lab accidents

>>8024559
that sucks

I accidentally condensed liquid oxygen in the trap between the line and the pump once.
I slammed the hood shut right before it vaporized.
Got lucky, the trap didn't shatter, the two pieces separated at the joint.

>>8024563
The danger of liquid oxygen is that it is a very good oxidizing agent. If you condense any organic stuff into the trap, it will be oxidized and this can release a lot of heat and ultimately lead to an explosion.

>>8024614
yeah, and?
if you remove the cooling agent (ie the dewar that was used to cool the trap) it goes from liquid to vapor rapidly, expanding in volume

>>8024614
ok, you've gotten me more interested in the topic

Is there evidence that oxidation is the deciding factor?

Suppose N2 is condensed in glass apparatus under external cooling, the coolant is removed - does the N2 not rapidly expand 'blowing up' the apparatus?

>>8024684

Nope, N2 is really stable.

>>8024688
>N2 is really stable
chemically, yes

physically it does undergo phase changes

so has this been studied or not? is there experimental evidence relevant to pump/trap/schlenk line or not?

>>8024688
I don't think he's talking about any kind of explosion, just the fact that liquid turning into gas is a huge increase in volume.

>>8024704
That's exactly what an explosion is!
Just because it's because by a change in pressure instead of a chemical reaction doesn't mean it isn't an explosion, otherwise nuclear bombs wouldn't explode.

>>8024563
Another under appreciated danger of liquid oxygen is the surprising fact that it is magnetic. Yes, seriously.

So if you get some of it running around ther eis a real danger it becomes attracted and enters electric equipment. Many accidents in the past involved LOX entering electrical motors, getting in contact with lubricating oil and setting opp a small explosion and a larger fire.

There is a good reason why you are required to hold a license and a permit to liquefy oxygen.

>>8024858
>paramagnetism
doesn't answer the question posed here >>8024684

>fire
not observed here >>8024563

>license and a permit to liquefy oxygen.
irrelevant

just this week
"bring your kid to work day"
on a fucking military research base
>running 280 W blue/UV experimental laser system
>laser light and interlock are on
>dumb technician wants to show his kid "lasers pew pew like star wars"
>doesn't tell me
>enters the door code to disable the interlock and unlock the door
>gets distracted by another coworker before opening the door
>his kid walks in the now unlocked door while dad is talking
>no goggles
>kid walks around redundant laser barriers toward the pretty blue lights
>walks up to other side of my table
>almost vomit when I see this fucker's head at beam height
>smash the big red EMO button
>everything shuts down, flood lights go on
>alarms on all electronics start going off
>"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? GET THE FUCK OUT"
>kid starts crying
>dad runs in and does the "embarassed dad" routine where he starts screaming at me and pretending it's my fault
>keeps saying "THAT'S NO REASON TO SWEAR AT MY SON. HOW DARE YOU"
>kid now getting exam for retinal damage
>dad now probably fired
>whole lab group can't work until further notice
honestly it was a good thing. Dumbasses here don't take laser safety seriously, especially the dumb technicians so we needed a sacrificial lamb to wake everybody up. The kid's going to be fine.

>>8024943
lolol this is amazing

>>8024563
so...? just drop the traps, turn off your vacuum, open the line to air, close the hood and go get some coffee or jerk off for 30 minutes. I'd hardly call that an accident

>>8024684
Yes, the biggest concern with liquid oxygen is the oxidation. When it oxidizes stuff, it generates a bunch of heat that then causes the remaining liquid oxygen to vaporize around it. this leads to a pressure explosion and possible fire due to organics catching fire from the heat generated.
yea, you could get an N2 explosion that way. Something similar is pretty common with lines that use Ar instead of N2. If you are doing freeze-pump-thaw cycles for solvents and whatnot after a distillation, you cannot use a line that has Ar. The Ar will condense in your flask and when you thaw it, your flask can explode because of the expansion of the Ar.

File: CuO Al.jpg (119KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

119KB, 640x480px

Posted this before but, here goes:

>Doing some thermite casting with old graphite ring molds
>Also have some cupric oxide
>Decide to try casting copper
>Thermite ignition method is usually a lump of sugar/potassium perchlorate on the end of a fuse
>Fuse isn't hot enough to ignite the thermite, burning sugar/perchlorate is
>Discover fuse is hot enough to ignite cupric oxide thermite
>Discover it burns so quickly it's basically an explosion
>Almost get my face ripped off by hot copper liquid/vapor
>Receive nasty burns to my hand from thermal radiation of copper plume
>End up with one less ring mold

>>8024943
>>8024943
fucking kids man

>>8025064
had something similar happen to me
>4th of july, 2014
>decide to make fireworks for my kid
>search up exotic flash powder mixtures
>find one that produces a lot of light
>mix aluminum powder, magnesium powder, and sodium persulfate
>fuse wasn't hot enough to ignite mix
>use blow torch
>mixture blows up with a gigantic fireball
>right hand gets exposed to 3000 C for a split second
>right hand gets covered in a thin layer of aluminum/magnesium sulfide
>rush to hospital
never again am i doing pyrotechnics

>Doing the Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction
>Sensitive to water
>Must use syringe to add ethyl 2-(diethoxyphosphoryl)acetate drop wise to enclosed reaction flask
>Cap is stuck on the needle
>Pulled too hard and punctured my hand

Luckily it was a band new needle so it wasn't too dirty.

File: 1436745299285.jpg (48KB, 600x484px) Image search: [Google]

48KB, 600x484px

>>8024559
>work in a micro lab
>basic shit any idiot can do it
>working with this lady who can barely speak English
>try to explain to her that she should change her gloves frequently because not only could she get sick but she could ruin the results
>tell her especially to avoid touching her face, because I know it's hard when you're itchy but you really have to avoid it
>doing a simple test for E.coli
>she somehow gets some on her glove and then wipes her eye
>a day later we get the results for that particular sample
>it's over the legal limit of E.coli in every sample
>like holy fuck nigger I've never seen so much
>co-worker get hospitalized for the next week

Why do they just let anyone work in a lab?

>>8025098
You just reminded me of a great one from my first year as a biochem undergrad:

>Philosophy students are allowed to take STEM modules in their first year
>Usually take micro because they think it's easy
>Standard lab practical starts
>Bunsen burners are lit to heat wire loops
>Alcohol wash bottles are provided for cleaning potentially contaminated surfaces (you can see where this is going)
>Genius philosophy student decides to clean his wire loop with alcohol
>Sprays it like a super soaker
>Stream passes through a lit Bunsen
>Lands, flaming, on my hand
>Air in water line means enough time passes before extinguishing for decent burn to develop
>Hand has red, scaly patch for the next year
>Takes 3 years for hair to start growing again in that spot

During that time, when I was asked about the burn, I told them a philosopher attacked me.

File: 1457067021304.jpg (31KB, 313x286px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 313x286px

alright fags, top this.

Was doing a chem lab back in 2011. Basically I was synthesizing ethyl ethanoate

For non organic fags: the synthesis involves taking glacial ethanoic acid and ethanol and mixing them together in addition to a sulfuric acid - then heating them at above 90 degrees Celsius. Additionally, I had to use a re-flux condenser.

>tfw I've never used a re-flux condenser in my life but go ahead with the experiment anyway
>tfw not using boiling stones or magnetic stirrier

So i'm boiling my ester, and I notice 20 minutes in that the mixture is violently jumping up and down the condensor like some sort of chemical symphony.
>don't realize its super-heating
>kek, just needs more water
I should mention at this point that three other people were in the room with me in very close proximity, quietly doing other shit.
My lab teacher comes in, sees my experiment, runs behind the lab blast shield faster than a jew with a coupon.
Everyone is watching now. Realize I left the lid on the condensor

>tfw my experiment is completely airtight
>tfw ester gas

Nagasaki-tier explosion is unleashed upon chem lab, glass flying at supernatural speeds around the room.
>literally glass shards the size of tablespoons pierce the cork board wall like possessed cutlery.
Piece of glass rips across my left hand, tearing it open by the palm. Shard bounces off my belt buckle.
>Arise from the debri of the chem lab
>somehow no one is hurt except me
>room smells like a fruit punch-bowl

head of science pulls shard of glass from the wall behind him.
Looks at the shard, then looks at me and announces: "Hmm, must be an imperfection in the glass"

At this point im shaking hypothermia-style
>realize I nearly cut open a vein.
>everyone shitting pants
>tfw when awkwardly panning up glass shards
>tfw still won an award in science academia on graduation day
>tfw school science teachers use my explosion as an example for lab safety
Palm scar still hasn't faded to this day

>>8024943
Don't blind me or my son ever again

File: absolutelybrutal.png (76KB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 320x240px

>>8025138

>>8025138
why didn't you book it

>>8025138
holy shit you're retarded

>>8024559
>trying to make AlCl3 in bathroom
>put erlenmeyer flask in sink
>fill the sink with cold water
>98% HCl
>out too much aluminium foil
>reaction gets extremly exotermic
>waves of HCl vapors emerging.gif
>shut door
>turn on the ventilation
>leave house

>>8025227
>98% hcl
this never happened

>>8024943
Wouldn't he recoil as soon as the laser hurt his eyes?

