Doug's Lab - 2014-08-07
In this video, chromyl chloride is isolated from potassium dichromate, sodium chloride, and sulfuric acid. The preparation was a modification of [A laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry: a compendium of laboratory methods for the use of chemists, physicians, and pharmacists] by Dr. Lassar-Cohn, Alexander Smith. Macmillian and co. ltd., 1895 Page 254.
When I was 12 years old my father use to bring me back chemicals from his metal plating factory and one of them I remember well was chromium trioxide. That was the last chemical he brought home for me as I spilled a bunch on the carpet and it melted into it lol. He was pissed about the carpet, not realizing them chemicals he was bringing home for me could have killed me. I remember I loved the chromium trioxide as it burned bright white in my smoke bomb compositions. I still to this day can't believe him bringing me this stuff home. I am still alive thank god.
what an arrogant prick that teacher must have been ! I'd like kick his arse and educate him...any and all chems are acceptable in a chem high school lab...and those are standard stock items in all decent high school labs...and it is only his short sited attitude that makes these things troublesome...if he took the time to do demonstrations with these chems he could teach the whole class about the nature and correct procedures for using and handling these things...I cannot stress enough how appalling I find that kind of attitude...all it does is demonise things, teaches no respect and with holds essential experience to any students who want to take chemistry further...totally idiotic..
no way dude, he was just trying to keep us safe! I burned my finger badly on a hot day handling white phosphorus like it was wax. Nothing puts that out!
@AddisonPhilips That's your fault, not white P's fault. As long as a chemical is not inherently evil it can be in a lab.
@AddisonPhilips , white phosphorous can easily be put out with water. Also, a federal breach of homeland security? You two don't know much about elements or chemicals do you? Everything you all named can easily be purchased on eBay without any special licenses or permits. Please, you and the OP just stop, you're both spreading a lot of misinformation.
Ma cos ahhahah
"Unlike any blood, it fumes like crazy" - Nile Red
Great vid Doug, you make alot of the " fun " chemicals. God those fumes make my lungs hurt just looking at them
I have just come upon your channel today. And I love it as I love chemistry. Very inspiring. I'm a pharmacist and being bored with throwing drugs over the counter, I plan to reopen the lab of my youth, though now on a much higher level. Keep up the good Work.
+Peter Holm all the best man!!
Ha ha! I am a pharmacist too. Rediscovering the fun of chemistry and experimentation too! Its a good balance.
I feel like donating to your patreon just so you’ll buy gloves
Why didn't you have your hydrochloric acid bubble through basic solutions to neutralize it instead of letting it into your lab? Also, is there no way to prevent gasses from leaking out of your joints?
Put some gloves on you fool. Otherwise, awesome.
Jesus people leave the man alone. He obviously knows what he's doing. He's a grown ass man. If he doesn't want to wear gloves that's his personal choice.
Hey Doug! How about demonstrating safety first, such as in the use of gloves, dust mask and eye protection. Love your posts, but maybe you could also demonstrate safe lab practices too. Talk is cheap when you've developed cancer(s) after a few years of goofing around w/o smart technique. I used to be somewhat careless too when I was young so I can't exactley preach. But, you owe it to yourself and younger viewers.
3:40,ahh.. the same crap from Erin Brokovich...
No gloves?!
@*****
He probably meant when he was pouring the sulfuric acid.
+JMAPScience Even fuming nitric acid is able to set your gloves on fire, there's no doubt this stuff is also capable of doing it. A small chemical burn is better than a completely burned hand with burned glove's peices in your skin. Furthermore, you're able to quickly wash drops of this liquid off, but I doubt you'll be able to take off a burning lab glove.
+DevilsVideos1 Actually most gloves would provide adequate protection against sulfuric acid. http://www.aps.anl.gov/Safety_and_Training/User_Safety/gloveselection.html
Edit: You say "Even fuming nitric acid is able to set your gloves on fire" as if most acids set gloves on fire. To my knowledge, fuming nitric acid is the ONLY acid that will set neoprene/latex gloves on fire.
Not necessary
"Foam slightly"
AFAIK, chromyl chloride will hydrolyse in your lungs to make HCrO4 which is a very strong f-king cancerogen. And this chemical is pretty volatile.
Honestly, it's propably one of the worst compounds out there...
It looks cool though :D
Respirator?!?
