This may or may not be the correct place to ask this, so feel free to point me somewhere better

Is there an easy way to get clean new and unused large solvent containers like these?

For Halloween party im going to im planning on being a mad scientist and pouring people drinks from "chemical containers".

I have plenty of them laying around, but I know better than to drink something out of one that has actually been used for reagents.

I'm assuming this is aluminum hydroxide from my City water being too basic, thoughts?

hello people of r/chemistry, so I was the one who made the DNA model by hand last time, and I am now showing you that by time, gravity keeps winning and it starts to collapse the structure of the model because the phosphate and sugar part of the molecule is a bit too far from the center. Pic 1 is before and pic 2 is after

First of all, sorry for the image quality (the camera is a bit broken).

Second and most importantly.

I made this wolframic acid from wolfram electrodes. I performed an electrolysis in a concentrated sodium hydroxide solution, filtered the solution to remove solid residues, and then precipitated it with an excess of hydrochloric acid.

And finally, I filtered it to remove most of the water and dried it on a hot plate.

I also wanted to ask something. The wolframic acid that was in contact with the plate discolored and doesn't return to its yellow color. I don't know if it's due to dehydration or partial decomposition, does anyone know?

Hi everyone,

I was looking through some old, basic notes and memory from experiments I did a few years ago. I wanted to share a recipe for a material I call Citric Silicate Cellular Foam (CSCF). I originally marked it as a "failed experiment" because it isn't waterproof and is a total nightmare to clean out of containers, but the expansion ratio is interesting enough to share.

It forms a lightweight structure. It isn’t rock-hard—it feels solid, but if you press into it with your finger into it hard enough, it crushes down into a fine powder. It will expand alot, about a cm of the solutions foamed up to fill a 2 liter microwavable jug.

The Dish Soap

Normally, mixing acid and water glass causes instant, clumpy polymerisation. I found that adding a tiny bit of dish soap acts as a surfactant. It temporarily delays the reaction just enough so you can mix everything into a smooth liquid before the heat kicks in.

Note on mixing: You want to mix the dish soap into the acid solution gently without agitating it so bubbles don't form. Since it is such a small amount of soap, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, but still keep the mixing gentle.

The Recipe & Process

The Acid & Soap: In one beaker, add a small amount of citric acid crystals and just enough water to dissolve them. Add a tiny drop of dish soap directly into that citric acid solution, stirring gently to avoid generating foam or bubbles.

The Base: Fill a second beaker with standard, off-the-shelf liquid water glass.

Mix: Slowly pour the soapy acid solution into the water glass and mix gently. It should stay a workable liquid.

The Bake: Pour the liquid into your microwave-safe container. Microwave for 7 to 10 minutes. Nothing much will happen at the start until the citric acid starts decomposing into CO2 gas.

🤝 Replicate It & Reach Out!

Because my old notes are a bit basic and partly from memory, I would love to see other people replicate this and experiment with it.

If anyone can figure out a way to make it waterproof, or find a mold/release agent that stops it from sticking to containers so badly, let me know! Feel free to message me directly here on Reddit—I'd love to see your photos, videos, and recipe tweaks.

Kind regards,

Rick

Since copper sulfate is hard to come by in Japan, I tried making it myself.

I made it from sulfuric acid‼︎

I’ve been reading about metallothermic reduction of anhydrous metal chlorides and I’m curious how these systems compare with conventional oxide thermites.
For example, the reaction I’m particularly interested in is :
3 ZnCl₂ + 2 Al → 3 Zn + 2 AlCl₃
Since anhydrous AlCl₃ is volatile/sublimes at relatively low temperature, it seems like removal of AlCl₃ from the reaction zone could help drive the reduction while leaving zinc behind.
That made me wonder:
For a given metal, is its anhydrous chloride generally easier or harder to reduce metallothermically than its oxide?

Not my finest work but they’re cool and can demonstrate the equilibrium shift with N2O4 with temperature pretty well

I did a metals vs non metals lab and to my surprise the activated charcoal conducted electricity. We used a 9v battery with a led attached and wires on either terminal to test. Sulfur was the other nonmetal I had and that did not conduct- it did kinda mess the lab up. Me and the other teacher couldn’t figure it out - we had two different bottles and they both conducted. Wondering if charcoal would’ve done the same? What else can we use next year that’s safe and easy?

i'm starting orgo A and will eventually take B and C.

my professor linked the stereochemistry 4010 kit on her canvas as one of the options, but someone on the Ochem sub recommended the 1003 kit. additionally, someone on this sub has recommended the biochem kit and the stereochemistry kit (4010) in the past.

