It gets quite hot but only makes nitrocellulose (aka guncotton) reliably with unbleached cotton, which you rarely find in clothes.
what’s your best “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment?
Submitted 3 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/5fd79b4f-fc49-4912-9442-a5de346ef068.jpeg
Comments
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
epicshepich@programming.dev 1 day ago
I’ve got two.
A lab freezer’s seal broke in the middle of a humid Michigan summer, so everything got encased in frost. In the process of chipping away the frost, the ink on many of the labels rubbed away, so we essentially had a bunch of mystery flasks. One such flask had a septum that was stuck really tight. When I yanked it out, the recoil caused some of the mystery liquid to splash onto my mesh shoe. Within a couple minutes, my foot started stinging. We later identified the contents to be acetyl chloride, so it was probably reacting with my foot sweat to make acetic acid and hydrochloric acid. I took my shoe and sock off and rinsed my foot in the lab sink.
I was putting sodium hydride into an empty round bottom and a good bit of it got stuck to the ground glass in the neck. Genius that I am, I turned a nitrogen line on with low flow thinking I could blow it into the flask. I didn’t realize that the nitrogen had to go somewhere and the only place it could go is back out, blowing NaH all over my face. There was very much safety-glasses-unless-there’s-an-inspection culture at my old university, but I was never more thankful that I made it a personal rule to wear splash goggles. Would not have liked for the moisture on my eyes to bubble off.
Frostbeard@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Not me but years ago the inorganic lab at my uni was tasked with measuring heavy metals in whale fat and did what they normally did back then to dislove test materials. Mix nitric acid and hydrocloric acid in some heavy duty pure quartz reagent tubes, put in sample and microwave. Well. Turns out mixing triclyride (fat) with nitric acid and HCl as a catalyst makes nitroclyserine. And what does that do in a confinde space and microwaves.
It turns expensive heavy duty quartz tubes into expensive quartz dust and a fucked microwave.
woodenghost@hexbear.net 3 days ago
Those brown/red gases are different Nitrogen oxides and very unhealthy to breath in. I had to do this once and the fume hood was barely keeping up. It filled quick with the stuff. Later, we had to get the copper back and were deducted points for each fraction of a gram lost.
Once I discovered a large hole with black edges on the back of my lab coat. Someone must have spilled sulfuric acid on it without noticing. So it makes sense to wear them in a crowded lab, even if you think you yourself don’t need to.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Insanity Wolf -> Microwave acts upon LiON battery.
groucho@retrolemmy.com 2 days ago
Not as cool as the original story, but I was working with a big carboy of dilute HCL in a CHEM 101 lab. The previous person that used the carboy had managed to spill dilute HCL all over the stopper. I was not aware of this.
The protocol was to grasp the stopper between middle and ring finger, pull it out, then pick the carboy up with both hands and pour into the beaker. That way, the only thing the business end of the stopper ever touches is the inside of the carboy.
I’d just started pouring when I felt the skin between the two fingers start to itch. It was obnoxious, but I had a heavy piece of glassware in my hands trying to measure out a precise amount. So I ignored it until it started to burn. By that point I almost had enough in my beaker so I topped it up. Then I lowered the carboy and replaced the stopper.
Then I ran over to the sink, turned it on full blast, and washed the acid off my hand. I had a red, tender patch there for days. After that, I always wiped the stopper off with a paper towel before I pulled it out.
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I’m sad that I didn’t have access to random chemicals growing up. All these fun stories makes me feel like I missed out!
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
My grandparents developed health issues and needed some assistance. They lived 3 hours away.
We bought a large, ancient camper, we hauled it 3 hours up to a rural campground some 30 miles away from my grandparents house. and I spent 2 summers up there. My father would leave in the am, go to visit my grandparents then come back to the camper around dinner.
I could hike and bike, there were quarries and fossils. No amenities per se but power and water. Before internet, and cell phones. We had a black and white 7 inch TV that could pick up 1.5 channels (the one was clear)
After running out of places to hike/bike within reason, I decided to fish. I hate fishing but GOD I was bored.
Work on the hook, eww eww eww squirm squirm, piereced my thumb in the corner.
ow fuck
ok try to get it back through wiggle wiggle
pierce through my other thumb. push down on my pant leg to try to get the hook on through
barb stuck in my pant leg.
hobbled back to the camper, both thumbs stuck together, to my right leg, every walk sheer pain.
so much laughter at me
i finally just ripped the thumbs apart.
never fished again
LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 3 days ago
rookie mistake i would have simply let the acid and copper continue reacting
unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
I get zero results from your search phrase and also I did poorly in chem lab but I just always want to learn he he deffo not gonna blow up a garage
ch00f@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I was trying to concentrate hydrochloric acid and had it in my boiling flask on a mantle. It was taking a while and I realized I hadn’t added a stir-bar, so I tossed one in.
Then the superheated hydrochloric acid flash boiled and shot out of the flask like 8 feet in the air. Fortunately, I was outside.
Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Did you not notice it acting upon the glass? Wtf.