Applied Chemistry

What chemicals commonly found in households could be used to spray some lumber with, in order to ensure a nasty dinner to insects and protect the wood ? Ammonia, vinegar, kerosene, shaving cream, motor oil, plumbing flushers, chlorine, salt, ..... which should work better and longer ¿? Somehow I believe commercial insecticides work only for a short time, to keep the public buying again and again. Seen a darker colored wood in older houses, that is never touched by termites. What was used to treat them over 60 years ago ? Miguel

Can someone explain to me how to answer this question, thanks If all of the energy from the decay of 14C in your body could be captured and converted into electricity, how many "radioactive" people would be required to power a 100 W light bulb?

From data found on the web, the water molecule diameter is 280 pm; the chlorine ion is 184 pm; the sodium ion is 102 pm. If the water molecule is bigger, how can an osmotic membrane work to filter seawater ions out in desalination? Miguel

I was on a site visit to ExxonMobil's Fife EthylenePlant with my uni today. it was pretty interesting and the free buffet they put on was pretty damn good, although there was a sandwich that appeared to be just red onion and mayonaise, no-one touched that one. I got into a discussion with one of the chemical engineers who was giving us a tour of the plant about the flare system they have. If you don't already know the flare is used when there is a drop in the output for whatever reason (eg. a pump failure) but the feed keeps on coming so they have to burn it off to prevent an explosion. This is shown in 'typical' veiws of refineries shown on the news and by environme…

What cold chemical substances (not as extreme as dry ice ) can be contained in a vacuum?

can u tell whether an atom is going to have a covalent network or a covalent molecular structure just by looking at the formula...if so how?

In my first year of uni (last year) I witnessed something 'cool'; icecream made with liquid nitrogen before my eyes, and I had my portion after that I was skeptic to try it at first since I never heard of anything like it, but it did work and icecream was great!! Did anyone else try it? What I'm curious, and what the lecturer didn't explain, is what happened to the nitrogen? Did it simply go into the air? Perhaps she did but I kind'of forgot I know there was a lot of ... something that resembled smoke but fell to the ground and disappeared... was this concentrated nitrogen that eventually mixed with air? Explanations?

i have this problem and idk what to do? can someone plz help me.... --> A 36.0 mL sample of aqueous sulfuric acid was titrated with 0.250 molar KOH(aq) until the chemical indicator signaled that the solution was exactly neutralized. The mixture was then carefully evaporated to dryness, then the residue was dried in a drying oven. The residue was then weighed and a value of 861 mg was obtained for its mass. Calculate a value for the quantity of the potassium hydroxide solution that was used in the titration from this data.

Gel Type Candle: A candle where the primary fuel is a liquid such as mineral oil, terpene type chemicals, or modified hydrocarbons that are not mineral oil based which may or may not contain organic functional groups; it also contains a chemical agent to increase the viscosity (thicken) to a point where the candle has a quasi-rigid property. (Extract from http://www.moyak.com/researcher/lifestyles/candles.html) Does anyone know the answer to the following questions: 1. What kind of ‘terpene type’ chemicals can be used to make Gel candles ? 2. Is Turpentine a type of ‘terpene chemical’ ? 3. What kind of ‘modified hydrocarbons’ (not mineral oil based) c…

Hello all. Is there any method to identify an element by flooding it with some radiofrequency and sensing any resonance or particularity to the element ? The elements presence in distant planets is deducted by spectroanalysis; that is when there is visual contact. As the case of being irradiated with light wavelenght and observing the reflections. What if there is total darkness, or inside an enclosure; how to identify them? Would atoms emit a signature that can be picked in the radiofrequency range ? I know there is a tool to detect the presence of lead in electronic products entering Europe, but unsure if works with atomic principles or radiowaves. Migue…

Hey i am reviewing for a chemistry test and for some reason i can't get the answer the guide says. Here is the question: An Aqueous solution of 10.0g of catalase, an enzyme found in the liver, has a volume of 1.00L. The solution’s osmotic pressure at 27 C is found to be 0.74 torr. Calculate the molar mass of catalase. Any help on this problem would be helpful Thanks again everyone.

why is ammonia gas has so much bad smell, is there any mathod 2 decrease its effect?

How would you turn a liquid as the solution of nutrients used in hydroponics into gel; or something like this ? : http://www.kidsgardeningstore.com/14-1010.html Thanks.

when rubber is extracted from wood, in which for is it, and what is it called ??