I love that intro music!
This is pretty awesome, i dunno how many people would appreciate, or even be familiar with this compounds existence, but those who've heard of it know this was a ballsy undertaking o.o7
Wow Doug, you are an international hero for posting the information about that e-book by Dr. Lassar-Cohn. I have already found two syntheses in there that are of great importance in terms of their simplicity and application. Check out what he has to say about bisulphite. I can act a a condensing agent for a number of different functional groups. One of great importance is the condensation of phenols with alchohols to form ethers. I suspect this will work for the mono (and maybe di) etherfication of hydroquinone to P-Methoxy phenol (1 equiv alcholhol) or P-dimethoxy benzene (2 equivs). Would be great if you can make a video on the preparation of 1,4-dimethoxy benzene from bisulphite, hydroquinone and methanol. A small caveat is that you will need a pretty efficient reflux condenser since the mix is heated to 150C for around 12 hours.
You should do a video on how did you set up your laboratory, smiliar to the first video but in more detail
4:30 So will you wash your hands with carbon?
Nice gloves you got there.
Hello, great experience, but what can you use CrO2Cl2 for? If I can suggest, try to get CrO2 .... or by thermal decay. Or a reaction with NaBr :) 2NaBr + CrO2Cl2 = 2NaCl CrO2 + Br2. I do not know if (in the moment it's just a theory)
CrO2 is ferromagnetic below 386 K. If you know some methods of obtaining CrO2 in semi-laboratory conditions, please give.
Did you end up using this for something interesting?
GLOVES
can it be used as " flame thrower " fuel ? you said it explosively reacts with organic compounds. people are organic compounds...
Does the fume hood prevent breathing of dust also?
Not 100% but it would prevent breathing in about 99% of the fumes thats coming out
Nice video. How much K2Cr2O7 did you use?
those god damned equilibrium problems got me screwed up in school right now... i almost got it and it seems to be a base part of the understanding of reactions ?? idk im much more intrigued now
Wait is zhmapper your other channel or someone who plagiarized your content?
@TheChemistryShack His old channel.
12:01...nearly qualitative yield ? you mean quantitative......and it won't be, because of inevitable losses plus with heat some of the Chromyl Chloride attacks HCl and oxidizes it...some Chlorine is inevitably produced...
All the time spent watching your new 30 sec intro, however cool it is, will quickly add up...thereby depleting us of valuable learning time. I think I've already lost about 15 min of life that I'll never get back. In that regard the old 5 sec intro is definitely more practical....but who asked for my opinion anyway...oh! That's right! You did! Lol...
Did you pay to watch his video? Imagine how many hours it took for him to make it.
slightly orange blood
Hmm...could it be used as a solvent?
Not as a general solvent. Perhaps in a solvent less reaction where it was one of the reactants.
Yeah, this is what I was thinking of.
looks like domine but reder
That just looks deadly
Dwayne the 'Rock-Hard' Johnson Well I mean, it is soo...
Cool but quite dangerous to deal with. Chromyl chloride is an aggressive oxidizing agent and a known carcinogen. It will burst into flames when comes in contact with ethanol, acetone, hydrogen sulfide, urea, sulfur, turpentine etc.... It reacts with phosphorus explosively. Hence, utmost care should be taken when handling chromyl chloride.
Why you no make the salt
why would you want to heat it and distill it ? heating that chromyl chloride will surely decrease your yield....just let it settle out, it will separate because of it's high density, then if you REALLY think you have to , you can distill THAT, best to do it in a stream of dry air....but, actually , just blowing dry air through the product to remove the HCl gas is often all that is needed to get the product to a good level of purity, good enough that it can be stored without decomposition, cold, dark, sealed , no problem !.
Where do you get your chemicals?
You reminded me of erin brochovich.
she was a stooge of a crooked lawyer, neither knew anything of science
Is the sulfuric acid really that good at sequestering the water that none will come over at 117 C?
+Rador Labs good question, water will react with CrO2Cl2 to form the chromic acid, so everything you collect from the distillation should be anhydrous.
Do you ever worry about how you'll clean your lab after you're done with all these reactions? Also, how do you go about disposing of waste? Obviously you're not just going to wash the glassware after this and pour it down the drain...uh...right?
+Dennis Atwood He says to clean it with a lot of water and a reducing agent. Il will reduce the Cr+6 and dilute the acid. Then it would be relatively safe to discard.