>>8025198

I know anon, I promise I've been put onto the short bus since then, don't lose sleep

>>8025107
You didn't tell him life had intrinsic meaning or anything like that, did you?

>>8025138
Post palm scar

>>8024559
>in gen chem lab
>doing shit with HCl
>like 1M or something idr
>some girl spills it
>start yelling DEFCON 1
>Professor and grad TA are absent and all we have is undergrad TA
>she doesn't really know what to do
>go to a different station and leave the spill

I think i appeared autistic at that time for yelling DEFCON 1

>>8025236
laser's dont have kinetic force anon, so they don't cause recoil.

maybe if the laser was powerfull enough to rapidly ablate the child's flesh it might work.

File: haha nope.gif (886KB, 280x206px) Image search: [Google]

886KB, 280x206px

>>8025098
Something similar happened this semester in my bio class.

>It's an entry level bio class so there's tons of students trying to get their sci credits
>Couple really ghetto kids in my class, one is white, one is mixed race, and the other is black
>Despite how dumb they are, they're pretty nice to me so I help them out
>Lab is to swipe different surfaces to see which one has the most microrganisms
>Teacher put our samples in an incubator for a week
>I tell them to wear gloves
>They decide to not wear gloves while handling samples which have abnormally large and visible strept colonies
>mfw they all get sick

>>8025255
>light doesn't have kinetic force
lol

File: FullSizeRender.jpg (1MB, 2448x2448px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2448x2448px

>>8025246

5 cm long and seven stiches

>>8025245
I hadn't spoken until him until that point, I called him a cunt afterwards.

>>8025261
not enough to physically knock over a child, pedant

>>8024735
>otherwise nuclear bombs wouldn't explode.
they don't

they cause explosions by the heat released from their chemical reaction, but they do not themselves explode

>>8025090
how the fuck did you puncture your hand [math]un[/math]-capping a needle?

File: 1449374313596.gif (301KB, 254x200px) Image search: [Google]

301KB, 254x200px

>>8025328
>they cause explosions by the heat released from their chemical reaction, but they do not themselves explode
>chemical reaction

Not really that big of a deal at all, but I have one dumb story.

>chem prof is a bitch

>be in chem lab, same prof

>makes us all nervous with her prescence

>heating up some shit in a test tube

>have tongs on test tube to hold up over flame

>friend is doing everything while I watch

>he needs to log data so he gives it to me to hold

>pinch tongs

>test tube falls into table

>panic immediately

>grab test tube with bare hands

>holy fuck this is hot

>notice she is looking my way

>never make eye contact with her.

>she never says anything

>feelsgood

>>8025426
>implying nuclear decay isn't a chemical reaction

>>8025266
its the 23 you fuckwad

>>8025526
>open flames in chem lab
Did this happen in the 40s?

>>8025779
Unless he's in Asia and up very early...

>>8025888
ching chang chong

>>8025940
Haha, I'm really not Asian. I did live there for a few years though and we're science & maths guys so should qualify statements where necessary

>>8025779

Not in oceanic countries you cro-magnon dipshit

>>8025236
not necessarily. Blink reflex only covers visible so he won't blink for any UV exposure.

Also it doesn't matter if he feels like he was hurt, he has to get examined now since it constitutes a major violation of the laser safety policy and the lab could get sued if they don't properly document and report the incident b/c "muh son's poor eyes, gib moneys"

Also if you were a kid and saw a sparkly blue laser you'd probably stare at it regardless

>new female tech in the lab (environmental microbiology)
>get asked by a big convention center to do mold testing
>do swabs, set up plates, etc
>some stuff grows up including a lot of bacteria
>new female tech has been asked to inspect the plates in the morning for growth, takes notes and report to me
>I get there later than her so I'm not there when she's inspecting the plates
>turns out she's inspecting the plates at the laminar flow bench and not a biological safety cabinet
>she suddenly gets sick
>very sick

She gave herself Legionella and nearly died. She tried to claim she wasn't properly trained but that's definitely not true. There's fucking signs on all the benches designating their use: water sanitation, chemicals, mold, bacteria, or agar set up

>>8026267
>Blink reflex only covers visible so he won't blink for any UV exposure.

(not this guy) Also, this is what differentiates class II from class III, in the latter the laser is powerful enough that it causes damage before the blink reflex occurs.

>work for a manufacturing company in charge of maintaining equipment
>intern shows up one day
>task them with the job of testing the hydraulic press
>fuckwad decides to dick around with it
>he presses a book at 200 tons
>the fucking book explodes and sends shrapnel everywhere
>book shrapnel hits the blast shield
>the blast shield wasn't secured because he didn't inspect/test shit
>bast shield falls right on him
>100 lbs of polycarbonate crushes his body
>he never shows up to work again

File: 92Q62wf.jpg (11KB, 277x329px) Image search: [Google]

11KB, 277x329px

I have dropped and destroyed enough glassware to supply a small meth lab

Why must I be such a walking disaster

>>8026362

It's aight. My PI and I once estimated for shits and giggles that together we broke about 45 lbs of glassware since high school, for a value of >3k USD. There's a reason chemical stockrooms exist.

>>8024559
didn't happen to me but a professor of mine had this story from grad school
>other graduate student in same lab as professor
>working on the pumps for a home built 9.4 T FT-ICR MS
>using a wrench and accidentally gets a bit to close to the 9.4 T magnet
>the magnet rips the wrench out of their hand and sends its whirling around the room before being sucked into the magnet
>forced their advisor to spend 30K to demagnetize the magnet, get the wrench out, then pump liquid helium back into the magnet

my professor said that grad student didn't finish their PhD

>AP Chem lab
>asked to dump a bit of 15M HCl onto some compound to create something for future use
>HCl is on one of those cool containers where you pull the top up so to select the volume of acid you want and dispenses it without you having to do anything
>Reaction must happen in fume hood, because it produces some nasty gas (cant remember what)
>told not to touch the super face melting acid like 50 times, and to make sure it reacts in the hood
>dumbass goes to get HCl first
>takes it out of the hood
>unscrews the dispenser thing
>tries to pour acid directly into the beaker outside of the hood
>misses
>table is now smoking
>idiot child covers it with a cardboard box
>like it never happened
>some sane kid tells the teacher
>teacher stops him, cleans up

>>8025646
>chemists just wanting to claim everything for themselves

>>8026553
why in the fuck were you doing this in AP chem lab?

>>8025888
trips get

>>8026397
We had a superconducting magnet and was told this story. Said it hadn't happened there but I am not so sure.

Anyway, the open field was huge and they had tidied the entire lab for magnetic items including tools, chairs and everything. They turned on the magnet and saw a tiny trolley starting to move. Five guys dived for it and caught it as it accelerated.

Sop, magnet on max power (even made sure that noone had pacemakers) and were very happy to have everything under control.
Until someone came from the lab downstairs. All their lamps were now smashed and stuck into the ceiling.

File: average day for v.gif (1MB, 320x180px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 320x180px

>>8024559
>in grad school
>winter time
>go to the lab super early one morning
>grab a giant glass bottle of 12 M NH3 that had been sitting out for a while in a very cold lab
>ice formed on the bottom and so when I pulled the entire bottom sheared off and I got it all over myself
>as it was happening I took in a huge breath and then ran to the shower
>stayed in there for like 30 mins
>thought I was going to die

I've never been so scared in my entire life. One guy I knew pickled his finger. I really don't know how you can be in grad school and not take any sort of safety precautions.

