Applied Chemistry

This is a story originaly written by a chemistry student (and later, a worker) that describes the chemical accidents he has encountered in his career (some of them funny, others not so much). It was first posted in the chinese forum [baidu tieba], which has then been reprinted countless times on other forums. So I figured I could share this story with you english speakers, since I am a chinese but I also understand english quite well. still I may make some errors in grammar, so please forgive those. for credit purposes, this is the chinese post I decided to translate http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6e45082d0102vwqh.html So here we go. The first incident…

if you were to get a completely oxygenic atmosphere, without other fuels and you aim a high intensity laser at the liquid oxygen, without fuels around, will the liquid oxygen make itself into a fuel and combust?

Is there any physics formula or theory about how to calculate the amount of the van der walls forces or london dispersion forces?

I need to stabilize wine with Co2, the purpose is to fill plastic bags with wine. But the problem is that the CO2 increases the bag with temperature and the bags burst, I would like someone help me in this situation.

I am an artist and I want to drip something to create stalagmites over time, but obviously a lot faster than limestone versions we know of in caves today. I've haphazardly discovered that sodium silicate with epson salts might be able to do this (although I am not completely sure) There are a lot of logistics to this idea and maybe there is a better type of solution that would work. If anyone has any ideas of how I could do this and what solutions I could use that would be helpful - thanks

I've been producing some biodregradable hydrogels for some time and, one of the requisites for their manufacturing is deionized water (really, really pure water). Quality ion exchange resins can be a bit costly, so I learned how to regenerate them, though the process can be a bit problematic as well. So I ended up turning to trying to make my own process of deionization (or as close as I can get to it) to simplify my work. So I came with the following process: 1. Pass tap water through an HEPA and activated carbon filters, to get rid of small particles and VOC (volatile organic compounds). 2. Shake the water pretty hard, to eliminate some disolved gases. …

Hi there As a Chemistry student I've never understood this simple idea and that's why I'm asking anyone to help knock some sense into me. So my problem is NOT how to calculate moles, my problem is understanding the difference between the moles that you calculate in a reaction, given the mass of the reactant or product and obviously calculating the relative atomic/molecular mass, and the moles that's given in a balanced reaction. To make things a bit clearer, the calculated moles of a reaction is very small, small than zero in some cases followed by many other numbers before the first significant figure, but the moles presented in a balanced reaction are usually inte…

Ok what kind of environment do I have to create for the reaction to take place? I'm turning an old propane tank into a reaction chamber and to achieve the temperatures required for reaction I will run a DC current through the material. Will filling the chamber with argon be sufficient or does it need to be a vacuum chamber? If so how much of a vacuum is necessary? Disclaimer: Do not try to replicate any of the conditions I just described unless you have experience with high pressures and electricity. Failure to take certain precautions could result in death or permanent injury to you or others. Contrary to iron man having shrapnel in your chest isn't a good thing.

Reports In Situ Determination of the Nanoscale Chemistry and Behavior of Solid-Liquid Systems Santhana K. Eswaramoorthy,1 James M. Howe,1* Govindarajan Muralidharan2 Many fundamental questions in crystal-growth behavior remain unanswered because of the difficulties encountered in simultaneously observing phases and determining elemental concentrations and redistributions while crystals nucleate and grow at the nanoscale. We show that these obstacles can be overcome by performing energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy on partially molten Al-Si-Cu-Mg alloy particles during in situ heating in a transmission electron microscope. Using this technique, we were able to (i) d…

Hi. Your headache is back. What chemical compound can be mixed with Portland cement, that when gets wet will generate effervescence of either nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, air, carbon dioxide, whatever other small enough gas bubbles, staying in suspension a while until mix sets/cures creating sort of pumice or aerated concrete ?

Hello, I am an artist and I use silver leaf in the course of my work. The leaf is approx .2 microns thick and I apply it to glass. Previously I have used a combination of Cupric Nitrate and Ammonium Chloride to etch the leaf in order to get a variety of desireable effects - anywhere from a light grey to deep black etch. I have also used Barium to acheive a beautiful red/brown effect. However, I am now living in a country where it is proving difficult to source these materials. Are there any other substances that i could use that are not too toxic and might cause a similar reaction in the silver leaf ? Thank-you

I am looking for a very simplified formula that can calculate the drying time for a fixed bed by heat and mass transfer. The goal is to dry the product cake with heated nitrogen. The cake thickness and characteristics of the solid and gas are known.

