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FirstAvailable
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Quick chemistry question
#2489368 - 04/01/04 12:31 AM (20 years, 1 day ago) |
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Tonight my school had like a special chem. thing sponsored by the National chem. Association or, whatever. We had the chance to bring a bottle, or a bunch of bottles, and coat the inside with silver.
Basically, we were supposed to wash the inside out with nitric acid. Then pour the acid out and rinse with water. Then pour in hot water to heat the glass up. After some time, we were to pour the hot water out and pour in some silver-nitrate and splash it around. This would coat the inside with silver, and make the outside look like like a mirror. It was pretty cool.
Now, on to my question. For my bottle, I decided to bring in a Capt. Morgan Parrot Bay Coconut Flavored Rum bottle. I Followed instructions pretty much to the letter. Got a rubber stopper, poured in some Nitric acid, closed the stopper, and started to swoosh it around. Fore everyone else's bottle, nothing interesting happened.
However in my bottle, apparently the nitric acid started to react with the alcohol left over from the rum and turn yellow. Also, a really thick yellowish-orangeish-brownish gas started to form and filled the entire bottle.
I decided to not do the silver thing, since the toxic-looking brown gas made it look much cooler. So, I just kept the rubber stopper in, and took it back to my dorm. Once I got home, for a safety measure, I covered the stopper and rim of the bottle with epoxy.
My question is, does anyone know what this brown gas is?
I assume it is poisonous/toxic since it looks a lot like Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). I will try to find someone with a digital camera to take a pic and post it. However, the gas itself looks something like this:
Thanks, I appreciate if anyone could help me out here.
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etard
etheonogenesis
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I dunno, but it's cool looking
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oneducktwoducks
Registered: 12/13/02
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I remember from my chem class, between N20 and N02, one is the laughing gas you get at a dentists (is that NO2?), and the other is claimed to be poisonous, but all studies have shown it only affects children, and it's not a very damaging effect at all.
That's a badass experiment though, we never got to do anything that cool.
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shriek
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laughin gaas is NOx , thats what they use in engines to make it goes faster also
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iloveraving
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Re: Quick chemistry question [Re: shriek]
#2502557 - 04/01/04 09:33 AM (20 years, 1 day ago) |
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Actually... n2o is nitrous oxide, thats laughing gas. no2 is nitrous dioxide, which is a brown, toxic gas, that I believe is used in the welding industry. Pretty decent for a highschool dropout who deeply wishes he could take introduction to chem. rite?
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FirstAvailable
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Re: Quick chemistry question [Re: iloveraving]
#2504558 - 04/01/04 10:55 AM (20 years, 1 day ago) |
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yea, NO2 is also widely used as a rocket fuel.
Anyone have any ideas on what the yellow liquid might be?
Im gunna ask my chem prof about it tommorow.
And Im still working on trying to get a digicam, so I could post some pics of my bottle.
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naut
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i don't know anything about chemistry, but i found this on google groups:
"Nitric acid is a known oxydant to transform primary alcohols into carboxylic acids. Its use in organic synthesis is limited because of the need of a water soluble alcohol, the tendency of nitric acid to produce nitration, and the many side reactions. Nevertheless, sometimes-for instance with some sugars-it works fine.
This means that the reaction looks reasonable. On the other hand many side reactions are possible, and I would anticipate the formation of a very unpure polymer, perhaps just a mixture of small oligomers with plenty of rubish.
The following mechanism could work:
1- nitric acid plus alcohol gives alkyl nitrate (explosive) 2- alkyl nitrate decomposes to aldehyde plus nitrous acid. 3- nitric acid oxydizes aldehyde to carboxylic acid, probably via hydrate. 4- the carboxylic acid is esterified by starting alcohol under acidic catalysis.
The following side compounds are likely: aldehydes, alkyl nitrates, nitrogen oxides, dioxolanes....
The real thing could be a mess."
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=alcoho....EDU&rnum=2
...so maybe it will/could explode?
-- naut
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AuroricDistortions
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I did the same thing in my high school organic chem class. It is called Tollen's reagent (odd how I remember that 2+ yrs ago). A pretty cool reaction, if you can get it to work right; although it is a bitch to clean out of a test tube. You can never open the silver lined glass, because the air will oxidize the silver and make it not shiny anymore. I still have mine somewhere, but no digicam . I remember there being one step in that (our procedure was a little different) was very delicate because the mixture contained inside was explosive and shock-sensitive . Luckily, no one got blown up that day; but there were a few other days that have some hilarious memories.
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shriek
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Re: Quick chemistry question [Re: iloveraving]
#2507201 - 04/01/04 05:17 PM (20 years, 1 day ago) |
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Quote:
iloveraving said: Actually... n2o is nitrous oxide, thats laughing gas. no2 is nitrous dioxide, which is a brown, toxic gas, that I believe
haha yeah your right, my bad i answered really quik because a friend of mine recently talked how they used laughin gas in cars so thats where i got that idea from lol
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FirstAvailable
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Quote:
AuroricDistortions said:...You can never open the silver lined glass, because the air will oxidize the silver and make it not shiny anymore.
Yea, they were recommending people buy some laquer or clear coat paint and swoosh it all around the inside of the bottle to keep the silver from oxidizing. But I don't have to worry about hat, since I don't have any silver in mine. Just some crazy brown gas
Quote:
...I remember there being one step in that (our procedure was a little different) was very delicate because the mixture contained inside was explosive and shock-sensitive ...
Oh man, that would be awesome, but then again, if they had such a mixture, I'd definitely take more than my fair share. I love things that explode. That doesn't' make me sound weird, does it?
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iloveraving
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Not at all. Explosions are great, as long as no one gets hurt, its all good fun.
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FirstAvailable
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Re: Quick chemistry question [Re: iloveraving]
#2507807 - 04/01/04 06:14 PM (20 years, 1 day ago) |
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Quote:
iloveraving said: Not at all. Explosions are great, as long as no one gets hurt, its all good fun.
Yes, definitely, I am always careful when I do my pyro thing. Whenever I'm putting on a show or whatever, I wont even let anyone who is drunk or in any way not fully sober watch or be in the vacinity. It is something I take very seriously.
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