>>8026553
>15 M HCL in high school labs
nah

>>8027605
Please for the love of god tell me the shower was heated. Also I'd really like to know if the decontamination showers shoot out ice water if I ever have to use it.

>>8027721
if you ever have to use the emergency shower i think you're going to be too panicked to care about how hot the water is

>>8027642
My hs has 4000 students and a seriously sweet science department

Truth, man

>>8027721
Not only is the water ice cold, but it's usually pretty funky because it stays in the shower pipe for months or years at a time, depending on how frequently it's checked.

>>8027817
it's supposed to be checked once a month minimum in any properly maintained lab

>>8025098
It's progress and diversity
One day we'll get rid of the white people and it'll be utopia

>>8027826
My professor often recounts this story
>doing monthly shower checks
>hold bucket under shower, discharge for however long
>empty bucket, repeat with next shower
> apparently there's a shower in a storage closet that was converted from an old lab
>decides to test it anyway
>pulls handle, nothing
>gets closer to see if head is obstructed
>like a fucking cartoon, nasty rust filled water explodes out and drenches him.
>shower hadn't been checked in almost ten years according to records
>had to get a tetanus shot after walking drenched across campus on a 30F Oregon day

>>8027642

There's an 18M bottle of H2SO4 lying in our IB chem lab. It's not that uncommon to find high molarity acids and bases in high school labs.

>first year of high school.
>boiling water with a Bunsen burner.
>whole classes water boiling already.
>my water shows no bubbles or any sign of boiling. Everyone waiting.
>teacher gets bored and gets second Bunsen burner.
>boiling water suddenly shoots up and hits the ceiling.
>shit myself as I was leaning on the table.
>still don't know wtf happens. Convection currents or some shit messed up. Should have stirred the water.

>>8026335
That didnt happen you faggot. Thats from the hydraulic press channel on youtube

>>8027849
>tetanus shot

you dont get tetanus from rust, you get it from soil bacteria, and for that to be a problem, you have to break the fucking skin which i fail to see happening from getting doused with water.

>>8029276
distilled water has no minerals in it for bubbles to form around. So it can get really really hot without forming bubbles, but the second something disturbs it (maybe some dust fell into the water) it forms the bubbles. Depending on the temperature it is when the bubbles form you can end up with a lot of water converting to steam, so it can be kind of explosive.

>>8029276
overheated water
same principle as when you are pouring supercooled water and it freezes the moment it hits something,
only that it's not liquid-solid, but rather liquid-vapor phase change

you should always put a porcelain shard or bead in the flask, so that the bubbles can form on it to prevent the sudden rapid boil
most older flasks have scratches and tiny cracks, that's why you were the only one that had this problem

File: 1459984625108.jpg (16KB, 204x162px) Image search: [Google]

16KB, 204x162px

>>8025138
shit happens I guess

File: Shitty macro.jpg (293KB, 2039x1112px) Image search: [Google]

293KB, 2039x1112px

Happened just now.

>Stained my hand with potassium permanganate
>Couldn't wash it off
>Remembered that hydrogen peroxide renders potassium permanganate colorless
>Washed the affected areas with 9% peroxide
>My fingerprints are now white

>>8025253
kek

File: ome.jpg (121KB, 600x551px) Image search: [Google]

121KB, 600x551px

>>8025145

>>8029290
>you get it from soil bacteria
which also live in any crumbly texture available including rusty pipes and are fairly ubiquitous in the environment
> you have to break the fucking skin
>what are mucous membranes

>>8029736

Kek, you actually thought a side reaction wouldn't occur on your skin.

>>8029736
Use liquid potassium nitrate next time. Cleans everything right up.

>>8029799
>C. tetani
>loves crumbly stuff
>colonizes the body through mucus membranes

Keep going. You're a treasure trove of microbe "facts"

>>8029736
>Stained my hand with potassium permanganate
Happened to me many times. Makes you look like you do some seriously heavy duty manual labour. The discolouring will remain for a few months but there are no side effects (that I have experienced).

>>8029276
Look up "superheated water". Basically there were no nucleation sites so the water exceeded 100 C. Once nucleation started much of the water transitioned straight to steam and propelled the remaining water out. This can be dangerous and your teacher SHOULD have known this. In fact just tapping the glassware could have started the nucleation.

>>8030049
you can find lots of statements in medical resources that mucous membranes are a potential infection route. granted, there has to be some kind of injury in the mucous membrane, but the tissue is so soft it's much easier for that to occur.

>>8024943
Sounds like you overreacted. Now that poor kid will probably hate science and his dad will probably not be able to support his family because of you.

>>8026295
You sound like an asshole.

>get bench job for shitty contract lab
>poor training, high volume workload
>mis-label 2 samples, one control and one test sample
>record results, looksgood.jpg
>realize mistake, correct the label without saying anything
>mention mistake weeks later
>get accused of falsifying data
>get fired
>job sucked anyway

File: 1452787347238.gif (2MB, 400x332px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 400x332px

>>8025145
KEK

>>8030223
>mention mistake weeks later

why would you do that to yourself anon? Don't you like you?

File: 20131024_155904.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

There was nothing accidental about it, but I really enjoyed the time we tried cooking with a furnace at the lab I used to work at.

>spend a week or so resurrecting an ancient abandoned tube furnace
>pic related is the closest photo I could find online, something like this but with the tube vertical instead of horizontal
>professor suggests testing it out by trying to cook something to celebrate getting everything set up and calibrated
>decide to see if we can instantly cook a hot dog
>set the furnace to 1000 C, there is a nice orange glow visible at the hot spot of the tube
>remove the top and bottom covers, put a hot dog bun under the bottom of the tube to catch the falling hot dog
>drop in the hot dog
>hear a wet splattering noise
>half the hot dog shoots up out the top of the furnace and splatters onto the ceiling
>the other half shoots out the bottom
>the inside of the tube at the hot spot is covered in grease, it smokes and smells awful for just a few seconds until it is all completely burned away

It was great, totally worth having to clean hot dog bits off the ceiling.

>>8030002
>>8030034
>>8030060

Update: when I woke up this morning, it had all but vanished. The skin is a little lighter but it's hardly noticeable. Apparently, hydrogen peroxide creates oxygen bubbles in your skin, I guess the extra keratin in my fingerprints prevented it diffusing away initially.

lol I was working with some (C5H5)NiNO
And I accidentally fucked up
broke the container, and spilled it all over the fume-hood
So clean up sucked

>>8030034
Also, thanks. I have some on hand. I assume when you say 'liquid' you mean a solution as opposed to plunging my hand into molten potassium nitrate.

>>8029736
You should do that to the tip of your penis and see what happens

Maybe it will feel good or something, at the very least you can go to the doctor and freak him/her the fuck out.

Barring that, the local swimming pool

>>8031521
>the local swimming pool

I'm sure buying several thousand gallons of hydrogen peroxide couldn't possibly make anyone suspicious. Should I buy some acetone while I'm at it?

>>8031536
>Directions unclear; Gassed the entire city

My mistake, I meant go and show your shiny white penis off at the local swimming pool and freak everyone out with a good old fashioned leprosy scare.

>>8031541
>Directions unclear; Gassed the entire city

kek/10

>Chemistry lab in northern european uni.
>The glassware and basically everything else is CCCP brand.
>Bunsen lighters work with those orange household butane tanks, everything is sketchy as fuck.
>A retarded girl from my class approaches the gas bell, opens the valve of a lighter and engages in conversation with another retarded bitch.
>Still holding a pack of matches in a hand
>She goes on for a couple of minutes
>To this day, i still dont know why i said nothing.
>Professor sees what is going on, slaps the matches out of her hand, closes the valve and switches the vacuum on.
>"I only ask you guys not to be stupid, is it that much? Can you do it?"
>Everyone keks, she is mortified.
>Class goes on normally

Those labs were so fun, nobody gave a fuck about security guidelines as long as nobody was badly hurt.
I remember we werent even required to use gloves while handling acids, i still have a red spot in my hand from a drop of very diluted HCl i had sitting in there without noticing it.
I learnt shit but i became a virtuoso of the test tube flute

>>8030170
Fuck science.
Science is not something fun.

>>8025526
>tongs
just use your fucking fingers, holy shit, you are such a fucking faggot
It's not that hot.

