Inorganic Chemistry

We frequently get amateur chemists posting here thinking they have found a way to make themselves some sodium, which they see as incredibly exciting because it reacts with water. Most of these methods involve electrolysis. Let me explain, once and for all why this idea is wrong and foolish: 1) The reduction potential of sodium is very negative. This means that it likes to be Na+ and doesn't like to be Na at all. However, water has a much smaller reduction potential, and will easily be reduced to give hydrogen gas and hydroxide ions. The difference between the reduction potentials is so enormous that you will NEVER make sodium by reducing a sodium salt in water. You do h…

I was wondering if the following set of reactions would be a cheap way to obtain sodium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide solution... If it would work, then I could use my nearly endless supply of cheap sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to make NaOH, which is a little harder/more expensive to obtain 2NaHCO3 → Na2CO3 + H2O + CO2 (at 200° C) Na2CO3 → Na2O + CO2 Na2O + H2O → 2 NaOH Would this work? Why or why not? I'm only in honors chem, so I don't fully understand what's required to make a reaction happen or not, but this seems plausible... and in addition, I found mention of it on wikipedia at the below links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate#Thermal_…

This a tutorial on how to make HCI by mixing salt and vinegar. I found this as a thing to make shiny pennies it uses 4 solutions number 4# is HCI. Note HCI is very dangerous and you don't want to drink it or get it on anything. Science Concept: By mixing vinegar and salt to make hydrochloric acid, a strong acid, it will dissolve away the corrosion compound on pennies. Materials: four 250 mL beakers 1 tablespoon (2 g) sodium chloride (salt) cup (120 mL) vinegar cup (120 mL) distilled water cup (60 mL) detergent several dirty pennies Procedure: Label the 4 beakers 1, 2, 3, 4. In beaker 1, mix 60 mL of detergent with 60 mL of water. In beaker 2, put 6…

hey i head somewhere that you can make sulfuric acid from sodium bisulfate... this is pretty impure, does anyone have any other ways to make sulfuric acid or find a way to perfect this method?

I was reading the element collection thread and just discovered the ability of Gallium to melt at 86C. Descriptions said you could hold it in your hand and watch it melt!! Checking out the MSDS, I got a much different description... http://www.espi-metals.com/msds's/gallium.pdf "SKIN: In case of contact, immediately wash with soap and plenty of water for at least 5 minutes. Remove contaminated clothing and shoes. Thoroughly clean contaminated clothing and shoes before reuse. Get medical attention if irritation develops or persists." Does anyone have personal experience with handling Gallium? Is it actually safe to play with for an extended period? Are …

The hobby of the noble; collecting every naturally occurring element. As a hobby it's an expensive one, but hey, atleast there's not a steady flow of new ones like there is with stamps, trading/gaming cards and such. I must admit that I have just started and don't really have any elements but my radium and tungsten sample are on their way. Any fellow collectors?

how do you make nitric acid using potassium nitrate and sulphuric acid

What I am most interested in is what can oxidize NH3 to oxides of nitrogen at room temperature. Supposedly, hydrogen peroxide will react with ammonia in the presence of a catalyst, but there seems to be virtually no information about this in the literature. (whether the catalyst is iron salts or acetamide?) What exactly is the chemistry between H2O2 and NH4OH ? Does acetone serve as a necessary catalyst for the reaction? When the two are mixed, there is no observable reaction, and there are many references in the literature to mixes of the two chemicals, presumably without reaction. Under what conditions can ammonia be oxidized to NH4NO2 ? Excess H2O2 would presum…

I realized because im gonna be making HCl and nitric acid, why not make aqua regia too. Ive been researching this stuff and found that aqua regia is an extremely corrosive, fuming liquid. So ive found that you simply mix concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acid together in a 1 to 3 ratio. I can imagine if this came in contact with skin or eyes (beyond bad!)!!!!!!!!! Wat you get is a fuming brown liquid that can disolve gold. Can this be stored in a normal glass vessel with a stopper. And if/when i mix the acids, will there be an evolution of heat or a violent reaction that i should be aware of. I realy want to try this but i need to no more about aqua regia. Trust m…

Can anyone give me some help on how I could effectively and efficiently make HCl ? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Hi everyone... I have a love for chemitry and some day hope to become a chemist I have a question: what is the strongest acid known, what is its PH and formula? Are there any prospects for stronger acids to be produced in the future? Thanks for the help, Ryan Jones

I always wanted to know this! What is the real essence in saying -ous acid, -ic acid? And, if possible i want to know, whats the difference between, ite, ate, ide, etc? Thank you

i once saw an experiment with H202 which made me remeber the name... it must have been something cool but now i cant remember what, Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is something you can buy at the drug store. What you are buying is a 3-percent solution, meaning the bottle contains 97-percent water and 3-percent hydrogen peroxide. Most people use it as an antiseptic. It turns out that it is not very good as an antiseptic, but it is not bad for washing cuts and scrapes and the foaming looks cool. so knowing this, assuming its cheap; 1) what can i do with hydrogen peroxide H202? 2) how can i seperate it from the water? evaporation?

