• @assassin_aragorn
    link
    English
    29 months ago

    I remember in my orgo chemistry lab we were once running an experiment to add a single nitrate group to Toluene as part of a larger synthesis, and someone pointed out that if we left the reaction going too long, things could go boom.

    • Lvxferre [he/him]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      29 months ago

      Yeah, it’s that sort of nasty reaction. Nitration is exothermic and its ratio depends on temperature, so all you need to get it exploding is to let the ice melt.

      • @assassin_aragorn
        link
        English
        39 months ago

        …I think we did it on a hotplate.

        Maybe we were using toluene as a solvent or something. It’s been quite a while.

        • Lvxferre [he/him]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          39 months ago

          You said that you only did the first nitration, right? You were probably using slightly less concentrated ingredients then. Doing it on a hotplate with oleum and fuming nitric (required for all three nitrations) is madness.

          • @assassin_aragorn
            link
            English
            29 months ago

            Yeah that probably makes more sense. I think we were just using bog standard sulfuric acid and nitric acid.