>>8031757
>Used a horizontal tube furnace, operating around 800C. Nice light cherry red colour.
>Used oxygen for the process, had borrowed an oxyacetylene set, used only oxygen, ONLY oxygen. Please.
>Oxyacetylene uses oxygen and, guess what, acetylene. For welding. Exothermic reaction, OK?
>Another student borrows the rig. IOs unsure about gases. For gases are gases, right?
>Inserts sample, floods the tube with ... yessss ... acetylene gas.
>Belatedly realises the mistake. Closes the acetylene valve.
>So we have one tube of acetylene gas at 800 C in a visibly red hot tube. So what does she do? Well, what does she do???
>Add oxygen.
>Ka-BOOOM!

I am very happy I survived my time as a student. And she? She is a professor. Working on new materials. Explosively formed I would guess.

>>8024559
Working with organic digester
Boiling sulfuric acid
Rubber exhaust tube gets too close to heat block
Room starts to fill with sulfuric acid smoke
Turn around
Yell, "Everybody down!"
Everybody gets on the floor
> Everybody do the dinosaur

>>8024559
Pic unrelated. That's a mol bio teaching lab. I see PCR tubes but no bromine anywhere. Pics or it didn't happen. That goes for everyone.

Did you all just have a circlejerk to this moron's falsified post? Someone call /r/circlejerk

File: 1454169538703s.jpg (2KB, 125x86px) Image search: [Google]

2KB, 125x86px

>>8033304
>being this much of an autist

>>8033429
Autists rule the world. Keep whining about it on /sci

>>8031177
Double dubs must respond.

It came up and I had to. Didn't want to be dishonest about it but that obviously wasn't rewarded.
I consider it a good thing, they were trying to get rid of me anyway and I no longer wanted to work there.

>>8033435
rule the world somewhere else

>>8033458
Hah.

Truer words.

>>8025138
Top fucking kek

>>8033458
>>8033458
Have fun "nerds"

File: 1457662956962.jpg (8KB, 300x300px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 300x300px

>>8030197

are you high anon?

File: I8yYHA4.png (55KB, 625x626px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 625x626px

>>8033304

>amateur chemist
>this was around 10th grade
>basement lab coming along well
>got an electrolysis setup, some nice acids, relatively diverse set of chemicals thanks to a mineral collection
>decide it's about time to do something with bleach
>mix vinegar, sea salt, and bleach at unmeasured ratios
>it instantly turns neon green, no kidding
>smell of chlorine is intense
>break out the millitary surplus gas mask because basement's got no fume hood
>put the neon stuff in a honey jar and nail holes in the cap, put some wood over the top
>quick fix works
>parents suspect nothing
>next day, decide to experiment a little with chemical x
>about to dip a penny in it but before I can even dunk it in, I notice it's turning reddish and my tweezers are getting black at the end
>mfw it was making enough chlorine to corrode stuff above it
>in my house
>decide this stuff is cool and start holding all sorts of things over it
>corrode circuit boards, nickels, sulfide minerals, etc.
>nickel turns a brilliant green
>look up nickel/chlorine compounds on wikipedia
>nickel chloride: green. Great so I found it.
>mutagenic, carcinogenic, toxic, inhallation hazard, irritant
>ohshitdude.mp4
>make a bunch more NiCl2
>guinea pig literally dies
>pour chemical x down sink
>I should stay away from science

>>8033995
i would only adopt if i were you

>>8033995
future darwin award winner

>I should stay away from science
that's not science, it's idiocy.

>>8033995
Chemicals are not toys.
Filth like you shouldn't call themselves chemists.

>>8024559
Most of the people in my course aren't too retarded, so we don't fuck up very often. But here's one from ages ago:
>Doing a titration
>Involving Hydrochloric acid
>Pretty dilute, but we still use safety gear
>Super edgy kid is trying to prove how great he is at chemistry
>Doing shit with no gloves because "he doesn't need them"
>Whatever, his funeral
>The fucker says he can drink acid
>Tell him sarcastically that that's a brilliant idea
>He takes it as a challenge
>Takes a swig of HCl

I have no clue why they let that retard near chemicals. I mean, this particular instance was with some weak stuff, since it was more practicing titrations, so he was fine, but jesus christ, what if it was literally anything stronger?

I consider it an accident, with the accident part being letting that kid come withing 20 meters of me or anything that isn't foam-padded.

>>8034127
A guy in my chemistry class put a drop of fuming sulfuric acid on his tongue to see how sour it tasted. His tongue started slowly bleeding and didn't stop for almost an hour.

>>8034130
That's honestly terrifying, anon. Not just that example, but the fact that people in you and I's classes can actually think ignoring the "don't drink the chemicals" rule can end in anything other than bad things.

>>8034127
>wearing gloves for titration with HCl
lol you a coward or something?
The acid you generally use for this is 1N or something like that.

>>8034141
Yeah, but the idea was to try and teach people proper procedure for handling chemicals, for when we are using stuff that actually is dangerous. Literally rule #1 was "don't drink the chemicals". Yet this kid actually did. He was also a total edgster for the rest of the semester too.

>>8034132
I'm not too upset by idiots hurting themselves in itself, I just begrudge the way it's fucked things up for people who understand that a warning not to drink something isn't a suggestion.

>>8034127
>Super edgy kid is trying to prove how great he is at chemistry
>Doing shit with no gloves because "he doesn't need them"

I prefer working without gloves wherevere possible not for edgy reasons but I feel as If I have more control over the things I'm handling. 2nd year chem student and no funeral yet. Taking a swig of the stuff is quite dumb though

>>8034162
You should always work without gloves, since you have more motor control and you don't accidentally touch your face with your hands being full of legitimately dangerous stuff.

>>8034130
Back in the days I was told that one drop of conc sulph. acid in a gallon of water ... would taste like lime.

I never tried it.

However tea brewed on deionized water was absolutely spiffy. And it was not brewed IN the lab, of course. Otherwise I would probably not have been alive, given how many of my fellow students were sent to hospitals with odd symptoms of poisoning.

>>8024559
I guess this was a near accident? Still scary though.

>in organic chem lab my sophomore year of undergad
>no diethyl ether left for me to finish my extraction
>lazy TA tells me to go to the stock room to get it myself
>so I head to the stock room with a beaker and a watch glass to fill up and carry back to the lab
>spend ages looking for DEE, can't seem to find it anywhere
>finally in the back of the cabinet (big mistake) spot a bottle of DEE with no date marked on it
>pull it out, clanking it carelessly into several other bottles on the way out of storage
>set it down on a table, begin to unscrew cap
>hear god awful crunching sound
>pause, realize what I just did
>back the fuck out of there slowly to alert the TA
>bomb squad-esque crew had to come in and extract the bottle, full attire and everything

No one knows who left it there without dating it, or put it in the back of the cabinet. After they pulled the bottle out, someone came to me and said there were no visible crystals at the top of the bottle, but definitely some forming right around the threads touching the top of the cap.

>>8034162
>I prefer working without gloves
>2nd year chem student
figures

You don't need to use them all the time obviously, but there are times where it's better to use them.

>High school chem demonstration
>Classic sodium in water makes boom--science is fun!
>Teacher throws sodium lump in pond
>Fish eats sodium lump before it fully reacts
>Fish explodes

File: 1391561108275.jpg (51KB, 654x637px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 654x637px

>>8025098
>summer biotech internship
>sharing lab space w/ a french masters student
>work involves lots of DNA recovery, go through lots of binding buffer
>right on the bottle in bright red ALLCAPS: do not mix with bleach

>french student comes over to sink, has a ~5L bucket half-full of used eppendorfs
>he's trying to wash out the fucking eppendorfs for recycling
>it's not even necessary
>he does it anyway
>starts pouring clorox into the bucket
>chlorine/HCN gas immediately begins to rise up in a dark yellow haze
>the fucker puts a foam lid on it, leaves it in the sink, and heads off to lunch
>I end up carrying the thing, lid mere centimeters from my face, down the hall to the fume hood
>explain to the baguette exactly what happened/why

>mfw he does it again a week later

>>8034332
>worrying about touching your face
sounds like someone doesn't have good lab safety skills

>>8035309
>he's trying to wash out the fucking eppendorfs for recycling
i've been in labs poor enough that they preferred to reuse plastic disposable electroporation cuvettes and even they didn't do that shit

>>8025236
Flash burn, the kind you get from welding without eye protection doesn't hurt at all at first
The symptoms of damage don't kick in until several hours later

>Using a bunch of volumetric pipettes in chem lab
>Professor explains how we have very little of them (not a wealthy school)
>I have 3 laying on lab bench
>Put my elbow down on bench
>Crack
>Fucking snapped all of them
>Snuck over to glass disposal bin to drop them in
They're not ridiculously expensive, but it's more the principle of it

>high school chem glass
>ethanol in lab
>snake a few shots
>drunk as fuck
>too drunk
>just leave before anyone notices

>>8035446
i made this up

>>8034075
anything is a toy if you play with it

>tfw your chem 101 professor tells you you're the most safety-minded person she's ever met

>>8027721
Emergency showers are usually connected to mixing valves. In an industrial setting where they risk freezing, they're also traced so they're always warm.