A few days ago when I was rummaging around under my bed, I found a jar of metallic powder from my old art set. I have often heard that aluminium powder can be used in mixing paints etc so i'm wondering whether what I have is aluminium. Can any of you think of any simple chemical test I can carry out to determine whether it is in fact aluminium?

hey im making smokeboms for this stunt my friend is doing on his dirtbike, i have the actual bomb but the fuse is sadly lacking... it just wont burn down to the igniter. ive tried gunpowder coated string, potassium chlorate (and KClO3 + sulfur)coated string, KClO3 coated paper... and many others is there some secret to the perfect fuse? oh and btw i cant get like the green kind from fireworks, dont sell them here, only the weak SAS (safe and sane)kind with fuses too short for my use-i got to make them myself. Any suggestions?

Hi there, As an engineering student I have to design an environmentally friendly aircraft with a few fellow students. We where fiddling around with the problems related to the use of pressurized/cryogenic hydrogen when we stumbled accross Hydrogen Peroxide. It seemed interesting being non toxic, stable, cheap, liquid at room temperature, and releasing only water and hydrogen when burnt. But the problem is that it's quite difficult to find accurate information about the use of [math]H_2O_2 [/math] as a propellant. I know it has been used in rocket engines, after being catalysed into hydrogen and oxygen, but we would like to use it as fuel in a gas turbine. We therefore…

hello im wondering if what im thinking of is flash powder or whatever else. what im thinking of is a powder that when hits air or sunlight cumbusts. iv seen videos of people with this stuff in their hand and blow it out and it looks like a fire ball. dose anybody know what this is called or how to make it?

Can someone tell me if this is right please? Theoretical yield of H2SO4: Relative atomic masses: H = 1; S = 32; O = 16; N = 14 Molecular mass of sulphuric acid H2SO4 = (1 x 1) + 32 + (16 x 4) = 97 Molecular mass of ammonia solution NH3 = 14 + (1 x 3) = 15

Hi, can any 1 recommend me a good website from where i can find videoclips of practicals usually involving college level experiments (preferably AS or A level practicals). Any help will be most appreciated!

I need some help here, someone that`s capable of reproducing a chem synth and hopefully can confirm results. as far as I can tell the quantities aren`t Exactly critical, but roughly.. 1 part KClO3 1 part water 1 part Cu(NO3)2 1 part H2SO4 (I used 50% conc) add these into a flask in the order that I presented them, and at room temp, mixing at each stage. there will be no Apparent! gas evolved, then temp can be taken to 40c also when it`s all mixed. there will be a Very Distinct Ozone smell, and the "Ozone headache" at greater concentrations. can anyone replicate this for me please, I need to confirm it. Cheerz

I'm trying to make gold nanoshells and had an idea, but am unsure as to whether gold would be able to undergo oxidative insertion to add between a Si-Cl bond. My idea was to take silica nanospheres, react with oxalyl or thionyl chloride to turn the hydroxyls (on the outside of the SiO2) into chlorides and then have the gold insert to form Si-Au-Cl. Furthermore I was wondering as to whether a reducing solution of HAuCl4 and NaBH4 would continue to add gold to form Si-Au-Au-Cl, Si-Au-Au-Au-Cl, etc. The most obvious problem with this is that I can't think of too many divalent gold compounds. Apparently the oxidation state exists, but is only existent in "rare com…

hi, we were at the laboratory last week trying to do some of the chemistry experiments in the college? but we could not do it beacuse we did not know what exactly was mineral fibre and ceramic fibre. can some 1 tell me what exactly is mineral fibre and ceramic fibre and can they be found easily in shape of our daily use items. i would be thankful 2 any 1 who tells me.

Can anyone help me with the following: What chemical will burn a purple flame? I know potassium chloride and potassium nitrate do, however their burning point is (nitrate 631 F and chloride 1400 F). Nitrate is a hazard 1 and chloride is a hazard 2. Can someone help me find a potassium product or any other chemical that burns purple at a lower heat index and is a hazard 1?? Thank you so much for your time. Roni

Hi there, I couldn't find anything about ammonium nitrate in the pyrotechnic thread, so decided to make a new thread. I'm trying to make a small rocket engine using ammonium nitrate as fuel (easy to use, stable but powerful), but the problem is that I can only find desensitized ammonium nitrate.. Does somebody know how I could resensitize it? Thanx