Best and worst smelling chemicals

[psymon]

I hear cyanide smells of Almonds. Not something I would be able to confirm... I do however like KN03 that is food grade stuff. There is a kind of spicy smell to it which I can't describe...

[styropyro]

The cyanide/almond smell is only detectable to some people. I think you have to posess the gene to be able to smell it, but personally I dont want to be the one testing to see if I have that gene!

[oriansbelt]

Really? Being able to smell somethings is a genetic thing? My brother and sister claim that squashed ants have a smell but I've never smelt it

[Swany]

Formic acid was first isolated by distilling ants.

 

Yes, some people can taste/smell certain things based on genetics. Some compounds are very bitter to some, sweet to others, and others still are indifferent to them.

[Chemguy]

Formic acid was first isolated by distilling ants.

 

That really made me laugh . These ants, though, are the ones with the formic acid sting ay? Apparantely it is a very irritating substance.

 

Of course that's why it's in stings

[bleedin label]

Formic acid was first isolated by distilling ants.

 

Yes, some people can taste/smell certain things based on genetics. Some compounds are very bitter to some, sweet to others, and others still are indifferent to them.

We trried this in science class today.. Some peice of paper forget what it was but tasted like shit thats for sure!

 

I like the smell of Diesel for some reason i dont know if it counts.

 

And i hate the smell of Napthalene

[Frozentech]

Formic acid was first isolated by distilling ants.

 

That really made me laugh . These ants, though, are the ones with the formic acid sting ay? Apparantely it is a very irritating substance.

 

Of course that's why it's in stings

Once I found a huge nest of red ants when I was about 10 or 11, and was messing with them. I found if I got them riled up, it would actually sting cuts and scratches on my hand from about a foot above the nest mound, they must spray acid. I later poured various OTC items on the nest to kill them, when I poured ammonia solution on a large mass of the angry ants, they literally smoked, white fumes coming off.

[Picric acid DOES taste bitter!]

Best: Acetone/petrol mix from one of my napalm experiments! Love the smell of napalm in the morning...

 

Worst: A room filled with ammonia vapours and your lungs arent big enough... happened when i synthed ammonium picrate... The smell just wouldnt go away...

[oskarchem]

I have one!: Hexamine it smells like fish...

[WarezWally]

worst:

 

chlorine gas - if you can smell it evac asap

NOx - if you can smell it run

hydrogen sulfide - nasty

ammonia - suffocating to say the least

hydrogen chloride - nothing like inhaling HCl fumes

[crazyboy25]

Wow wally you pretty much wrote my bad list for me. I like however:

 

Dextrin: smells like bread

Mononitroxylene: indescribably good

[50AE]

Best : Black powder smoke, alcohol and gasoline fumes,

 

Worst : SO2, H2S, K2S

[Miech]

How can you like black powder smoke if you consider K2S as one of the worst smelling goods? BP smoke is merely K2S.

 

To stay on topic:

 

Best smelling goods are in my opinion fresh baked bread, grass and the smell of a beer fermenting vessel.

 

The worst smells are H2S, various organic compounds containing amines or sulfur and rotten potato.

[pudidotdk]

I like the taste of sucrose.

The smell of cigars is good, and it reminds me of new years eve.

 

Not very fond of acetone and ammonia vapours.

[50AE]

How can you like black powder smoke if you consider K2S as one of the worst smelling goods? BP smoke is merely K2S.

I doubt, it's not K2S. I know how K2S smells and I don't like it !

 

A more accurate, but still simplified, equation for the combustion of black powder is :

 

    10 KNO3 + 3 S + 8 C → 2 K2CO3 + 3 K2SO4 + 6 CO2 + 5 N2.

[WarezWally]

I like the smell of BP, I don't like the smell of the dross through

[frogy]

Like: Definitely BP smoke, KP smoke, cooking RCandy, and golden powder.

 

Surprisingly, I don't really dislike the smell of SO2... So it's more of an in between.

 

Dislike: Culturing & Incubating Agrobacterium Tumefaciens and E-Coli. Pyro wise, HCE is pretty bad... Bromine, though, not really pyro related in most cases, is horrid...

[Mumbles]

Probably the worst smells I've ever encountered were putrescine and cadaverine. Guess what those smell like? There's a plant in the botany building that has a very unique pollen distribution system. It just happened that I had class there when it decided to reproduce. It produces these aweful smells, attracts flies, and uses flies to transfer it's pollen. Similar to how some other plants use bees. They are actually very simple molecules if you look them up. The smell is indescribably terrible, and it lingers and sticks. You really cannot get away. I may have also accidentally made some cadaverine in high school now that I think about it.

 

Diacetyl in beer is pretty bad too. It also sticks and makes everything taste bad.

 

Amorphophallus titanum if anyone is interested.

 

 

The best is quite up for debate.

[RUUUUUN]

The best explosive smell I have encountered is ethyl nitrate, it has a very nice tropical smell, for about 5 minutes, then the runaway occurs if you are using metal nitrates. The worst I have ever smelled is Chlorine gas, it wasn't so much the smell that got me, I only got a very faint hint, it was the pain that shot through my entire respiratory system. I think the oddest smell I have encountered is ozone, I don't know whether to think it good or bad, it just is.

[WarezWally]

Nothing more exciting than to have your garage filled with a funny looking yellow gas that wants to kill you. Always a fun time madly holding your breath while trying to kill the yellow fuming concoction in a beaker.

 

Ozone is refreshing to me, just dont breath to much

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Best: Burned BP (of course)

Worst: Nitromethane

[Gunzway]

Best: Burned Black Powder. It sure brings memories and the smell is pleasant to me.

 

Worst: Burnt hair. I hate that smell. Sulfur Dioxide is also a nasty one. I somewhat caught a smell batch on fire. I do not know how, but I did so. It made me feel ill.

[Brakkie]

Best: burned blackpowder, ethanol and acetone.

Although I absolutely hate the fumes of acetone, somehow I love the smell of it. Reminds me of the glue in handycraft at the beginning of highschool

 

Worst: Ammonia.... Had a bad experience with this. Somehow, don't ask me how, the bottle that I kept my 30% Ammonia in got melted down (in the coarse of months!) and oneday my mom came in my room with the laundry and dropped it on the floor, came down and asked "What the hell are you cooking up in your room this time?". So I answered nothing... Why? Well I'm not kidding just walking in the room felt like you were put in a room filled with teargas

 

 

 

Freakydutchman: How can you not like the smell of nitromethane?

[ActionTekJackson]

Best smell, the smoke of Silicone II Rocket propellant, or any compisiton with chlorine donars anyway, those smell especially good to me.

 

Worst smell by far is the smell if your own burnt hair, flesh, and bone.... And I don't mean the little fuse burns or small singes from being a little too close to the bp test, I mean serious burning flesh, like medium rare human hand/face steak... if you don't know that smell, then I advise you try and keep it that way... ;-)

[Mumbles]

I can assure you guys that chemically digested human hair has an equally horrid smell. It really seems to just sit around thick in the air. Don't ask me how I know.