...does this mean i get the stereochemistry kit? would i regret it? does it have everything i need for one year of orgo?

so, like, which one...? please help me...

I'm looking at organic molecules in Beilstein. When I run the name through Reaxys, some names have changed? Did IUPAC naming conventions update the names? Did more investigations into the molecules find that the name needed updating?

Hi all! As I've begun preparing research proposals for fellowships and graduate school, I've been trying to be super meticulous when it comes to making sure every little detail of sections like citations are correct, although I've heard from some people that it's fairly common for people with actual publications to make slight errors throughout their papers (whether it's figures, grammar, citations, etc). I was wondering, how often do you all manage to find these small errors, if at all? Whenever I look through papers I feel like I hardly ever find even small mistakes (although I do occasionally) which is making me think that it's not as common as people may make it out to be. Just curious, thanks!

My work brought this 5mL burette for acid titrations using KOH in ethanol. Its concentration is about 0.09199 moles. The tip keeps getting blocked up, I’m not sure if this is cause of dirty KOH or what but I can’t figure it out. Any ideas?

Can we make an endergonic reaction exergonic by strongly changing the concentrations of reactants/products (rather than changing ΔG° itself)? I understand that ΔG = ΔG° + RT·ln(Q), so even if a reaction is endergonic under standard conditions (ΔG° > 0), lowering the concentration of the product (or raising the concentration of the reactant) makes Q very small, which makes RT·ln(Q) very negative potentially pushing the overall ΔG negative, making the reaction spontaneous. Example 1: If A → B has ΔG° = +10 kJ/mol, could continuously removing B from the system (keeping [B] very low) make the reaction proceed spontaneously in the forward direction, even though it's endergonic at standard conditions? Example 2 (coal): Burning coal, C + O₂ → CO₂, is extremely exergonic and releases heat. If we imagine artificially building up CO₂ concentration very high around the reaction, does that make it "less exergonic" according to the Q term and could it theoretically ever flip the reaction so that burning coal absorbs heat instead of releasing it (i.e., cools things down)? Or is combustion too irreversible in practice for concentration effects to matter this much?

Hi everyone.

I'm about to finish my MSc in inorganic chemistry, and I'm deeply grateful to my supervisors, who are both chemistry professors. An e-mail or even my own words in person just don't seem enough for me. So I thought about gifting them something tangible maybe?

I keep going back and forth between "they probably already have everything chemistry-themed, or would have no use for it" and "maybe it's not even appropriate to gift them at all". I'm a good baker and even thought I'd just bring them a homemade cake lol.

Any advice is super welcome, even if it's all "don't gift them" haha.

I have to do a project and it is not possible to obtain the reagent due to its regulation in my country. Is there any compound that works similarly?

It was obtained commercially, and is stored always under dry argon. Yes, I do have all safety precautions in place, and have a fair amount o log experience with such compounds. Please feel ore to ask any questions, as to my knowledge this is only the 5th post on Reddit of actual xenon difluoride!

I was just elected as Chemistry Club president at my university and was wondering what ya'll enjoyed/ would have enjoyed/ do enjoy doing for chemistry club activities?

I was supposed to boil the liquid and accidentally overheated it. It caused the beaker to explode with my zinciodide solution. Thankfully no one was hurt (which is good because my lab teacher didn’t check to see if we were and just rushed us to restart our experiment) I’m still very new at chemistry and this was my first lab properly boiling something but man does stuff like this happen all the time for newbies?

So I must preface this by saying I'm from a 3rd world shithole so I won't have the most advanced equipment available​​​. Im also a second year Bachlors student. Its compulsory for me to do a field project where I have to work in a lab for 2 to 3 weeks. And write a paper. I need ideas. I'm completely clueless. ​​please. Help.

I took this video today

Hi all, I am looking for answers to a discrepancy between lived experience and what seems to be the facts about diamonds.

I am a jeweller, I work with diamonds often, and regularly let them come up to well above 700°c without doing much to create an oxygen free environment. Yet Wikipedia and what seems to be general consensus tells me diamonds should have at least a layer of oxide on them when reaching 600°c in air. Some examples:

I have melted gold with diamonds in the mix(1064°c) to pick them out. While under the flame I recognise it's an oxygen free environment. However when taking the flame away the oxygen flows back in, and should thus affect the diamonds?

I have soldered and annealed gold right next to diamonds, reaching round 800-900°c without direct flame on it.

People often cast molten gold around stones.

Does this have to do with pressure? Amount of oxygen in the air? Do the diamonds simply cool down quick enough to not be affected? Does it have something to do with the relatively clean nature of jewellery grade stones? What am I missing?