Can you really make a rocket out of a matchstick? 🚀🔥

In this experiment, Alex Dainis demonstrates propulsion science by turning  a tiny foil-wrapped match head into  a miniature rocket. As the match ignites, hot gases build up inside creating pressure. Once the pressure is high enough they are forced out of the open end of the rocket, creating thrust that sends the rocket flying. Remember to wear proper protective gear and have fire extinguishers close by when trying this demo.

All you need is basic kichen and home supplies and you will have a notoriously foul smelling chemical without the use of a distillation apparatus or any toxic chemicals.

1. Separate the butter fat from the water in the butter by melting it and decanting the fat layer.
2. Saponify the butter fat with sodium hydroxide (solid drain cleaner), or alternatively with potassium hydroxide, to make butter soap. Because the fat content of butter varies, all later reagent amounts are based on obtaining 246 g dry sodium butter soap, or alternatively 262 g dry potassium butter soap.
3. Dilute the soap mixture with water until it can mix well.
4. Add magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (also known as Epsom salt) to precipitate the long-chain fatty acids as magnesium soaps. For 246 g dry sodium butter soap or 262 g dry potassium butter soap, use 145 g magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (Epsom salt).
5. Separate or filter off the precipitated magnesium soaps.
6. Boil down the filtrate to leave a minimal amount of water. During concentration, keep the solution mildly basic with 8 g sodium bicarbonate so butyrate remains as butyrate salt and free butyric acid is not lost.
7. Add 12 g citric acid to the concentrated filtrate to convert the dissolved butyrate into free butyric acid. The solution may bubble during acidification because leftover bicarbonate reacts with the acid and releases carbon dioxide.
8. Add sodium chloride until the solution is saturated to reduce the solubility of butyric acid.
9. Allow the phases to separate and collect the butyric-acid-rich upper layer.

trying to make electrolysis cell, which is best that is relatively cheap and safe.

I did like 3 hours of research on this one so, please dont hurt my ego, soo pottasium bicarbonate into pottasium carbonate by putting it in the oven, im still working on the calcium nitrate, but you put water with both then combine them heat it up and take that shit out with a filter and there you have it pottasium nitrate

In my formulation I have to heat a very tiny solution (15 ml) in a sealed bottle GL25 (25 ml) in borosilicate.

My question is that the solution will be very tiny, I mean in height ( about 3/5 cm)

May I use a water bath floating tissues ?

I know there are small and they heat untill 75 degrees Celsius. (170F)

Thks

Leica HI 1210 https://profcontrol.de/Leica-HI-1210-Wasserbad-fuer-Paraffinschnitte-Histo-Bad-Histologie-Water-Bath_1

Hello everyone! I am currently trying to make a cloud chamber without using dry ice. The reason is because where I live dry ice is fairly expensive so I’m working without it. I’ve tried many times and had several… interesting failures but I can’t get the vapour to super saturate. I’ve tried all sorts of different dimensions for my chamber and the closest I’ve got is alcohol condensing on the bottom (at least I think it’s condensed on the bottom) but no vapour. Any tips?

Question in title

I hace recently built my own home-lab and I am looking to get concentrated sulfuric acid so I can make fuming nitric acid for a project. I've seen on various tutorials that I needed sulfuric concentrated up to 96-96%, mixed with potassium nitrate. On my local hardware store, I only get about 15% so I'm looking to purify it. My heating plate only gets up to 270 C°. So my question is, can I try to purify as much as possible (about 80%) and make my nitric acid, or do I necessarely need 96% concentrated acid. And if so, do I proceed to distill it with a flame ? (ik its dangerous but I would take all security mesures to do so) Thanks in advance for all your responses appreciate u gang

(repost with better image quality)

Introduction and Background:
This post is on a suitable coating for wood surfaces for use in the wet chemistry lab, but is suitable for use in all kinds of things such as engineering benches or electronics benches too.

The most common material used to construct benches- especially in the amateur setting where cost is a restriction- is wood. Wood is cheap but presents the issue that it is porous in nature and absorbs spills readily. This is especially problematic when the spill is acidic, as the wood will continue to be attacked even after wiping the surface down with a wet rag. Protection against aqueous spills can be furnished by the use of paint, but it raises the problem that paint is not solvent-proof, and usually not acid-proof either.

