jdurg Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 This is a funny, yet somewhat embarassing story involving the formation of an element. With last night being New Years Eve I went out and partied a little bit while ingesting some drinks which tend to give one a lower pH in their urine. This morning, when I awoke I went to sit on the crapper to let loose the food I ate last night and the drink I had imbibed on, I inadvertantly created an element. Shortly after "letting loose", I noticed a VERY strong chlorine gas odor and heard the toilet water hissing and fizzing. I stood up and saw a faint green cloud bubbling out of the solution and immediately started coughing. Apparently, a family member decided to use some industrial strength bleach to clean the toilet but had failed to mention this to anybody. The lower pH of my urine turned the hypochlorite into chlorine gas which bubbled out and hovered over the toilet. It wasn't an intense green color, but enough to make it annoy your lungs if you took a deep breath. lol. The chlorine cloud I inadverantly generated wound up messing with the color of the carpeting on the floor right outside the toilet as it now is a very slightly lighter shade of green. One of the funnier 'unexpected chemistry' incidents I've been involved with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj47 Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 Lol wow, I think this is an experiment I might try to recreate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvoN1020v Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 Are you saying that alcohol is an acidic drink? Then your family member put in industrial bleach to neutralize the solution right? You must have drink a lot of alcohol because bleach is a strong basic solution. I have a question, what is hypochlorite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanJ Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Are you saying that alcohol is an acidic drink? Then your family member put in industrial bleach to neutralize the solution right? You must have drink a lot of alcohol because bleach is a strong basic solution. I have a question, what is hypochlorite? I thinkt he correct term is a strong alkaline solution... All alkalis are bases but not all bases are alkalis, alkalis are bases that dissolve in water I know, I'm a trivial nit-picker Cheers, Ryan Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdurg Posted January 2, 2006 Author Share Posted January 2, 2006 Alcohol is eventually converted into acetic acid inside your body, so when you go out drinking the next day your urine will be a bit more acidic than normal. (I.E. a pH of 5.0 instead of 6.0). Whenever you take ANY acidic liquid and pour it into a solution of hypochlorite ions (bleach) it will result in the emission of chlorine gas. Adding chlorine gas to sodium hydroxide produces sodium hypochlorite, however that reaction isn't 100% in the product direction. (The reaction of Cl2 + 2NaOH => NaOCl + H2O + NaCl). As a result, when you open up a solution of NaOCl you will smell the chlorine odor due to the presence of some chlorine gas. If you add ANY acid to that solution, you will instantly remove some NaOH from the equillibrium equation and cause more Cl2 to form as the NaOCl decomposes to form the chlorine gas. So if you urinate an acidic urine (which all urine is) into a toilet bowl full of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) you will make some chlorine gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akcapr Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 I thought ethanol was metabolized into H2O and CO2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdurg Posted January 2, 2006 Author Share Posted January 2, 2006 Nope. The first step is the processing of ethanol into acetaldehyde. A lot of that gets excreted through your sweat and via urination. Acetaldehyde is further metabolized into acetic acid which is almost all excreted via your urine. A very, very, very tiny bit of that acetic acid may get broken down into carbon dioxide and water, but not a helluva lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woelen Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Indeed, alcohol is not metabolized to CO2 and H2O. That only occurs when it is burnt. The typical smell of people, who drink too much is due to the acetaldehyde, mentioned by jdurg. When you pee in a toilet with chlorine bleach in it, you normally also will make chloramine, NH2Cl, a potent carcinogen and very irritating gas. NH2Cl is formed from hypochlorite and urea, which also is present in urine. So, jdurg has breathed a nasty mix of a little chlorine and some NH2Cl. I think that NH2Cl is even worse than chlorine, due to its long-term effects. However, jdurg does not have to worry after his one-time exposure . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdurg Posted January 2, 2006 Author Share Posted January 2, 2006 Lol. Yup. Instead I probably have platinum blond nether region hair thanks to the chlorine cloud. hehe. (That was probably a wee bit TOO much info. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akcapr Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 so i can make chloramine if i mix urea with bleach? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woelen Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Yes, but the reaction is not clean. You will have many side products among them N2 and NH2NH2. You can also make NH2Cl by mixing bleach with ammonia. Again, you'll have many side reactions, hydrazine and nitrogen again being the strongest side products. At certain conditions, more NH2Cl is formed, at other conditions more NH2NH2 is formed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_simpsons Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 I thought ethanol was metabolized into H2O and CO2? nope, in the body it reacts with NAD (nicotineamide adenine dinucleotide) to produce acetaldehyde. the reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase if i remember correctly. then i think the acetaldehyde is converted to acetic acid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdurg Posted January 3, 2006 Author Share Posted January 3, 2006 nope, in the body it reacts with NAD (nicotineamide adenine dinucleotide) to produce acetaldehyde. the reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase if i remember correctly. then i think the acetaldehyde is converted to acetic acid. Yes it is, though much of the acetaldehyde is excreted through the pores of the skin and via the breath. What's left gets converted into acetic acid which is why you have the aches and pains associated with a hangover that next day. The more that you wind up drinking, the more acetic acid gets left in you and the nastier you feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT2095 Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 (That was probably a wee bit TOO much info. ) interesting choice of words, considering it was Weeing that got you into this trouble in the 1`st place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdurg Posted January 3, 2006 Author Share Posted January 3, 2006 interesting choice of words, considering it was Weeing that got you into this trouble in the 1`st place Okay, YT wins the award for the "Oh dear god why did I read that?" post of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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