Hazardous waste disposal is expensive and difficult. So acids, bases, oxidizers, and reducers are neutralized by mixing acids and bases (whether it is an acid or base you are disposing of, always add an acid to a base or a base to an acid) and mixing reducers with oxidizers (if it is an oxidizer, add a reducer, if it is a reducer add an oxidizer). With certain heavy metals (like copper and zinc) you can simply percipitate the metal or turn it into an insoluble salt and put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the trash, but Mercury or lead salts require special disposal. For toxins you can react it into a harmless thing like reacting cyanide into cyanate.
always look at MSDS before doing an experement. I did an experement with potassium dichromate without looking at the MSDS for it and was lazily getting the dichromate solution on my hands. I got mad at myself for it
Shapeshifter5 I'm gussing you got a lot of chemical burns.
a lot of info in MSDS sheets are alarmist or irrelevant
btw-how did we get along without these ridiculous msds sheets
would that Corning high vacuum grease might've helped with the leaky joints?? Not wanting to be too much of a wise-ass.
Chromyl chloride attacks most grease. It's a pretty aggressive reagent.
+AddisonPhilips
As Jeffrey pointed out, grease is a bad idea. Conc. sulfuric acid can be used to seal the joints if there are too strongly oxidative compounds around. Still... I have a lot of respect of these compounds. Too much to do that myself in my basement!
Don't get any on you, it causes cancer. handles without gloves Don't breath the fumes doesn't wear respirator, but at least uses fume hood
it can cause cancer is not the same as causes cancer-you are an alarmist
@voitdive
You are picking at words, but here Is a 5 second Google, wikipedia
Chronic: CrVI can produce chromosomal aberrations and is a human carcinogen via inhalation.[8] Frequent exposure of the skin to chromyl chloride may result in ulceration.[7]
It causes cancer, and it can cause cancer. Don't fuck around with chromium compounds unless you know what you are doin
@voitdive
If it hydrolyzes it forms hexavalent chromium. Here is an excerpt hexavalent chromium from wikipedia.
All hexavalent chromium compounds are toxic (due to their oxidizing power) as well as carcinogenic (IARC Group 1), especially if airborne and inhaled where they cause lung cancer. Also positive associations have been observed between exposure to chromium (VI) compounds and cancer of the nose and nasal sinuses.[5]
can you use sodium dichromate in place of potassium dichromate ?
+Mr scientist It should work just fine. Just make sure you get the stoichiometry right.
absolutely, you can even use sodium or potassium chromate too....
As long as it is a Chromium 6+ oxidation stage compounds than it is fine
Pouring sulphuric acid without glove!!
Damn son you like to live dangerously
+CrusaderGundam
That potassium dichromate is more dangerous itself. Chromyl chloride isn't far behind
what? you have got that the wrong way round by a long shot.....
@psycronizer
Not in corrosive power. I'm talking about the carcinogenic effects of Chromium (VI) compounds.
I like all the lab safety tips
This is really cancerous toxic stuff you have there. Why didnt you wear any gloves?? Chrome 6 was in the news, it was added in some paint, it presumably gave some people cancer, they sewed the state for it.
lots of ambulance-chasing lawyers out there - like the shyster in erin brokovich
@voitdive No it was the trade union that did it. They are there to protect your right as an employee. But that is what its like, to less schooled you are, the worse off you are.
Its really poisonous. If you got a guy at the job that fools around it ends up in your lungs or food, you are done. It will take some time but it will give you cancer.
A lot of chickenshit fearfull comments here from people too scared to do real chemistry and in the same time discussing a good man's work, instead inspireing themselves.... I feel sorry for all of you,,
Are you kidding? I definitely wouldn't want to work in the same lab as you.
I pretty often work in my lab with useful but dangerous chemicals like dimethyl sulfate, but chromyl chloride definitely doesn't worth the risk. It's not that useful, it's volatile and it's highly cancerogenic.
Michael Flowers - 2016-11-17
Jesus, man, wear your gloves.
William Bouthillier - 2019-11-29
Ballsy Doug pours and crushes a handful of Potassium Dichromate bare handed without breaking a sweat
V M - 2020-08-27
Due to the strong oxidative nature of the chemicals, it’s actually safer to not wear gloves!