>>8027817
Yep. When I worked at a power plant we tested every shower and eyewash once a week. Now that I'm in university I'm lucky to spot a shower that's been tested in the last year.

>>8025272
>>8025255
People recoil from pain and discomfort using their own muscle power.

>>8029276
>high school
>bunsen burners
>glassware with no imperfections
Seems legitimate

>>8029285
Not only that but 100lb spread over your entire body is hardly "crushing"

>>8032238
Oxy-fuel welding equipment has opposite threads on the fuel and oxygen fittings so this didn't happen.

>>8034667
Coffee and tea made with DI water is the shit plus you never have to descale ever again.

>>8034332
>>8034162
are you fucking retarded?
you should always wear gloves
it will end up heightening your senses and improving your hand-eye coordination because you are forced to use other forms of touch in manipulations
working in a glove box 50% of the time has caused drastic improvements in my hand eye coord as well as my overall dexterity.

>>8025646
It's a nuclear reaction dummy pants. It's got an entire different classification than a chemical reaction because it works on a whole other level.

>>8025334
I'm assuming that he pulled it off really hard so it happened really fast and suprised him. For whatever reason the human reaction in that situation is to try to return your limbs to their previous position, so when his arms suddenly went apart they immediatley pulled back together and stabbed himself.

That's what I'm assuming happened, anyway.

>>8027583
I can't get this image out of my head, I'm fucking crying

>sitting at desk
>doing busy work
>suddenly desk gets dark and hear a report of dry thuds
>look around
>lamp is gone
>look up
>see hole in ceiling
>realize that lamps has suddenly and inexplicably into space
>stand and salute the departed astrolamps
>leave quietly before questioning life choices

>>8027826
yeah, you run it for like 2 seconds. still most of the water still sits there in the pipe forever. I've seen water come out of them brown almost as bad as fire sprinkler water.

File: 1368121269692.jpg (773KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

773KB, 800x800px

>Was working as the head of a mycology project for a campus
>Had so much excuse liquid culture because the manager prior did not know how to be efficient with his shit
>Like any mycology place there were some psychoactive species we had
>Cleaning out all the excess bullshit and had a student who was helping with the project dump some of the liquid.
>Specifically told them to pour the psychedelic cultures down the drain and not in the compost because I don't want to go to jail
>idiot pours it in the compose
>The following semester we have psychedelic mushrooms poping up all over campus

Luckily most people are scared of mushrooms and nobody found out. I still see some pop up every now and again
>Mfw free shrooms all over campus and nobody is the wiser

I once mixed up the labels for IFNAR-1 antibody and it's isotype control. 150 mg each. That PI never bought from us again, and singlehandedly drove us almost all the way out of the IHC business.

This was before the company I worked for drove the price of that shit into the ground, too.

We also did shit like pretend our employees were students, buy antibodies from bioxcell at university price and then resell them.

We'd also buy Alexafluor products and sell them as dylights.

We'd conjugate antibodies and then ship them out without testing them.

Lots of fucked up shit biology students and professors are retarded.

>>8035799
forgot to say I don't feel bad. It technically was me that mixed him up, but the lab tech put them next to each other, unlabeled. My boss then yelled for me because he was a helpless fat fuck, and had forgotten his zoho password. When I came back I realized I didn't know which was which. The concentrations were the exact damn same.

I just picked and shipped them out. We never got a direct complaint, just no more orders, almost ever for IHC applications

File: 238628789.png (335KB, 688x742px) Image search: [Google]

335KB, 688x742px

>>8033995

I nearly had a fucking migraine reading this shit.

>>8025260
>did this experiment in high school
>swabbed underneath my foreskin
>it grew the most messed up colonies of god knows what out of the whole class
>everyone knows it was my penis
>never get laid

kind of a lab accident

>be in middle school chemistry class
>doing some bullshit with bunsen burners
>first time we're using them
>teach explains safety (don't touch fire, etc) and how to plug in burner, turn on the gas tap that's on each desk
>kid next to me realises that all the gas is connected back to a central pipe
>crazy fucker turns the gas on full blast, holds lit match up to it.
>teacher walks up, turns off gas and asks what the hell are you doing
>turns out the kid was trying to make fire spout from every desk's gas tap
>teacher explains the magic of backflow prevention valves while filling out a detention slip

bump, can't let this die, it's been too entertaining

>>8037951
post your lab accidents then

File: 1459728124269.jpg (34KB, 480x480px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 480x480px

>>8035520

>>8035446
Impossible.

>high school nearby has its only chemistry teacher die
>he leaves a stockroom that is almost completely unlabeled
>school offers anything valuable to my university if we >for free clean out the stockroom in a correct manner
>helping this one guy go through jars
>find one that is just some liquid
>whiff it, smells like kerosene
>figure I'll just pour it down the sink with some water
>while pouring a solid chunk falls out
>occurs to me that sodium is stored in water

One of my fingers is permanently disfigured and the sink got fucked up

>gen chem 1
>doing various reactions with aqueous solutions.
>carrying a 50ml beaker with 40ml 6M HCl
>thot black dyke in class acting apelike
>literally dances into me
>spill acid on her
>it doesn't realize what has happened
>TA doesn't notice, busy babysitting
>tell it to wash itself
>it refuses
>go up to TA to tell him whats happened
>apelike thing starts hooting
>"I'm all itchy and burning!"
>starts really hooting
>TA clears out room
>tests shower as we walk out
>its so low pressure I start laughing
>apelike thing looks like her chest, various chins and cheek has been soaked in water for days
>never comes back again

Accidentally melted a cuvette the first week in my lab, because I thought they were glass and tried to dry it in the oven.

We were a physics lab. We only had two cuvettes for the entire month. My labmate and mentor both thought it was really funny.

>>8038125
Really> You can;t tell the difference between the touch of glass and the touch of plastic?

>>8038109
Oh shit

>>8038109
oops I made a typo, sodium is stored in kerosene

>>8038109
Pics?

>>8038146
this was over 20 years ago, don't have any

>>8038109
Doubt the fingers got "disfigured". Post a pic then.

Sodium reacts relatively slowly with water. I might believe you if you said Potassium.

>>8038148
not posting a pic of my hand

it's because I was 19 and retarded and rather than turn the water off I stopped and tought about what the chemical could be

>>8038155
You aren't posting a quick pic of your fingers because you're lying.

>>8025023
It's very much possible to do freeze-pump-thaw. You simply close your flask/schlenk before removing it from the liquid nitrogen dewar to let it melt before refreezing it again to pull vacuum again.

>>8025098
>basic shit any idiot can do it
>Why do they just let anyone work in a lab?

Fucking make up your mind nigger

>>8025835
>Not open flame

Are you a coward son

>>8038125
>We only had two cuvettes for the entire month
What the fuck?
If they're plastic, just buy a new one, these things are cheap as fuck and disposable.
Quartz shouldn't melt the oven.

>>8034075
Yeah, a true chemist would have taken a sip. A nobel laureate would have gulped it down.

>>8038272
No, a true chemist would have his lab assistant have a sip and ask them to describe the taste.

Fucking amateurs up in this.

File: 1460174225122.png (178KB, 500x540px) Image search: [Google]

178KB, 500x540px

>>8038115

>reflux condenser is dirty, there are some drops of unidentified liquid
>I decide to simply wash it with water, what's the worse that can happen?
>small amount of smoke come up
>everything goes black and I feel like I am going to pass out for an instant
It was fucking weird, like my body stopped working.