I am interested to find out about filters when carrying out colorimetry. From what I can look up, it says that filters are used to 'select the appropriate wavelength of light'. I would like to know: 1. How do you choose the right filter? 2. How does the filter select the appropriate wavelength of light? 3. Why is this particular wavelength most appropriate? Any help would be so much appreciated thank you.

Hi Can anyone point me in the right direction for a project I'm working on I need to develop an ink which is invisible when applied to paper, but becomes permanently visible after being exposed to powerful Xenon lamp flash. The ink should remain invisble when exposed to every-day ambient light/heat. Any pointers would be gratefully received. Regards Radtanto

I have HCl as a byproduct from fridel craft acylation,,but having the impurity like Trichloacetylene as solvent and isobutyl benzene or acetylchloride,,,i want to purify it. Any solution????

This query pertaining to the Off- specification in UVT parameters of Monoethylene glycol (MEG) sample. If any body has experience in this area plz suggest.. I summarize little background of the matter as below, - Vessel was carrying MEG cargo and at discharge port it was reported that the MEG wad Off- specification in UVT parameters at 220 nm, 250 nm, and at 275 nm. Sample was tested for full spec parameters to check the purity (MEG, DEG, TEG, Tetra EG content) by GC, and reported to be within specification limits. Also test on Iron content, water content, colour, chloride content, appearance was carried out and reported to be all within specification limits.. …

How to mathematically determine an equivalence point or end point or inflection point, for a Conductivity titration, when starting with data for conductivity and salinity (g of NaCl=titrant)..... sigmoidal curve......

Why can't you get SS as hard as tool steel?

I am trying to use sodium as energy carrier for an electric viechle. I use electricity from a windturbine to prodoce sodium. Then i react the sodium with water to produce hydrogin. This gives a bigger volumetric energy density than hydrogin. Can anybody comment on this.

If we have a molecule where an atom has one bond with another atom, does the electronegativity change for those atoms then? If we were to bond one of the atoms once more with another atom, (if we presume it's possible) would the electronegativity then be changed for that atom since it's bonded with another atom already? Or is the electronegativity constant?

Hey folks. I have a question I hope you can help aid me with... If you mix Caesium Hydroxide, Cyanuric Acid and Charcoal and apply heat to 600 Degrees Celsius, would this be the basis/end result for Caesium Cyanide? Thank you. Lin.

Let's say I have an amount of silicon dust in the bottom of a jar of water. What are some good uses for silicon that I could try with household supplies; And with this element could I create silicone?

hi, i am new here. Thx for having this forum. i am learning about oxygen measurement device and i find it difficult to understand about clarck electrode. i don't understand why does clarck electrode need an external power source? i did find a literature that answer this,but it made me more confuse. it says " the electrode potentials of the anode and cathode produce a small voltage difference between them which opposes the flow of electrons from anode to cathode. This is because the silver anode is electropositive relative to the cathode. A polarizing voltage supply of 0.6 Volts is used, which removes electrons from the anode and supplies them to the cathode…

Hi ladies and gents, So I have a bit of a conundrum. I'm a restaurateur, doing a series of pop-ups, and am about to do our first Crawfish Boil in a couple of days. But, there's a problem. My chef says the burners the premises we're taking up residence in for the night doesn't have a burner/stove with a high enough temperature output to keep the water at a constant rolling boil even when adding in room temperature ingredients rather than letting the temp of the liquid drop.We're not allowed to bring in any other equipment or use any other part of the building in order to cook, so using an external burner is not an option. So, my question is, how can I counteract th…

Hey so I'm trying to get an assignment done and I was wondering if anyone could send some suggestions my way on how to tackle #1 parts b and c, #5 and #6. Thanks! 1. a) Derive the expression for the most probable speed in a gas. b) Another way to characterize the width of a probability distribution is to compute the standard deviation, sigma. Calculate sigma for the speed distribution; i.e., sigma = sqrt( < (c- < c >)^2 >). (HINT: you may find the calculation easier if you first show that < (c- < c >)2 >=< c2 > - < c >2). c) In order to decide whether the speed distribution narrow or wide, consider sigma/ < c…