Chemistry

Does anyone know how to make a passable to good quality ferrofluid (magnetorheological fluid (sp?))? I know of the crude iron filling to vegetable oil method, but I've heard that it doesn't work. Are there better methods? Thanks.

I have a bunch of spare plastic around that I'm considering melting into a plastic sculpture just to prove I can. Is there any way to melt plastic without burning it and/or causing significant amounts of toxic fumes? (By significant I mean enough to harm people either a few metres upwind or several metres downwind; or does that follow from the vapour pressure of molten plastic?)

Hello, I am a grad student at Kansas State University, and have been given the pleasure of taking over for the NMR director who has left. We are getting some abnormal peaks that don't seem to a product of bad shimming. We have a 400 MHz Varian, with VNMRj version 1. We have spent hours shimming, and even got the help of the NMR director from another department. The problem is that we are getting peaks to the direct right side of our solvent peaks that seem to be echoing out into the baseline. This is consistent with every solvent and sample. No amount of shimming, even with the higher order shims have an effect. We have tried to retune the probe as well. The only other th…

I am looking to make natural pigments from red cabbage water. I have seen people boil the cabbage and use the water and I have also seen someone blend the cabbage in a blender filled with water. Is there a benefit to doing it either way? Also, how long will the cabbage water typically keep? Thanks

i am new to hydrogels. i am working on one and i want to know when gel absorbs water it swells. this swelling cause little force to push or pull. can we calculate this force? by chemical composition, swelling or any other mean? anyone who can tell me about it.

I've got a whole bunch of half-drained batteries and wood ash around, and I was considering making homemade hydrogen-based fireworks with electrolysis for Canada Day. 1. I tried testing the wood ash for hydroxides by putting them in an aluminum can and mixing them with water, but it didn't dissolve the can. Are carbonate compounds effective enough electrolytes? Are they safe to use? 2. Do balloons store hydrogen reliably for days? If so, does it depend on the material? If not, do you know of what else can be used to store them that can also be used to pump the hydrogen into balloons? Or if not balloons, do you know what else would be lightweight enough to float wh…

No idea if this is the right section to post in... Anywho... Can anyone please tell me whats the difference between iron oxide & charcoal? Many thanks

Is it possible to send current through seawater without electrolysis, including corrosion of electrodes and the production of H2O and Cl gas? Im thinking about using AC or alternating-DC polarities.

Hi, The Passive Soil-gas samplers (PSG samplers) are used to determine the concentration of VOC's (Volatil Organic Compounds) and SVOC 's (Semi Volatil Organic Compounds) in the vadose zone. This samplers use activated carbon to adsorb the vapour phase. Does somebody knows any information about the type of activated carbon that is used in this type of samplers? ( some properties our studies). Has anyone done the analysis of this ?

If I am trying to do an electrolysis with NaCl and water, would the reaction be NaCl+H2O --> NaOH+Cl+H. Also, if it matters I am using graphite epectrodes and a 6v DC wall adaptor. (Sorry if I am bad at this, I am in 6th grade and am in the proccess of online totorials (khan academy) for chemistry)

I am setting up a home chemistry lab and was wondering what the best place to order chemicals and glassware is. I have found that a good sulfuric acid supplier is duda energy but I can't find a good website for glassware. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I need suggestions over differentiating between a solution of sodium hypochlorite (let's say the household bleach) and sodium chlorate solution. Is there a qualitative way to test and differentiate the two, considering that if I make chlorate from hypochlorite, I want to confirm the reaction..? Thanks in advance!

Helloo! I am doing a lab soon where we make our own research questions. Mine is involving finding vitamin c content in broccoli before and efter its been boiled. Does anyone know how to find the vitamin c content in the raw broccoli, how to get juice from it? I have access to a foodprocessor. Also, any other suggestions on better vegetables i could boil?

What are they made of? The one's you used in high school or college chem class. Are they made of a specific inert material? Cause if you do home chemistry experiments..you have to be careful of what you use: Wood table top: Cautious of hydrocarbons, heat from exothermic reactions/ burning, acid stains Glass table: Cautious of breaking glass, spilling hydrofluoric acid on glass, leaving stains from reagents Cement floor (in basement): not entirely practical. Lab bench top: Prevents against all these...what is it made of?

Why does the glow disappear at 0.01mm of Hg inside the tube which results into darkness??

I recently got away from my dads religeon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_conventions , dont even get me started on that cult) . He believes in a very literal translation of the bible. This means he believes that the earth is only around 10,000 years old. Whenever i try to tell him how he is wrong and how we can tell how old things are he just denies that it is possible to figure that out. I know that it has to do with looking at how much of a substance is left and then dating it with its half life (or something like that). He just doubts that we can know what the half life for a substance is. So my question is, how do we know how fast these rocks …

Can an organic solution have ionic strength if a salt such as aliquat 336 is dissolved in it?

Does anyone know of any challenges related to clinic trial of pharmacotherapies particular in phase 2 and 3? I have bio - availability, plasma half-life, compliance and side effects. Not sure which would fit where though.

What's a good way to teach freshman high-school students how to balance this: __ KMnO4 + __ HCl --> ___ KCl + __MnCl2 + __H2O + __Cl2

Hi, I graduated college and am not a chem major. I was able to take electives and could pick any class I wanted in the sciences. I really wanted to take both chem and physics. However, I could could pick one sciences and most of my friends picked astronomy, geography because it was an easy A. I myself had to choose between physics and chemistry. I picked chemistry and was able to select the 3rd chem class level which does a review over basics and takes you to an intermediate level of chemistry. I got an A in that class and it's been a few years since then. I personally want to go back to the basics and review what I learned and try and self teach to a higher le…

Hello, I was speaking to a professor at a university and we were discussing identifying different chemicals. He said there is equipment to identify different chemicals. He said that every substance in the universe has a different number and that you can get equipment which will identify each chemical and give you the number for it. What is the name of this equipment?

I am a scientist myself. Trying to figure out what's hypothesis and what's theory. I feel any plausible theory has to be substantiated by obervations. My questions regard observations on protein. Maybe somebody can be of help. For now I don't have an answer to any of the questions I want to ask. Here we go. ​Where in the non-living nature can we observe: Protein synthesis? Protein? Protein consisting of laevorotary amino acids only? Biologically functioning protein? Amino acids/peptides in quantities sufficient to build protein? Places containing laevorotary amino acids/peptides only? The availability of all amino acids necessary for life? Where in t…

I galvanised a nail by putting it in a zinc sulfate solution with a piece of zinc and putting a voltage over them. For the sake of experimentation, I reversed the polarity to see what happens, but now the solution is brown. My best guess is that now I also have iron ions in it. I was wondering whether there was a quick and easy way to get the iron out again, while leaving the zinc in. It is not terribly important, but would satisfy my curiosity. One thing I found was waiting for the oxygen in the air to oxidise the iron to form an iron oxide precipitation that can be filtered out. Would that work in a zinc sulfate solution? Does that take a long time? Is t…

Hi guys, as the title says I just have a couple of questions regarding ^ I am aware that rust is a compound that contains water molecules and is an oxidation of iron with oxygen and water, but just wondering if iron can corrode and the result be something else other than rust (no water molecules present - corroded iron, something like that). And regarding zinc, just that if this is the main difference between the corrosion of iron and zinc, that iron forms rust and zinc would not. I tried a google search but couldn't find anything specific. Cheers.

Hello, I am an artist interested in using Gallium. I was wondering if anyone on here has experienced Gallium interacting with paper. I know it has a very low melting point, now what I'm curious about is if it would leave behind any residue on paper after melting. Would it stick or affect the way it melts?