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Mystery Chemical


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Posted

I would think that he would be able to tell if it was hydrochloric by recognizing the fumes...

 

Have you used normal hydrochloric acid before and had a wiff of the fumes?

 

Id do a series of tests for precipitates with test tubes...

 

We are generally the kind of people who will save chemicals like this and mercury, etc... I'm sure that a good fraction of us would have gladly taken that mercury off your hands... So many uses...

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Posted
The Hg?... well when I was a lad going to community college, I had a part time job working as a janitor at one of thier sites. Being near the aerospace industry, they got lots of donations of obsolete test equip. and parts. A whole building was full of this junk. In those days everything was anolog, no digital microprocesor stuff, all mechanical test eguipment including vacuum and pressure gages etc. there were a lot of trashed, broken stuff like that full of lots of mercury. I mean this stuff was acually spilling on the floor. That was when nobody really was as concerned about it as today, 30 years ago. I thought the stuff was neat and I took about a pint of it home and played with it and put it on coins and stuff. I remember I spilled some and my mom cleaned it up and some got on her gold wedding ring and turned it silver. Got my ass kicked. anyway it was there in my parents house for years until my mom passed awaay and I had to get rid of it.. anyway that's how I came by it.
Posted
well.. .Sorry about your mom, but you never thaught about selling it to some one?? You could of made a huge ass profit and baught lots and lots of chems...
Posted
I would think that it's maybe this stuff called diggers HCl.

Diggers is a brand, i already have a 5L bottle of HCl of that brand.

 

Smells completely diffrent

Posted
I did think about selling it. I called a few metal scrap places, but they told me they didn't want anything to do with the stuff. they told me about having the house condemned and fines and horror storys, so I got worried about it.I wish I knew you guys then. Oh well, Now I have to worry about an old underground oil tank that might leak and what laws are going to bite me in the ass when I go to sell the house I grew up in, to split between siblings. I am all for protecting the enviroment and all, but damn sometimes they get carried away. WOW! While I was typing this a HUGE explosion shook the house. I just got back and was told by the cops a steel foundry a few blocks south of me blew up. Damn! That was loud, I got to watch the news.
  • 2 months later...
Posted
Perchloric? I wouldn't put my money on it, but...I don't think red fuming nitric, as this is usually stored in glass flasks. But I wouldn't mess with it. Seriously. What does it rate on the Ph scale? I'm guessing 0...just get rid of it. <_<
Posted
I'm pretty sure its hydrochloric tainted with iron chloride
Posted
everyone seems really intrested in Hg. why? im just curiose.
Posted
I know a guy with 10+lbs of mercury in a bottle in his basement, if i bug him enough he might sell it, but i have a little myself and no real use for it.
Posted

Everyone is semi curious about it because its some sort of "taboo" substance. If it didn't have such a bad rap I doubt their would be half an interest in the stuff. Fucking not in my backyard assclowns. :rolleyes: Anywho mercury has some other interesting properities besides chemistry (electricity).

 

I got a couple pounds myself. I think I might buy 10+ more lbs. I think this shit might get really expensive. I don't think this stuff will be produced in large quantities anymore or have any sort of demand for it with all this new enviromental bullshit.

Posted

It can be used to make neat switches and other uses relating to electricity. Including its use as an anode/cathode in various electric experiments. Like for making H2, NaOH, Na, Cl2, etc.

 

It is a versatile reagent that alloys with many metals readily and can work miracles by making metals like aluminum much more reactive to the point that they will react with all sorts of things that they wouldn't normally. This can also make it a bitch to store, but meh.

 

Mercury barometers.

 

Having tons of the stuff wouldn't be particularly useful to me... I suppose i could make a sealed mercury fountain...

Posted
Having tons of the stuff wouldn't be particularly useful to me... I suppose i could make a sealed mercury fountain...

With an expensive heavy duty high pressure pump I presume?

 

It'll look cool though :P

And need plenty of cooling probably ...

Posted
well, mercury can be used to make a certain something used with a certain something else, used to detonate a certain something, but we won't get into that outside the HE thread...to which I do not have access yet, as I have only been here about two days.
Posted
yes, fulminates horrible things :)
Posted

There is much more than that that can be made from mercury and still primaries... and that is a possibility, but I don't even think about it with the limitless other possibilities out there that don't use heavy metals.

 

Triisopropyl aluminum is possible IIRC.

 

Yup, for a mercury fountain you would need a crazy pump. Maybe a completely teflon pump body with a teflon coated paddle that is driven via a strong magnet so as to not need to be in the mercury atmosphere. Or a strong peristaltic pump. It wouldn't need to be particularly fast so long as it wasn't too slow as to make the fountain boring.

Posted
yeah thats so awesome i think its in spain...but only 50 years ago that fountain wasn't in an enclosed chamber and children were allowed to stick their hands in the pool of mercury! i wish i could do that and not die. their re other liquid metals like woods metal and gallium but they are sticky and expensive and not very fun of course theres also cesium and rubidium but those would burn the flesh right off your hand so thats a no no.
Posted

What makes you think you would die?

 

I doubt a single exposure would damage your health.

Posted
Man, that's so beautiful, that's got to weigh like 1000+lbs, wish i could just go up and take a jug or two, bet they'd get mad though ;) .
Posted

Its completely sealed up so no one can get in it, but yeah its pretty sweet. I bet some really cool stuff could be made by an expert glass blower for the mercury to flow over.

 

But this is straying waaay off topic.

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Back to topic:

 

What is that strange smell coming out of Lithium batteries from when you open one up.

Posted

How is that back on topic? Where we talking about Litium or batteries?

 

It's probably some sort of hydrocarbon oil or plastic that evaporates while the litium oxidises in the incoming air though. As far as I know, Li metal has no smell whatsoever.

 

 

Besides the obvious material incompatibilities, pumping mercury requires at least 13 times the energy it would take to pump the same amount of water at the same pressure.

That doesn't even count the extra mechanical losses in the liquid, the higher need for lubrication and the higher percentage of energy leaks within the pump.

 

I've seen centrifugal lead pumps (for molten lead) over 30 cm in diameter require >150KW electrical engines to drive them. Mercury is even heavier.

Posted
It may be FeCl3/HCl/H2O. This is used in copper etching. ASTM 413, etchant 34B. I know you said no reactions with copper or lead, but for this particular etchant to work you need a catalyst. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what said catalyst is...sorry. :unsure:
Posted
The topic being a Mystery Chemical. The one coming out of this battery that Im not sure what it is.
Posted

The topic was originally an odious-looking mystery chemical that warezwally found. I don't think it was ever positively ID'd. But this thread sure has wandered, I'll grant you that.

 

I didn't know Lithium batteries smelled when opened. Probably some nasty carcinogen or toxin. ;)


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