rthmjohn

Sweet. btw... I've almost exhausted my supply of Al powder, and unitednuclear has discontinued its sale. Where do you guys get yours?

The only thermite I knew of until recently was the ferroaluminum thermite. I now know that any oxide can be used (as is stated in the definition of thermite). Does this mean that V205 or MnO2 can be used in thermites? What are some other strange thermites that you've heard of?

I used a beaker and some bright steel nails for both the anode and cathode. Using thick copper wire, I wired the heads of the nails to an electric train set transformer (approx. 17v and 500 mA... not very efficient) and dipped all but the heads of the nails in the beaker full of high concentration salt water. If you have a more efficient method, please let me know; it takes hours just to corrode one 8D nail using my method. btw... I used a $40 scale accurate to the nearest tenth of a gram to weigh out my German Dark Al. Using the stoichiometric ratios, the mass of iron oxide should be about 2.95 x that of Al. This worked great once I used ACS grade iron oxide. My mixture has never failed to light with a well-placed Mg ribbon.

Anything to do with Lewis acids and bases?

Don't have a furnace at my home...

I know that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exists as a gas outside of solution.

By the way, thanks for all of your outstanding help YT, Jdurg, and all of you great chemists who replied to this thread. Maybe someday I'll be as knowledgeable as you guys.

By the Arrhenius definition, acids and bases must be in aqeous solution. Is it possible to have acidic/basic compounds outside of solution? I know that HCl is a gas and NaOH is a crystalline solid outside of solution, but is it possible to have compounds like hydrogen sulfate or hydrogen nitrate OUTSIDE of solution?

I safely made a mixture of .5 g German Dark Al and 10 g KClO3 avoiding static and heat. I lit it outside with a magnesium fuse and it was pretty fastinating (did not explode, just burned brightly and very hot). Just so you all know, im not a wacko and I do not make explosives without knowing the necssary precautions, and I would never store them! Additionally, i would never make an explosive in large quantities or an explosive capable of destroying property or harming myself or anyone around me. I would say that im a safe and responsible citizen chemist. Why do you think I asked about the safest way to make flash powder?

I ordered some reagent grade Fe2O3 and was finally successful! Yipee! All i used was Mg ribbon. btw, where can I get some ether to dissolve my homemade rust? It's sorta brown and the ACS grade stuff i ordered is deep red orange. I guess my homemade rust has a lot of carbon impurity.

I hear KClO4 is a safer oxidizer but I'm guessing the blast effect isn't as great.

What is the SAFEST way to mix these two substances? I don't want to blow my limbs off!

I rinsed the bleach away quickly and the stains are superficial...

Hmm, interesting... I used a butane torch to attempt an ignition, but failed miserably. I don't know if Mg burns hotter than butane, but I think that my problem is that my Fe2O3 is homemade and probably not pure or fine enough. My Al on the other hand is 99% pure and the dust is 2 microns. I'm just gonna order some ACS grade iron oxide.

Don't ask how it happened, but I spilled bleach into my mother's stainless steel kitchen sink and it left patches of unsightly corroded metal. I know that the stain is chemical, but there's gotta be a way to reverse it or sand it off without further damaging the sink. Any suggestions? I don't want to buy my mom another sink. Any help is appreciated.

I love the smell of the a/c from the car. Whatever it is, its intoxicatingly delightful!

Memorizing the elements was fun, but indeed useless. When you're in chem class, you'll have a textbook onhand with all the important info. As far as chemical equations... they get more and more complex, but for starters lets use the reaction of hydrogen gas with oxygen gas: 2H2 + O2 --> 2H2O. This means that 2 moles of hydrogen gas burns with 2 moles of oxygen to produce 2 moles of water. If these terms mean nothing to you right now, you'll soon learn in chem class. And for the millions of organic and inorganic coumpounds, you'll keep hearing new ones and old ones all the time. You'll eventually memorize the common ones and your chem teacher will probably make you memorize the common polyatomic ions.

There are many easier, more efficient, and inexpensive ways to generate hydrogen at home. But if you insist on using a metal or alloy... I don't know of any ALLOYS, but i do know that aluminum reacts with water to produce hydrogen and aluminum hydroxide. You can't just mix aluminum foil and water though. You have to put aluminum in a solution of sodium hydroxide, and then the aluminum oxide coating will vanish allowing the aluminum to react with water releasing decent amounts of H2 gas. Check out this link for instructions: http://www.pc.chemie.uni-siegen.de/pci/versuche/english/v44-10.html

i'll be sure to wear layers and some thick boots

Are there ANY experiments possible using the silica in the dehumidifiers found in food packages?

I think I'm just gonna use a torch and then run like hell since thermite can shoot molten iron in a 20 foot radius

Good: insence, butyl pentanoate Bad: H2S, formaldehyde, chlorine gas

I doubt that the orange and green crap is anything more than iron and copper rust. Jwalker is probably using iron or copper based electrodes, but I doubt that the orange and green crap is iron chloride or hydroxide. You have to heat iron to a glowing red in the presence of chlorine gas to produce iron chloride. As far as choosing electrodes, graphite works great. You can get some thick graphite electrodes at unitednuclear.com or indigo.com. If you can afford it, platinum works the best. It won't rust at all and is also malleable unlike carbon. Try finding platinum plated wire on ebay, which is cheaper than pure platinum.

Surface area DOES make a difference. Greater surface area (within reason) means more gas produced. The potential diff. (voltage) remains the same. The only factor that would affect the efficiency would be the resistance of the electrode (which is also affected by its size).

If i light it directly with a torch, will I have enough time to get away? I'm guessing the answer is no, but never hurts to ask.