much reason to go outside to my lab :(. So I'm hoping somebody here can give me some good ideas so I have a reason to go outside and do something useful!

This being said, what I'm looking for is any experiment\reaction that is beneficial\easier to do at colder temperatures. For example I've already taken advantage of all the snow outside and my left over pool sanitizer to make a decent stock of chloroform for future extractions. If anybody has any thoughts on this please post! :D




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Praxichys
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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 07:40


Using the same NaOCl, hydrazine sulfate is also nice to synth in large batches when it is as cold as it has been in MI recently! Where in MI are you at? It might be nice to be able to trade some reagents.



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Mailinmypocket
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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 12:02


Make bromine or nitrate something :)
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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 12:10


Any reaction as long as it's not endothermic . . . ?
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PeeWee2000
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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 13:12


Pretty much any reaction that would normally require me to go out and buy a bag of ice \ raid my ice maker would be sweet. But anything that requires extra cold too like that from a dry ice acetone bath. And as for hydrazine sulfate I've already made plenty of that, Bromine sounds fun and dangerous but I dont have any ampoules :(. As for nitrating, my eye did catch a thread for synthesizing RDX earlier.... and I recently got some formic acid too :o


[Edited on 31-1-2014 by PeeWee2000]




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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 17:15


Making ether is always good for sub-zero temperatures.
Easy and safer to do outside anyway.
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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 18:15


Too bad its not cold here in Texas... it was like 20oC today, about room temperature.



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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 18:57


Throw some scalding hot water outside and watch it crystallize, like all of those newscasters do. :)

Whatever you do, don't set off thermite in the ice without all necessary safety precautions.
Try throwing some sodium on ice. Nothing will happen. Add some liquid water, through, and you can melt ice very easily with the oxidation of sodium, the exothermic reaction that converts the oxide to the hydroxide, and subsequent dissolution of the hydroxide in the water.
Manganese heptoxide is less prone to explode on a cold day, but it's still dangerous to handle without safety precautions.
Or try some sort of metal-halogen reaction, like Al + Br.




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[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 19:13


Distilling DCM, ether, or other low boiling solvents perhaps...



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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 06:43


I like a good beef stew with dumplings in winter. ;)

Seriously, shouldn't this be in miscellaneous or beginnings?

[Edited on 1-2-2014 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 07:17


If you have the experience you could use the weather to your your advantage by doing experiments with HCN.
Or you could try making nitrocellulose which is always fun. I personaly used the cold weather where I live to make a bit of liquid SbH3 so I say that cold weather can be nice.




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 10:58


I've always wanted to liquefy SO2, but it isn't cold enough here, you might want to try that. (boiling point -10°C.)





[Edited on 1-2-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 13:13


hey i am in Michigan too!! lets exchange chemicals and stuff!!!



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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 13:26


Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
Edit: By the way, is that the right way to write degrees, I do the super script of o, -10oC?
No. The easiest is °



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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 14:55


Hmm... On Thursday it's supposed to get down to -16&degC where I live. I hadn't thought of making liquid sulfur dioxide, but I might give it a try.



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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 15:18


Quote: Originally posted by bfesser  
Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
Edit: By the way, is that the right way to write degrees, I do the super script of o, -10oC?
No. The easiest is °

Not to continue this topic, but I found what I was looking for: to make the ° symbol, hold down the alt key, and on the #pad type 0176, when you let go of alt, ° will appear.
Of course I didn't find this randomly. Or Alt+ 248 works too.



[Edited on 1-2-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 16:11


<em>If</em> you're on Windows, and <em>if</em> you have a numeric keypad. Some of us use Linux on notebooks, others use Apple computers, etc. My suggestion will work on any system.

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_code#Alternative_input_methods" target="_blank">Alt code</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" />

[Edited on 2.2.14 by bfesser]




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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 16:24


Chloroform synthesis
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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 16:39


You need to be colder than -16 to get liquid SO2, because you have to take consideration of vaporisation enthalpy and heat capacity. I've recently tried to reflux butane with an ethylene glycol cooler at -20, eventhough butane bp is -0.5C it didn't work so for SO2 it is even less likely.
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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 17:41


Making some liquefied SO2 sounds pretty cool, I've got about 10lbs of powdered sulfur and a dry ice vendor right around the corner, but I dont know how I would generate the SO2 and capture it, any ideas anyone? Ive got a setup for generating, drying and liquefying NH3 but I doubt it would be easily adapted to SO2 :|.

Bot0nist thats an excellent idea, tis the season for starter fluid to be on the shelves and hopefully on sale, totally forgot about that!

Bismuthate I'd love to distill some HCN, it really is optimal weather for that, but I dont have any NaCN,KCN,KFeCN etc to generate the HCN from :(




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 1-2-2014 at 19:39


Make a SO2 generator.


Untitled.png - 24kB

This is what my SO2 generator looks like, I actually use a hand pump, but you get the idea. The SO2 will be rather impure, but it has worked for me.
Second edit: I will provide much more detail on the making of it in the morning, as well as actual pictures... Burning sulfur is much cheaper than any of the methods in the link.
Third edit:
Here is my SO2 generator, to run it, I fill it up with about 200-300 grams of rather impure sulfur, melt it, put a fuse in it when it's lit, close the lid, open the valve, turn on the pump*, it should stay molten from its own heat, although it wouldn't matter either way, as long as you supply O2, it will continue to burn.

*Or use a hand held pump.


[Edited on 2-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

[Edited on 2-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

[Edited on 2-2-2014 by Zyklonb]

PICT0053 - Copy.jpg - 105kB




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[*] posted on 2-2-2014 at 06:24


CaCl2 + snow (ice?) is said to reach as far as -50*C, anyone see potential in this?
i recall NH3 having boiling point around -33*C and if SO2 has at -10*C.. then wow
you could potentially drop MnO2 into straight liquid SO2.. its such a pain in the ass to react MnO2 with SO2 :S





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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 2-2-2014 at 06:52


I completely forgot that you can make MnSO4 from Mn and SO2, I was just about to make some with H2SO4, I think I'll try this now though, thanks for the idea. Sadly I'll have to do this with SO2 gas, not liquid, but surly it will be cheaper than wasting what little sulfuric acid I have left.
Edit: Misspelled formula.




[Edited on 2-2-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 2-2-2014 at 06:55


Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
Edit: By the way, is that the right way to write degrees, I do the super script of o, -10oC?


On a mac, you can do shift, option, 8.




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[*] posted on 2-2-2014 at 10:30


i am bubbling ammonia from 200 grams ammonium nitrate and 100 grams sodium hydroxide into a quart of 15% janitorial ammonium hydroxide.hardly any gas is escaping due to the freezing weather we are having and i have no backflow because i purchased a cheap plastic check ball valve off e-bay.later i will filter it on my mrs. butterworth vacuum flask which i made by drilling a hole on the jar with a cheap diamond hole drill bit also from e-bay.i got 4 diamond impregnated hole saw drill bits for about 6 dlls.YAY china! and e-bay.come on! global warming.

[Edited on 2-2-2014 by cyanureeves]
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