>>8038479
That's what a quickload feels like.

>>8038194
True, you can do it if you're careful, but i've seen people be dumb about it and have their shclenks explode on them. It's generally easier to just use N2.

I wasn't there for this because I went home to get lunch, but heard about it after the fact.

>undergraduate and 3 grad students working together in an inorganic/materials chem lab
>tight fit because other labs were being renovated so we were all forced into one labroom
>pretty much on top of each other
>undergraduate was trying to set up a solid state thermolysis
>used a homebuilt 2 zone tube furnace
>gets it all set up and starts heating
>the coils are glowing white hot
>other grad student comments that it shouldn't be doing that
>undergraduate like... nah it's cool, it just has to stabilize
>graduate student puts blast shield around it just in case
>literally 10 seconds later tube furnace explodes in a shower of hot glass and metal
>everyone in the lab would have either been killed or seriously injured if it wasn't for the blast shield
>turns out the undergrad plugged one end of the heating coils into the wall outlet instead of the temperature controller
>coil was just getting the fuck heated out of it
>coil was probably well over 1000°C
>the blast shield received the name of Dumbledore

Our PI didn't seem to really understand the severity of the situation, we've made some changes since then though.

>>8035784
>Specifically told them to pour the psychedelic cultures down the drain and not in the compost because I don't want to go to jail
>idiot pours it in the compose
he probably did it on purpose

>>8038670
i hope that undergrad got kicked out and blacklisted

>>8034127
>wearing gloves for titrations
Lol. The only time I've had to use gloves is when handling dangerous organic reagents.
Like gloves are going to be much of a help anyway if you spill some 18 M nitric acid over yourself.

>>8038866
actually, they do, you stupid twat

>>8038873
Don't be such a baby.
Yes, it burns a bit, but please don't cry.

>>8035171
Oh fuck kek legendary

Bumping also testing
[math]
\dot{m}_{h}
\left(h{}_{Eh}-h_{Sh}\right)
=\dot{m}_{c}
\left(h{}_{Ec}-h_{Sc}\right)
[/math]

>>8035784
>I still see some pop up every now and again
Colorado, right? Kinda famous for its shrooming.

>Woop! Woop! Woop!

File: 1459635986078.jpg (25KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

25KB, 500x500px

Not an accident, but it was close
>today, microbiology lab (1st year of college)
>made agar and boiling it on a tripod stand over a bunsen burner
>turn around to take pictures of my previous lab results
>don't pay attention to what's happening behind me
>look back at the agar beaker after a while
>violently bubbling and foaming
>ohfuck.exe
>turn off the flame just in time
>10 more seconds and it would have spilled all over my desk
>mfw
Yes I'm stupid

>>8039148
>made agar and boiling it on a tripod stand over a bunsen burner
they have these fancy new things called microwaves

>preparing a fuckton of 10M NaOH
>weigh in the pellets normally, over a whole kilo.
>"fuck dissolving this shit slowly is gonna take forever"
>"let's just put some a ton of it it into a large beaker and fill it up with DI water and stir"
>severely underestimate the ΔH of the dissolution of NaOH
>beaker gets insanely hot, too hot to hold with hands
>put it down on the table
>suddenly realize I can't breathe without sharp pains
>between the heat and the stirring the entire room was filled with a thick mist of NaOH
>grab beaker to carry it over to the fume hood
>shit this thing is really hot
>drop the beaker on the floor

Turns out dissolving lots of NaOH in very little solvent is a very bad idea.

>>8038273
A true chemist would have made the TA or an undergrad chug it

>>8039194
Something similar happened in my lab. The fume cupboard was used but that didn't help when the extractor failed and resulted in a blowback.

Basically you get a chemical burn down your trachea resulting in about 2 months with dry coughing. Damage can be permanent and if your entire lab was in a NaOH mist (that is insane!) I'd say you got a problem.

>>8039267
I'm fine, less than half a minute passed from the time I noticed the fumes to the point where I dropped the beaker and walked out the lab.
I was holding my breath the entire time.

My eyes are still a bit dry (this only happened a couple days ago) but otherwise I'm fine.

>>8039189
That takes longer senpai

>>8038148
>Sodium reacts relatively slowly with water
No, it really doesn't. A small chunk might not do much, but a big piece can easily explode (hydrogen buildup and a lot of heat is generated).

Then again, if he was cleaning out a jar and didn't notice the sodium, he was either very blind, or there were only small chunks in there which wouldn't have been enough to disfigure fingers.

Guys in the lab room next to ours managed to blow it up pretty good once. Apparently they were doing some chemistry with flammable liquids and had both leaking connection and sparking auto transformer in one set. No major damage was done though, just smashed door and windows, some broken equipment, slightly spherical fume hood and everything covered in soot. Luckily there was no one inside at that moment.

>>8035446
Enjoy your cancer from benzene

>>8039849
Except that his story is false. Some edgy kid tried doing that in a lab I was in. Vomitted seconds later.

>>8024943

I'm assuming you're either talking about 280 W peak power, or some sort of excimer system.

What sort of laser was that, if you're still watching this thread 6 days later?

I'm a spectroscopist as well who also specializes in deep UV lasers.

>>8026397

I heard this story too, probably fake as fuck.

>>8039947
it's not, the professor who i heard this from is a mass spec specialist and knew very specific details

>>8039982

The professor who told me the story is also a mass spec / HPLC specialist who knew very specific details.

That's why the story is almost certainly bullshit.

Just like the 'orange juice LSD kid didn't want to tip over and spill' story that has extremely specific details, despite not being even remotely real.

>>8039986
whatever, it's not an impossible story either way

>>8039982
>>8039986

randomanon here, did you consider it could be the same person?

>>8040042
>>8040004

Well we can get to the bottom of this quickly if the other guy is still reading this.

What class / uni did you hear this at?

Not really super unusual but I have a story.
>working in a research lab
>need to use some high molar NaOH for ph control
>large schott bottle full of NaOH
>go to grab the bottle by the lid
>bottom half of the bottle stays where it is, bottle shattered everywhere
>NaOH all over me and the lab floor
>Thankfully the lab coat saved me
>hands felt soapy for weeks after though

>>8040054
For those that are unaware NaOH leaches into glass if left for a while and essentially disintegrates the glass very slowly, particularly with higher molarity NaOH

>>8025253
>I think i appeared autistic at that time for yelling DEFCON 1
>I think

topkek

>>8040054

Fuck. Would you shower for this? I mean, the water would make the NaOH worse, no?

>>8040077
I'm the one who posted the story. Thankfully, the lab coat saved me for the most part, my shoes had to be thrown away though, and my legs did get a few drops of NaOH on them which was pretty bad... We had a neutralisation kit for the spill on the floor, but no you don't take a shower for NaOH, we had a chemical paste that partially neutralised the NaOH in the bad spots (my hands) but it's fair to say the damage lasted a while

>>8040092

You should have gotten in the safety shower.

The point of the shower is that you don't need to slowly put paste on your wounds that are getting worse every second.

You got what, at most 1 L of NaOH that soaked into your clothes? You stand in the shower and it'll dump 1 L on you every second cutting the concentration of NaOH on your skin to effectively nothing in seconds.

It's letting that shit sit on your skin / clothes that was the bad thing.

Unless it's something like HF, in which case you need the paste.

>>8040044
intro to mas spec or something like that
university of pittsburgh

>>8040149

No fucking kidding.

I know exactly who told you that story, because that same person told the story to me, but not in that course.

I've probably seen you walking around chevron. Small world.

>>8040149

I'll also add that the reason that the reason I responded saying that I thought your story is bullshit is because when I heard the story the first time I thought it was bullshit myself.

I've never heard of a grad student getting thrown out of grad school for wrecking equipment by accident. Also that 'repair cost' seemed ludicrously high for something as simple as restarting an instrument. Not like it was the LHC or something.

>>8040150
>>8040152
whooaaa holy shit, small world indeed!
and if I am remembering correctly, the student didn't get thrown out, they left the program for other reasons.
>for something as simple as restarting an instrument
Eh, getting that much LHe is pretty fucking expensive. Where I'm at now, we have a SQUID that uses LHe and it's no joke getting it refilled, and that doesn't even need that much.

