Questions tagged [everyday-chemistry]
Applications of chemistry to reagents, reactions and processes of everyday life. Use this tag for question on chemistry in an out-of-laboratory/class context. DO NOT use this tag merely because the question is about simple chemistry.
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What is the difference between PEF and PTF bioplastics?
I am trying to research single use plastics replacements, and wanted to explain how PEF and PTF are a good choice. Although as I am researching I can't find clear information about them, also how they ...
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Where are the C and H atoms in 1,3,3,3-Tetrafluoropropene? [closed]
I'm learning about refrigerants, and one refrigerant is R-1234ze, otherwise known as 1,3,3,3-Tetrafluoropropene.
On Wikipedia, it says that the chemical formula is $\ce{C_3H_2F_4}$. But, Wikipedia ...
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Fluorine detection in organic compounds
Many of you will know why I am asking this question. There is a lot of attention recently to the dangers of the so called Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). In essence organic ...
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Why are holes appearing in this aluminum kitchen foil on my radiator?
I thought I would try to deal with dehumidified air from radiators by filling simple troughs of water placed on the top, which in theory would evaporate water as the radiator heated the air. I crafted ...
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Is a diluted aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite more stable than a concentrated solution, all else being equal?
On the Clorox website, they recommend that you dilute bleach (NaOCl) in water prior to use for disinfection. They say that you should make a fresh solution each time you need to use it, adding: “Don’t ...
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Does smoking drugs degrade them?
Why doesn't smoking a drug degrade or destroy it?
A wide variety of psychoactive compounds ("drugs") are commonly consumed via smoking – e.g., nicotine, THC, amphetamines, cocaine, and DMT. ...
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Why do we clarify water with alum, but beer/cider/wine with bentonite?
My understanding of clarifying (floccing) liquids is that we add a mineral with an electric charge, which attracts suspended particles (like bacteria) which I assume have the opposite charge. The ...
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Can gases float on each other?
So I want to know do gases have the same concept as water and oil ? Like if I put some hydrogen and helium in a room with 0% air will they float on each other like the hydrogen go down and the helium ...
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Why measure both alkalinity and pH in pools if pH alone tells us how acidic or basic something is?
I am trying to better understand the chemistry of maintaining my pool so that I can use the least amount of chemicals to control algae growth and I'm confused by the need to measure both total ...
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Can a damaged neoprene (polychloropren) or rubber coating be cured (hardened) using a hot air gun and a curing agent?
Polymers can be hardened by a process known as vulcanization (curing of elastomers), a chemical process that involves a curing agent and heat.
According to Wikipedia, for the vulcanization of rubber, ...
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Hazards of eating non-stick coating, particularly considering the coating primer [closed]
How unhealthy are teflon / non-stick coating chips that end up eaten? What role does the primer coating play?
Existing similar threads that don't go into enough detail: 1, 2
I understand that there is ...
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Cation and anion bond [closed]
I'm new to chemistry still in a sense - I'm doing AP chemistry and the stuff we learnt in school left a lot of gaps that would have made understanding and grasping the concepts much easer if they had ...
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Poisoned Kitchen Sink? [closed]
I wonder…I have a 20 years old stainless kitchen sink in good condition.
“Somebody” poured “Green Gobbler” into the sink. Green Gobbler is a Drain Clog Disolver (supposed to be kitchen sink safe and ...
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Why is Denaturated alcohol made poisonous? [closed]
I understand the need to denaturate alcohol, as to have a material that can be used for non-food products without the heavy alcohol beverage tax.
So, adding a foul tasting bitter substance like ...
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Can hydrogen peroxide dissolve rust?
WD-40's "help page" on "How To Loosen Rusty Bolts, Screws And Nuts" states:
Hydrogen peroxide can dissolve rust. Applying hydrogen peroxide to the
fasteners and letting it sit is ...
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How to safely ship 5 litre container of liquid chemicals into glove box?
I need to transfer a 5 litre container of oxygen sensitive liquid chemicals within an inert atmosphere to smaller 100ml bottles. I'm going to do so using a vacuum glove box purged with nitrogen. I ...
