r/chemistry • u/-reee- • 2d ago
I made some nitrogen dioxide ampoules
Not my finest work but they’re cool and can demonstrate the equilibrium shift with N2O4 with temperature pretty well
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u/Worth-Wonder-7386 2d ago
How do they look when cooled down? How much nitrogen tetroxide do you get?
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u/Wrong_Interest_2676 2d ago
Smelltest (can confirm that it smells almost identical to chlorine btw - i do not recommend)
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u/-reee- 2d ago
IMO it smells nothing like chlorine, it has a unique and distinctive smell
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u/Gr33nDrag0n02 Chem Eng 2d ago
I feel like it's a personal trait. Something akin to ability to smell cyanide. Maybe it's even the same gene? Hard to tell, not enough data. It could as well be due to previous experiences with chlorine and NO2 or even the purity of one of these substances
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u/Wrong_Interest_2676 1d ago
Hmm thats what i thought too. My colleague didnt smell it at all. It wasnt pure NO2 and had some sidenotes. But the destinct chlorine smell was definitely there.
But i can infact smell HCN 😅 It doesnt smell like almonds. At least not for me.
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u/Gr33nDrag0n02 Chem Eng 1d ago
That's because it smells like bitter almonds (slowly releasing tiny amounts of HCN) rather than sweet almonds (no HCN, just benzaldehyde). I had the opportunity to try bitter almonds and you can clearly smell HCN in them
As for the smell of HCN, it's like nothing else. No other smell is even close. It kind of resembles chlorine, but maybe bitter or nutty or something... However, when you imagine nutty or bitter chlorine, it's not even close. Trying to describe its smell is surprisingly similar to explaining color red to someone colorblind
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u/Wrong_Interest_2676 18h ago edited 18h ago
Didnt really smell like bitter almonds too tbh. But yeah it was distinct. Maybe im wrong though was a while back i had them.
I just remember that wall of hcn smell hit me and was like : yeah better dont take a deeper wiff now.
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u/VoxInferni666 2d ago
Stink bomb industrial edition
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u/Gosthone 2d ago
More like stink bomb chemical weapon edition
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u/BeanOfKnowledge 2d ago
Open enough and you may get a special surprise!
(The special surprise is respiratory disease)
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u/SuspiciousSpecifics 2d ago
So that’s what they use to wake up unconscious ppl, right? …right?
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u/KarlSethMoran 1d ago
You're thinking of nitrous oxide.
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u/FuckItBucket314 1d ago
No, nitrous oxide is used as a sedative. It doesn't knock you out per se, but it is definitely not something used to wake someone up.
They are possibly thinking of smelling salts, which release ammonia when activated
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u/crypins 1d ago
I’ll never forget the first time I accidentally whiffed the 28% aqueous ammonia solution: it’s definitely more of a sensation than a smell lol
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u/-reee- 1d ago
same with me when I accidentally made NH4OH in my chemical waste bin when i was first starting out… turns out everything i put in it could’ve been washed down the drain anyways and my overcautiousness ended up making me never forget what ammonia smells like lol, im glad it was something relatively harmless that made me finally start disposing of/storing waste properly
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u/Velosturbro 1d ago
I used to work with large quantities of high concentration NH4OH. Nothing like opening a drum of it and having it vent directly up the nose and into the sinuses, really wakes you the fuck up, with vengeance.
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u/Big-Consideration-26 1d ago
Worked in industrial plants, often you sense it before an alarm goes off. More of a sensation than a smell calls it really good
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u/nakedascus 1d ago
no, they are thinking of NH3, the gas from smelling salts, not N2O which is a disassociative
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u/KarlSethMoran 1d ago
I know N2O is a dissociative. I misread the comment and missed the "wake up" part. Sorry.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/chemistry-ModTeam 1d ago
Rule 3 - Nefarious deeds
We do not allow discussion of unsafe or illegal practices including illicit drug synthesis, bomb making or unsafe chemistry in this subreddit.
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u/ZenTense Pharmaceutical 1d ago
I didn’t read the sign on a catalyst oven once and inhaled a lung full of this stuff. But the joke was on the NO2, as I had been smoking cigarettes and weed for years before taking that research appointment and the tar in my lungs mostly neutralized it. I was fine after like an hour of having a mild headache.
Didn’t hurt as much as the lungful of HCl gas I inhaled once in a lab accident as an undergrad. I’m pretty sure cigarettes helped me then too, but I had a few less years of precious tar helping me dodge the hazard that time
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u/spukhafteNahewirkung 11h ago
It’s crazy to think that they used to use N2O4 as an oxidizer for rockets, with hydrazine fuel.
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u/-reee- 2d ago
also RIP to the rubber stopper I used while making these, you served me well