>>8025138
>my lab teacher comes in, sees my experiment, runs behind the lab blast shield faster than a jew with a coupon.

Did the lab teacher not warn everyone else to take cover? How much time did they spend behind the blast shield before the explosion?

>>8038500
What's a quickload

Nothing major but

>UV-vis for photokinetics
>dyes dissolved in cyclohexane
>knock over 3 curvettes, not much but like 5ml cyclohexane on the bench near $20,000 machines
>all I did was dissolve the little rubber feet they have and put the machine off balance.

>>8040601
>machinery designed to work with organic solvents
>does not have exterior resistant to said solvents
Fuck whoever thought it was a good idea. We have a high pressure pump for both liquid CO2 and organic solvents here that cost upwards of $15k and I was very surprised to find out that glass window of its manometer was not, in fact, glass, but rather some shitty plastic that fogged instantly and started turning to goo upon minor splash of xylene.

>>8025138
alright senpaitachi when refluxing who puts a stopper on top that makes no sense [DESU]

>>8027642
its probably just 12M

>>8029256
>18M
You sure it's not 18N?

>>8025253
everyone including you in that story is a fucking retard
lmao

I once tried mixing sulfur and baking powder
No result

>>8025253
>1M
lol who even cares, you could wash your hands with that

>>8040686
18M is pure (>99%) concentrated H2SO4

File: 1461621029715.jpg (62KB, 606x496px) Image search: [Google]

62KB, 606x496px

>>8039194

Nigga, this is like the first shit they tell you in acid/base chem.

Ion dissociation = many heat
Many ion dissociation = very bad

I remember this one dude-bro in high school who tried to neutralize 500ml of 18M H2SO4 by running it under tap water. Needless to say, wayne the surfer got ass-blasted pretty hard before dropping the whole thing in the sink.

>>8040232

Three or four seconds, she shouted something pretty loudly in her native language. Luckily there was an entire bench separating my experiment from the others, but the shards were fucking everywhere by the end of it.

>>8040682

>never used a re-flux condenser in my life

>>8040746
Knowing that something will happen a certain way and actually experiencing it happen to you are very different.

>>8040686
>Normal
>ever willingly using it
you're joking right

>>8040818
>not using normality for H2SO4

>>8040819
normality is context-dependent and can lead to errors if you assume the wrong context the normality was calculated for

molarity is not context-dependent, therefore it is objectively better

File: 1445104115161.jpg (68KB, 640x640px) Image search: [Google]

68KB, 640x640px

>>8040819
just stop

>>8035784
this is beautiful

>>8030170
So he should've just let the kid walk around, get blinded, have the base sued, simply because some dumb fucker can't keep an eye on his child?

You're the kind of person who just lets kids run around at a restaurant while everyone else is trying to eat just because "Hurr, let them be children".

Maybe if his dad gave a shit about safety, he wouldn't be fired. It's called a job! He can't follow the JOB safety procedures, he won't be able to have that JOB. and I'd rather the kid hate science than the kid go blind.

9/10, rustled my jimmies.

>>8040674

What sort of transparent plastic would you imagine is resistant to xylene? There's a reason you were using that solvent in the first place, namely because it is extremely good at dissolving organics.

>>8040674
>>8040601

It's an instrument, not a machine.

>>8025227
>98% HCl
Yeah, no. Nice try though.

>>8041270
maybe, you know...

glass

>>8041323

Probably don't use it for pressure related reasons.

>>8041329
i can't think of a pressure related reason that would exclude glass that wouldn't also exclude plastic

it just sounds like cheapness on the manufacturer's part to me

>>8041281
>It's an instrument, not a machine.
this drives me insane, I hate it when people call it a machine
thank you, based anon.

>>8031541
>Directions unclear; Gassed the entire city
This is the best

>>8041430

Only plebs call scientific instruments, machines.

I've known this since freshman year of college

>>8033995
You're some kind of genius right?

>>8041270
I reckon PET is fairly resistant out of common plastics and I'm pretty sure there are others that at least won't turn to shit before I have a chance to wipe it clean. But anyways, there's absolutely no reason not to use glass in this application other than trying to save like $10 max on a $15k+ device.

>>8041329
It's not pressurized and in case something that is fails it won't make much difference on the pump rated up to 600 bar.

>>8041281
>>8041430
>>8041434
Took note of another thing to troll /sci/ with, thanks.

>>8039896
You think it was the benzene that made him throw up or the alchohol?

>>8041772

200 proof ethanol is nothing like what you drink from the liquor store.

If there was any benzene left over from production, it would likely be in trace amounts and undetectable when you drank it.

>>8024559
In chem lab, entire lab is heating Hydrochloric Acid by floating a small, loosely corked Erlenmeyer flask in a larger cylindrical beaker of boiling water.

Dude at station next to mine corks his Erlenmeyer not too lightly (i.e., very fucking strong) and uses too much heat.

HCL vaporized and cause the cork to pop out of the Erlenmeyer like a shotgun. HCL-soaked cork hit sme right in the side of the head!

One face/eyewash later, no acid damage, thank God.

Not really an accident per se, but I was once dared to sip my balls in the sonicator and I was about to do it and I had my balls out when a chinese PhD student walked in, stared at me, then walked straight out again.

>>8038125
I accidentally melted a plastic cuvette when I accidentally put a hexane-based solution in it lol.

>>8041870

Considering sonicators disintegrate your bones over time, I wouldn't want to put my balls in there.

>>8041828
This exact shit happened in my Chem 2 lab this year. Except the cork nearly took out someone's eye as they walked out the door. After that goggles had to be on for the entirety of the lab.

File: 1462050494230.jpg (14KB, 250x250px) Image search: [Google]

14KB, 250x250px

>>8025145
Nice

>>8041959
>After that goggles had to be on for the entirety of the lab
are you retarded or something?
Why would you not wear glasses while heating shit? I bet you don't even button up your coat, if you even wear one at all.

How come people don't understand basic safety procedures?

>>8042538
real men heat things up naked and use mineral oil baths with a stoppered flask

>in High school chem 11 class
>we are testing out organic compounds and dimethylmercury
>About like 10 idiots spill it on their gloves and the gloves dissolve, go through their hands
>they all die like a year later from mercury poison

Serves them right...

>>8041772
Benzene doesn't make you throw up.

And in high school they'd probably use denatured alcohol.

>>8042538
>I bet you don't even button up your coat
I applied for a job at a company that had a clean room based production of components. Having done my PhD work in clean rooms I had an idea how this should work.

Noticed no one had buttoned up their bunny suits. Much woolly jumpers on display. Wanted a job so I made no comments about the mindblowingly obvious problem.

Returned to the interview part, the guy who would have been my boss said the job might involve emergency jobs to get the clean room fabrication going if, hypothetically speaking, any entirely hypothetical problems would ever arise.

Getting a baaaad feeing here.

Didn't get the job. Said I couldn't maintain eye contact (!) Was not too sorry about that one.

About 2 years later they announced they had production "issues", they were listed so the stock marked required statements. Me, not surprised.

Another 2 years later it was game over.

their clean room looked like a dog house.

>>8042795
you should have pointed out all the mistakes during the interview, you probably would have been hired

>>8042656
what the fuck do you think it's denatured with, dumbass

>>8042552
>(CH3)2Hg
>high school
Are you even trying to make credible stories anymore?

>>8041820
>Never had absinthe, Strohrum or even everclear

>>8024559
>high school
>have to pass some chemical through a gas-wash and measure it's weight
>do this by having a erlemeyer of the solution on a bunzen burner
>the gas released is somewhat harmful, but not anymore after it passed the gas wash
>it has a very low boiling point so if the water gets boiling we let the water vapor flush the system and turn the bunzen burner off, since the solution also contains some corrosive shit we couldn't let it boil on.
>Prepare to remove to gas wash and measure the result
>Since the bunzen burner isn't burning, the water vapor is condensing
>sucks harder then a Chinese whore
>just like when you're stealing gasoline from your neighbors, as soon as it reaches the highest point it starts flowing
>in an instant almost all the liquid from the gas wash is sucked into the erlemeyer
>heats up and begins foaming
>we frantically start cooling this shit with water
>totally under control.jpeg
>we needed six results in total
>this happened three more times

>>8040686
What is N? Is it something American?