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What burns my nose? [closed]
I have a buddy that, lately, has amused himself by blasting a lit JetBoil (camping stove with isobutane/propane mix) with a can of Dust-Off compressed air, to create a giant sheet of flame.
The fumes ...
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Storage solution for oxygen sensitive liquid chemicals?
I'm needing to transfer oxygen sensitive liquid chemicals from a 5 litre bottle to many 100ml storage solutions. Since I'm transferring a large quantity I plan on operating within an inert atmosphere ...
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Dry ice sublimation rate in water
As I got some a finger sized of dry ice in water, it started to bubble vigorously as expected and gave off a lot of smoke. But after 3 minutes or so, the rate of sublimation seems to slow down a lot, ...
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Determining ppm concentrations from food label information for ICP-OES analysis?
Overview: I am looking to determine what ppm values of trace metals are present in a particular formula while considering digestion, dilution, and detection limits for ICP-OES. For example, one ...
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How can I dissolve carbon using generally available substances? [closed]
I am asking this question out of despair: my wife burned to death crèpes dough into our induction stove.
I tried all usual products (the ones to clean the stove, vinegar, then sodium bicarbonate left ...
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Peak in beer freezing temperature plot
I left an open beer in the freezer while monitoring its temperature. The first minutes works as expected. But after the plateau, at about −8 °C, a peak appeared:
I thought it was an artefact because ...
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Best practices to obtain small quantity of sealed solution without oxidising entire solution?
I'm ordering liquid based chemicals which only come in large bulk quantities. These solutions have a shelf life of approximately 2 years unopened, but 2 - 3 weeks once opened and oxidation kicks in. ...
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What is the difference between mole and molar mass?
In my book it says 1 mole of carbon =1gram atom of carbon =12 gram if I see this relation that seems to me that 1 mole is mass of an atom In grams.
But molar mass is different and why we use for ...
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Is it possible to find Molarity from the number of moles and density of solution?
Lets say we have the following data:
Number of moles of NaCl = 3;
Density of NaCl solution = 1.25g/L;
Find molarity...
Molarity = No. of moles of solute/ volume of solution in L
we've been given the ...
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Need good aproximation to the atomic composition of late 1980's expanded polystyrene foam
I'm not a chemist and what little I know about expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam has been found by looking at articles on the internet. At work I need an approximation to the atomic composition (at %) ...
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How to prepare an emulsion (compounds in wt%)
I am trying to replicate an experiment to generate microparticles but I found myself confused about how to prepare the ingredients as some need to be weighed and dissolved before and I think the ...
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Parameters of NaHCO3 + citric acid + H2O + NaCl mixture potentially impacting functional efficacy in pest control application?
I have been searching for infomation on this application, but have some specific questions that I have not seen directly addressed in the Google/Stack Exchange posts I've come across thus far; below ...
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Why don't ant bites kill us?
So, methanol is supposed to be toxic even in minute quantities because it is oxidised in our body to methanal and then methanoic acid. This can cause blindness and even death.
Interestingly, ants ...
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How would you test for ppm of lead in a powder?
Looking to test the ppm for lead in a powder that is a food item.
No experience in chemistry.
Possibly may need to test for other heavy metals.
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How much CO2 is produced when burning 1GJ of Natural Gas
Background
I am trying to determine how many kg of $\ce{CO2}$ are released when burning 1 GJ of natural gas.
What I've tried
I have very little chemistry knowledge, but google led me to these two ...
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Questions about molar ratio
I am new to chemistry so this might be about a very easy concept that I might be misunderstanding but I would appreciate your help!
I watched a video of combining hydrogen and oxygen and forming water....
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How Bread is made with yeast, sugar and luke warm milk? [closed]
Materials and Apparatus:
wheat flour
sugar
dry yeast
glass bowl
covering plate
milk
Procedure:
Lukewarm milk is taken in the glass bowl and sugar is added to it. Then, yeast is added to the same.
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Why do purple Pedialyte freezer pops turn green when frozen?
I bought some Pedialyte freezer pops for my kids:
And I've noticed that after spending a long enough time in the freezer, the purple "grape" pops change color from purple to green:
After ...