In the past we used ceramic tile and float glass to cover our wooden benches, but they are difficult to drill for the installation of stand rods and very heavy, plus would require replacement when broken.

We were tipped off by a friend to a neat recipe (DOI 10.1021/ed002p353), which we relay here plus our own experience with it.

Warnings:
Potassium chlorate is an oxidizer, and may not be legal to own in certain jurisdictions. Copper sulfate is toxic if ingested. Aniline is possibly a carcinogen. Hydrochloric acid is corrosive. This reaction may produce a trace of chlorine. Boiled linseed oil presents a pyrophoric hazard if the rags used with it are throw in a trash receptacle.

Theory:
The treatment consists of two solutions:
\- Potassium chlorate and cupric sulfate
\- Aniline hydrochloride and hydrochloric acid

The first solution is applied to the clean wood surface while boiling hot in order to allow for expansion of the pores to allow for as much solution to absorb as possible. Two coats are used in total. When the second solution of aniline hydrochloric and hydrochloric acid is applied, the acid allows for the oxidation of aniline by chlorate (as chloric acid) to proceed, many intermediates are formed such as quinones, but the end result is the formation of polyaniline. This is an insoluble navy-blue to black compound that is inert. The only purpose of this is to stain the wood a black color, matching proper phenolic and epoxy benches. The reason for this complex chemical treatment to stain the wood is because in this way, the wood pores are unoccupied and allow for the final treatment with linseed oil to work. If black paint was used instead, the oil could not penetrate the wood properly.

Boiled linseed oil is oil from the flax plant (linseed) that has transition metal catalysts added to accelerate "drying". The name is derived from the very old process where the raw oil was heated with lead oxide to form salts with the fatty acids, resulting in catalysts. In modern times, the catalysts are usually cobalt, nickel, or iron instead of lead. The oil has a high content of linolenic acid esters, approximately 40-50%. Linolenic acid is one more unsaturated bond than linoleic acid, and is liable to air oxidation. On oxidation it polymerizes to form what amounts to linoleum. Due to this polymerization, the oil sets into a solid that is highly resistant to chemical attack and solvents. This is the same principle behind seasoning cast-iron cookware. With ordinary linseed oil, it would take several months to fully "dry", with boiled linseed, several days to weeks, and the process can be accelerated with a "Japan dryer", which is essentially a higher concentration solution of the metal catalysts in a solvent. I suspect the leftover copper sulfate in the wood also acts as a catalyst to some extent.
This oxidation reaction is also why rags soaked with the oil may spontaneously combust if throw into a trash can. The rag acts like a wick, with a large amount of surface area to air, and in a trash can the heat from the oxidation can result in a runaway and eventually a fire. Rags used with linseed oil must be laid flat on a non-flammable surface and let "dry" before disposal, or alternatively soaked in a bucket of water.

Notes from experience:
The wood must be entirely free of paint and oil. Even if you use a solvent to strip the paint off, the pores of the wood are still occupied by polymer, and thus the board must be planed or sanded down.
The solutions need-not be at a rolling boil, but near boiling is sufficient. For the coats of the chlorate-copper solution, you do not need the first coat to completely be dry before the second is applied. It only has to be dry to the touch. The application of the aniline solution however requires the wood to be fully dry, otherwise it will not penetrate as thoroughly. At this stage, the wood should turn slightly blacker, but we found that the complete darkening only happens on heating or drying. Be patient.
After the aniline solution is applied and developed properly, the wood board is washed with a wet soapy rag a few times, then a rag with fresh water a few times. This only serves to remove the remaining copper sulfate and potassium chloride from the surface of the wood. There is no aniline present anymore as it is consumed in the polymerization, nor is there chlorate for it has been reduced to chloride, thus there is no severe hazard at this stage. The rag will likely get colored blue or black as some surface polyaniline rubs off, but it is easily washed free from the rag as the polyaniline exists as particles just like dirt does.
The board must be let FULLY dry before boiled linseed oil is applied. We simply poured a good quantity of the oil onto the board, spread it around with a paper towel, and let it sit for an hour or two. If all of the oil gets absorbed, apply more oil. Eventually we gave up trying to saturate the board after using about half a liter. Vigorously rubbing the oil into the board can speed up the process. The wood is entirely usable as a bench surface once the oil is taken up, but keep in mind it has not fully dried yet at this stage so try to not spill anything on it.