File: 9s1YXYa.gif (941KB, 627x502px) Image search: [Google]

941KB, 627x502px

>>8044373
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryterminology/a/What-Is-The-Difference-Between-Molarity-And-Normality.htm

>>8044391
Why?

>>8042552
>10 high school students dying from exposure to a supertoxic organic compound
>in a high school lab
I've seen Facebook stories more realistic than this

>>8044435
yeah no shit this guy was obviously trolling

>>8025328
Man you are a special kind of pedant asshole.

>>8025266
I don't see a scar

>was in a second year inorganic chem lab and did some experiment with tin(IV) tetrachloride.
>Shit is super reactive and volatile in the air and can condense in the lungs to a solid material if inhaled.
>I was not aware of any of this (my fault, of course) and I opened up the bottle of it outside of the fumehood.
>Starts fuming as soon as I open it and I panic and inhale some of it.
>Lungs felt super fucked up for the next couple of days

File: 1366208324197.jpg (27KB, 512x384px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 512x384px

>>8040152
>>8040149

Fuck yeah other people at this school that also waste their lives on 4chan
Pitt Chem '13

>>8044373
>I pretend to know basic chemistry: the post

okay some background:
I work with HS interns who are interested in a job requiring organic chemistry. It's a paid internship so most of them just come here for the money. There was this one kid who though he was invincible and ignored ALL SAFETY WARNINGS.

>he placed diethyl ether in a clear opened bottle only to forget about it the next week. there were already droplets of oil in the ether and the volume had shrunk
>HE SNEAKS IN FOOD AND DRINKS IN THE LAB. One time that fuckwad almost almost took a swig of a bottle of benzene right next to his water
>The final deal breaker which got him fired was when he stole a bottle of absolute ethanol

why do we let idiots into the lab

>>8044657
So you can greentext their exploits and set an example for evolutionary standards, faggot.

>>8044583
Thanks UCLA

Semi-related
>be me
>telling undergrads on how to use DMA80 to run some subsamples for calibration and analysis
>set up everything so all they have to do is put samples in and run it
>come back
>look at results
>"what the fuck?"
>0^ and 1^ were all over the place
>check machine for malfunctions
>look at Oxygen tank
>somehow turned the Oxygen tank valve to 100 psi instead
>mfw no face
>"did you touch the gas valve?"
>"it wasn't showing anything for a couple of seconds so we turn it down, thought it was too high"
>ruined sample analysis for at least 20 samples
>out of 30
really banged my head for that one

>>8044373
Normality.
Basically the idea that you use equivalence concentrations instead of actual concentration.
The only time where this is remotely useful is H2SO4, because its acidic equivalent concentration is double its actual concentration.

File: 1461435852147.jpg (1MB, 2448x2448px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2448x2448px

>>8044528
I think I found it.

>>8044629
>Blaming someone who's doing astronomy for not knowing some obscure useless measure of concentration only used in the US. The post

File: Untitled.png (279KB, 320x371px) Image search: [Google]

279KB, 320x371px

>>8045058
holy fuck

why would you say something like that, please think of the children

>>8024559
If anyone asks, say you shat in your shirt

>>8025077
Nice one.

>>8025098
At least you weren't weaponizing shit, the poor woman could have killed everyone

>>8044339
>he doesnt dilute his absinthe

>>8044978

Yeh sorry, it's not very visible under unnatural light. This anon found it.

>have some organics dissolved in ether
>putting them in a separating funnel
>tired and forgot to check that stopcock was closed
>flows right through
>covers the fumehood
>instantly evaporates
>caked on organic residue everywhere
I just moved to the next fumehood, I was too tired to deal with that shit.

I heard this one independently from two people at my uni. One was a PhD student and one was a lecturer.

>This guy is working on making HPLC columns
>not sure exactly what particles they used for SP but it was something with a shitload of surface area
>something got fucked up with the pump and the column gets too much pressure and explodes
>some of the particles enter the guy's hand
>goes home that night
>dies of dehydration in his sleep

The surface area of the particles that got into his body sucked him dry.

>>8045137
Shit's easy to find if you know what it looks like. Not from a lab accident but I have a similar scar on my palm from trying to cut swords out of styrofoam with a penknife for a skit. Got more than a few scars out of that but that was the worst one.

>>8045186
>>some of the particles enter the guy's hand
>>goes home that night
>>dies of dehydration in his sleep
W-what

>>8045186
you were getting fucked with

i mean, maybe he died from a toxic substance or something, but it certainly wasn't from dehydration from particles in his sleep. that would imply you could compress water into a volume drastically smaller than it takes up at STP without applying outside pressure

>>8045194
>Most modern HPLC packing materials of 5mm particle diameter or lower will have a surface area of between 150 and 400 m2/g. Just for comparison purposes, the surface area of the average tennis court is around 260 m2 and a 100mm x 4.6mm HPLC column will contain around 1g of silica and therefore will have a surface area somewhere between half and double the size of the tennis court

>>8045198
I thought that the first time I heard it but then at a completely different campus a different person told the same story.

>>8045202
>but then at a completely different campus a different person told the same story.
that means it's an urban legend, not fact

>>8045219
Maybe. They did not say they heard of someone that it happened to though, they both said it was someone they worked with at the uni.

>>8045225
Well, it doesn't necessarily mean someone didn't die, and it doesn't mean it was unrelated to them fucking up the column. It just means that the proposed mechanism is impossible.

Maybe the dehydration did happen but it was because they were an idiot and didn't drink enough water or drank themselves silly or something. Maybe it was the column, but the column material was coated with something particularly nasty.

>>8043400
Not fucking benzene. That'd be way too toxic/cancerous. Benzene occurs in ethanol with a purity of >97 %.
Denatured alcohol has stuff like methanol or isopropyl acohol added.

>>8045362
I hope it's isopropanol, methanol is toxic too.

>>8044830
What about [math]\rm H_3 PO_4[/math]?

>>8045058
It's used in germany, too. It is not very common, but common enough to stumble upon it every now and then.

>>8045369
>pKa1 = 2.148
>pKa2 = 7.198
>pKa3 = 12.319
You tell me why you wouldn't use normality here.
Sulfric acid is the only thing it's good for.

>>8045058
a bunch of pharmaceutical patents use N for some stupid fucking reason

File: 4rp5k3.gif (873KB, 350x262px) Image search: [Google]

873KB, 350x262px

>>8025145
I'm alone in a building during a thunderstorm laughing like an insane person.

Thanks Anon I needed that

>>8025138
>>8040232
>>8040755
My dad likes to tell a story from his high school chemistry

>in lab in 1965
>(it aint me is NOT playing because that song didn't come out til later)
>teacher is like 70 and talks slow
>he is lecturing on blackboard before or after a lab
>suddenly fire extinguisher starts hissing and gushing foam
>teacher wheels around, takes one look and RUNS THE FUCK OUT with a burst of speed that he hadn't felt in 50 years
>everyone looking at each other like "wtf?"
>teacher comes back in like 30 seconds later, peers in lab and sees that fire extinguisher has stopped gushing
>then notices the kids still sitting where they were 35 seconds ago
>looks perplexed
>"What are you still doing here? Didn't you know that could have exploded?"

>>8030170
>>8031943
>>8041219
A father's first and foremost job is to protect his children. Any employee of a lab's first and foremost job is safety. Sounds like this guy couldn't do either job right.

>>8034693
Sorry, what's the deal here? Does ether somehow become crystalline and explosive in storage or something? I don't understand.

>>8033455
you never admit something like that, ever, not even to your friend

>>8046276
DEE will oxidise into unsrtable peroxides over time, the peroxides are cristaline, explosive and sensible to shock and frixion

>last semester of college
>organic chem II cass
>were only 6 friends and we are all chill with the teacher
>he decides we can synthesise whatever we want for the last lab
>choose p-nitroaniline because of the cool explosion it does
fast forward to the last lab
>nitrating the aniline
>not really taking seriously the temps
>rises up pretty high before i catch up and cool it down
>product is very far from the expected color and melting point is off
>decide to go though with the reaction
>put a few drops of conc. sulfuric acid and heat with a bunses burner
>it melts
>it catches fire
>there is only 3 grams but the fire is raging
>i should have put the amiante fire spreader
It ended up burning itself out but if it had more dinitrated product it could have exploded
I still aced that lab report