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Hazardousness of Chlorothalonil & metabolites in shower water? [closed]
Recently it came out, that in some parts of Switzerland (where I live), there is Chlorothalonil & metabolites/breakdown-products of it in the drinking water. Yikes.
Problem is, chlorothalonil ...
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Quantifying soapiness; there's pH, pKa and pO2, is there a p_soap or p_surfactance?
Yes, $\mathrm{pH}$ is a concentration, $\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a}$ is a dissociation constant, and $\mathrm{pO_2}$ is a partial pressure. These are (roughly speaking) ways to indicate how much of a key ...
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What can i safely use to remove grease and dirt from plastic (Polycarbonate, Polyethylene, Polystyrene and ABS)?
I need advice of how to clean plastic without produce cracks and white haze on them in plastic, exactly in:
-Polycarbonate
-Polyethylene
-Polystyrene
-ABS
Basically the materials of optical media (CD, ...
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I have tried to remove oxidation from a metal scraper using vinegar, now the metal looks and smells burnt, what went wrong?
I have recently tried to remove some oxidation from a metal scraper spatula by using vinegar. After leaving it there for a couple of hours I was left with a burnt smell (with a hint of burnt candle ...
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Is powdered acid dangerous? [closed]
I was told that an acid is only dangerous because it releases $\ce{H+}$ ions when in contact with water.
Therefore, powdered acid should be completely safe on skin provided that your skin is not ...
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Why sulfonate of detergent is less likely to bind to ions present in hard water than carboxylate?
I was reading about why detergents do not form scum with hard water but soaps do, and according to wikepedia it has to do something with electrostatic interaction of sulfonates( most commonly) with ...
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Do baking soda or vinegar reduce toxicity? [closed]
Both baking soda and vinegar can be used to remove cigarette odor from cloth and surfaces, at least temporarily. Do they reduce toxicity of the third hand cigarette smoke too or just 'hide' the smell?
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Why wouldn't a standard addition fluorometric method return the same starting concentration of a solution used to make the standards?
I am trying out a new standard addition method and having some very basic problems. I am hoping someone could point me in the right direction.
I am using a fluorometric method to quantify ammonium in ...
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I stored CaCO3 in a PET container and it went through the plastic and made the container brittle. What is the reaction? [closed]
I stored CaCO3 in a PET container and it went through the plastic and made the container brittle. What is the reaction ?
It also accumulate on the outside of other PET containers and made them brittle....
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Are oxides of sulphur and carbon adsorbed into limestone/marble?
Oxides of sulphur and carbon are commonly present in the atmostphere in areas close to industries, can such oxides get adsorbed into the surface of limestone and marble and cause discolouration and ...
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Action of Fuller's Earth on Marble and Limestone
Using Fuller's earth is a very common and harmless way to treat marble and limestone that has been damaged/corroded by atmostpheric pollutants such as PM2.5/PM10 carbon particles (Soot) , Oxides of ...
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Does 3% hydrogen peroxide neutralize household bleach?
Wiki and lots of sources all say the same thing. "1 part of 3% hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts water". But I am not trying to neutralize water I want to neutralize laundry bleach. It could ...
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How to dissolve brass surrounded by aluminium?
I have a broken off brass needle stuck in a caste aluminum hole. (It’s the pilot mixture jet on a carburetor).
I was wondering if there was a chemical that would dissolve the brass while not reacting ...
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Why does the application of external mechanical pressure increase the performance of lithium-ion batteries?
Many electric vehicle batteries - specifically lithium-ion ones considered for this query - can be subjected to external mechanical pressure because it increases battery performance.
What components ...
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What is the rate constant k for the reaction between potassium manganate and oxalic acid?
For my school's chemistry classes, I am investigating the kinetics of the redox reaction between $\ce{K2MnO4}$ and $\ce{C2H2O4}$. I analyzed the data using a colorimeter set to $\pu{565nm}$. ...
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What are the common procedures for viewing suspensions of volatile organic compounds under an optical microscope?
I am looking to measure a mixture of triethylamine and water in a micro-Raman instrument. This involves placing the sample under an optical microscope. The "default" sample preparation is to ...
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