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“the process involves dumping the wood in concentrated hydrogen peroxide and boiling it. While I wouldn't want to drink boiling, concentrated hydrogen peroxide,
by captainredbeard 7y ago
“the process involves dumping the wood in concentrated hydrogen peroxide and boiling it. While I wouldn't want to drink boiling, concentrated hydrogen peroxide, it's not an especially difficult chemical to handle safely.”
Diluted hydrogen peroxide is safe but in concentrated form it is one of the most dangerous substances. Early rocketry experiments used it as an oxidizer and it’s generally considered too unsafe.
- avmich 7y agohttps://yarchive.net/space/rocket/fuels/peroxide.html https://yarchive.net/space/rocket/fuels/peroxide.html While there are some storage headaches -- the stuff decomposes slowly no matter what you do, so you must provide for tank venting -- otherwise peroxide is much easier and safer to handle. Its bad reputation is half outright myth and half the result of 1940s experience with seriously impure peroxide. To quote a friend, a rocket-propulsion professional, who investigated the matter as part of a study some years ago: "As far as we could find out, the stories about problems with peroxide were just that, stories... Peroxide, now, seems to only very rarely do anything exciting, at all. And, even then, it seems to never do many of the things attributed to it in the stories." Henry Spencer
- captainredbeard 7y agoThanks!
- dsr_ 7y agoThat would be this Henry Spencer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer to bring in some hackish context.
- DrScump 7y agoI still remember Henry's contributions on comp.lang.c thirty years ago.
- vikramkr 7y agoIt's even more fun when mixed with sulfuric acid.
- mirimir 7y agoOr with acetone, on ice.
- newnewpdro 7y ago> Early rocketry experiments used it as an oxidizer and it’s generally considered too unsafe. Wasn't Carmack's rocket company Armadillo Aerospace using hydrogen peroxide for the oxidizer?
- jws 7y agoThey attempted to use it as a monoprop, where you pump it over a platinum screen to catalyze it. This is attractive because it avoids any issues with mixing. They had extreme difficulty sourcing anything but dilute hydrogen peroxide. The few manufacturers refused to sell to them once they discovered the application. I think they ultimately bought a distillation unit made by a man involved in rocket powered drag racers in Mexico. Ultimately, I think the higher specific impulse of fuel+oxidzer two part systems justified the added complexity and they abandoned monoprops. As other's have noted, at 3% concentration hydrogen peroxide is pretty benign. At 60% it is quite dangerous. Armadillio Aerospace was exploring 90%+ concentrations.
- ddebernardy 7y agoWonderful blog post on this topic: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/things_i_wont_work_with_peroxide_peroxides https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/th...
- cstross 7y agoNot really: it's been used at least once on a satellite launch vehicle that made it to orbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow
- kurthr 7y agoYep, that's how you "bleach" hair for hair dye. It's safe enough to put on your head, around your eyes... and heat for 15min before washing it out.