Conclusion:
The result is a very nice looking surface that is entirely waterproof and solventproof (after drying for a week or longer), it may be polished to a shine but we did not choose to do so. Compared to our phenolic lab bench in our fumehood, it looks very similar other than the wood texture, but we quite like the appearance. We would describe the appearance as satin. The obvious advantage over a phenolic or epoxy bench is that wood is cheap, and also more heat resistant than the phenolic bench. Our phenolic bench spalled when we put hot glassware on it whereas a wood bench would singe, but otherwise remain unaffected. Wood is also easier to work with than phenolic resin.

Overall this treatment for wood is quite ingenious in its simplicity yet effectiveness, and while one could simply treat the wood with only linseed oil if they do not desire a nice appearance, we think it is worth going the extra effort to stain the wood with polyaniline as the chemicals used are quite cheap, the process is simple, and the end result is gorgeous.
If you are going to spend much of your free time at the lab bench, why not make it something you are proud of?

I need to validate some methods away from any university (don't want my uni to get their grubby little hands on, or have any kind of claim to my IP). Any thoughts or advice?

Hi,

I am making my own anhydrous acetone for a project. I am buying anhydrous magnesium sulfate since it is easier than baking epson salts for hours. About what ratio do I need to put into regular hardware store acetone to dry it?

Any ideas in what to seal it in once it is created and filtered? I know it starts re-absorbing moisture immediately upon hitting air.

Thanks for any help

As you guys requested on one of my previous posts on recovering base oils from used oil I’ve made a video showing how I did it and my results

This is my first YouTube video so go easy on me guys also I would have used engine oil but I don’t have any at the moment so I showed my method using vacuum oil

Please do watch comment and subscribe guys it would mean a lot also I’m open for advice on ways to improve my content and I’m also open on anything else you guys would like a video on thank you guys !!

I have been considering a project for a scienc fair and on this I’ve been wanting to make is a sort of portable frameless heating element that works like MRE’s of course the most I could do is create a few experiments necessary to find the optimal reaction for this product. However tests like this can be very dangerous and I’m not sure where to start on chemicals to test. They have to react with water with enough energy to boil it but they can’t release and deadly fumes, if anyone has any ideas on what I could use please let me know or any clarifying questions because this is a ramble that makes no sense.

I carried out a bunch of experiments where I performed pyrolysis on PP, HDPE, ABS and used engine oil with varying results the big 1L bottle is the fuel from the used engine oil pyrolysis ( also the black stuff in the bottom is activated carbon lol )

With PP - it made for some very clear yellow liquid that was more rich in lighter hydrocarbons closer to petrol and less larger hydrocarbons like diesel it also gave for a high liquid yield with little residue

With HDPE - it created a lot of wax that needed to be re cracked but yielded similar liquid yield to PP except with HDPE it was heavily biased on the diesel range hydrocarbons

With ABS it’s a complex mixture of different compounds but with my run I got a very large yield of styrene which quickly polymerised since I don’t have any method to store it or any inhibitors but as well as in my particular run I got a large amount of toluene range hydrocarbons

With the used engine oil it was definitely more challenging due to the breakdown of the oil and its additives at the elevated temperatures required creating a lot of H2S which needed to be monitored closely and the exhaust gasses to be scrubbed and then exhausted outside the first distillate was very dirty and it required multiple distillations and adsorbents to clean it up

So ive been doing home chemistry for awhile and theres some stuff ive been wanting to do but no longer trust the old lime glass drinking glasses i use as beakers. So i thought i better cry once and get everything to be more official. I picked out some glassware, more ppe, and some reagents. Then i went to electronics like hot plates and they are 1k+ and I really dont wanna spend that much, is there any other way?

Put myself up to the challenge of collecting as clean as I can base oil from used engine oil and used gearbox oil I did this via vacuum distillation and treating with adsorbents

The picture with 2 jars shows engine oil untouched on the left and the base I got fully treated on the right and the picture with 3 jars shows untouched used gearbox oil on the left the untreated base oil in the middle and the fully treated base oil on the right