Hi, I am a secondary school student from England looking into advanced chemistry. I have been learning about the nernst equation and am planning an experiment on this topic. I need to measure a change of 0.001 volts (a milivolt) with a starting voltage of 1V. How can I do this, my school has a multi-meter however its milivolt reader only has 3 significant figures (up to 99.9 mV). At 1.001 volts I would need up to 9999 mV. Find attached proposed experiment Thanks Nernst equation experiment.docx

I have a question regarding clorox bleach. The washer I have in my house only has a warm wash, one that is more on the cool side, and my roomate claims that the bleach I purchased will not work properly in a cool water wash. I need the bleach to whiten and remove stains, and I told him that it would still work in a cool wash, but I really have no idea or evidence to prove this. Does anyone know if it will still work the same, or if hot water actually does anything different for the bleach?

I had read that we can compare the strengths of different oxyacids by counting the number of oxygen atoms borne by them, e.g.: HNO3 is stronger than HNO2, likewise H2SO4 is stronger than H2SO3. But what can we say about the comparison of HNO3 with H2SO4? Moreover, shoudn't H2CO3 be a strong acid as its also got 3 oxygen atoms? Kindly post in your explanations Im eagerly awaiting one.. (If one of you can give a fundamental approach to resolve most acid and base strengths, it would be highly appreciated)

New to this forum and completely inexperienced in Chemistry! Just desperately need some sound advice! I have double-glazed windows with leaded lights (type where lead strips are applied to surface of glass). Over time, dreadful white staining has come from the lead and run down the glass... My internet research leads me to believe this could be calcium carbonate staining... but I stand to be corrected! I've tried all manner of household cleaners on this, plus other receommendations of vinegar, lemon juice and elbow-grease, etc - No luck. Is is likely that this is calcium carbonate staining and if so what chemical/method could be used to remove it without …

Sorry, I'm not 100% sure this an inorganic question, but I'm having a little problem understanding this. Why does PCl5 + H20 --> H3PO4 + 5HCl but PCl3 + H20 --> H3PO3 + 3HCl Basically, why does PCl5 form phosphoric acid as opposed to forming phosphonic acid? Thank you!

I am planning on making some electrolyte solution for an electroplating experinment. I have one question, How can I make copper sulfate, or a sulfate of any metal from simple household items?

Does anyone happen to know what the strongest Oxidiation and Reducing agents are? I've heared Fluorine can oxidise water and that there are even agents that can oxidise some of the group 0 elements - how sweet! Also, have a hard time remembering which is which, reducing and oxidation, so am I right in saying this: Oxidation agents: take electrons from an element / compound and reduce themselves. Reducing agents: give electrons too an element / compound and oxidise themselves. Cheers, Ryan Jones

Is there an easy way to produce oxygen at home?

is there anyway to speed this reaction up at all? I`ve one reaction going for 2 years now, and I had a look today and I finaly have FeCl2 crystals. ok it was from when I was on holliday by the sea and tied a string of large powerfull magnets to a rock as the tide came in and collected the particles that stuck to it, they were washed and put in a sealed jar along with 30% HCl. now I have 30% HCl and old iron screws in there, other than making them look a little cleaner, there`s no visible signs of a reaction, I added a few drops of Nitric acid to this (literaly 3 drops in 100ml of HCl) hoping something would "kick-off", Nada I don`t want to warm it up as that…

Ok, I have some FeCl3 that I have created, and somewhere I heard that this is used to dissolve copper. I took some of my (hopefully) FeCl3, put it in a test tube, and placed some copper inside, and there was no reaction. Does this reaction take a long time, or is what I think is FeCl3 something else (perhaps with lots o' impurities)? While I'm at it, I might as well ask why this reaction works, seeing as copper is a very unreactive metal.

Ok im new to all this and im not to sure im putting this in the correct froum but here goes! I was wondering if anyone could describe to me how I would go about making one of the hand warmers I have seen in camping shops I no that Sodium acetate and water are activated by bending a metal disk inside a pouch which then creates heat but after that im at a loss, if anyone can help me out I would be very greatfull?

As stated in the topic, if we have a water molecule, H2O, and the electronegativity for H is 2.1 and O is 3.5, is the attraction of H2 bigger than O??? since 2 times 2.1 is bigger than 3.5!!! Any help on this??