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Keep in mind the risk with just regular liquid elemental bromine. Seems like a heavy red nasty fuming liquid because it is. Concentrated nitric acid is heavy

Keep in mind the risk with just regular liquid elemental bromine. Seems like a heavy red nasty fuming liquid because it is. Concentrated nitric acid is heavy too, has aggressive red fumes of its own kind but it is a clear liquid. And you can pipet nitric acid. But you can't pipet bromine. If you try it, you might think so at first since bromine can be drawn up in to the pipet like any other liquid, but once you remove the pipet from the source bottle, it expells itself from the pipet before any transfer can be made. With nature at work, it begins destroying anything it had come in contact with, while the majority of the carefully measured quantity rapidly evaporates and instantly triggers the evacuation instinct with great encouragement. Even when handled under a fume hood, where most of it goes up the hood, people at the other end of the lab will be out the door in less than one second after the first whiff. Don't ask me how I know but there was this graduate student who was a little bit of a loose cannon . . .

isoprophlex 7y ago
Thanks for reminding me of this undergrad student who tried to recover the product of a bromination... By sticking the reaction mixture, bromine and all, on a rotavap. Outside a fumehood.
dschuler 7y ago
How do you move it around if you can't use a pipette? Or if you say "well, you can't", do you know how the manufacturer gets it in the bottle?
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Some precise pouring, maybe?
  - fuzzfactor 7y ago
    Things like this you try not to spill a drop. Sometimes more is spilled, take a look at this, where a noticeable release in Shandong was being filmed from a _safe_ distance when it got worse fast and filming continued whilst fleeing. Footage was then stabilized by a reddit viewer: https://gfycat.com/aggravatingagileherring https://gfycat.com/aggravatingagileherring >Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, May 9 (Reporter Zhang Zhilong) The reporter learned from relevant departments of Shouguang City, Shandong Province that at around 14:00 on May 9, the bromine tank of Shouguang Yumeng Chemical Co., Ltd. was tilted, and part of the bromine leaked. Short-term red smoke band. No casualties. > After the accident, Shouguang City safety supervision, environmental protection and other departments immediately rushed to the scene to assess the disposal. At present, the site has been disposed of and the cause of the accident is under investigation. > It is understood that chemical bromine is a red-brown fuming liquid that has strong irritating and corrosive effects on the skin and mucous membranes. Google translation of source http://www.xinhuanet.com/2018-05/09/c_1122808340.htm http://www.xinhuanet.com/2018-05/09/c_1122808340.htm Glad only a small part of it overflowed, wouldn't want a significant incident. What you see here is just the spill, not a result of chemical reaction or other runaway condition.
- fabian2k 7y ago
  You pour it instead of pipetting. If you need specific amounts, you use a measuring cylinder. Or you pipette it hastily, leaking some drops along the way. Which of course is a bad idea as it's not very safe, creates a bit of a mess and means your final volume is lower than intended. That is often what happens when students aren't warned about this behaviour of Bromine. It's not terrible (not good of course either) from a safety point of view, cleaning up some drops of Bromine in a fume hood is straightforward. Unless you don't work in a fume hood, which you and other people in the room will regret very quickly.
- fuzzfactor 7y ago
  The manufacturer puts it into lead-lined rail cars and ISO containers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53243414@N00/3941298659/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/53243414@N00/3941298659/ https://www.wew.de/en/news/archive-20152/new-bromine-iso-tank-container-announced-by-wew.html https://www.wew.de/en/news/archive-20152/new-bromine-iso-tan... Then often pressure transferred under inert gas into progressively smaller lead-lined or Monel cylinders. These are closed systems as much as possible. Then somebody who really wants it in glass finally pressure transfers into an open container, decent amounts can be dispensed under its own pressure. In a regular glass-stoppered acid bottle it can best remain under a hood, or underhood cabinet after that. To get a few milliliters from the bottle you carefully pour the smoking liquid into a small graduated cylinder. While suited up for dinosaur vivisection sans anesthetic in a toxic fog. It's basically impossible to make the most precise measurements of such volatile materials anyway. Then if you're making bromine water, once it's diluted it's not expected to come out exactly the same concentration every batch, you're either going to standardize it or run blanks each time.
philjohn 7y ago
A science teacher at the secondary school I went to was doing an experiment related to brownian motion by demonstrating with bromium diffusion in air, and then a vacuum. It leaked, and the entire science block was evacuated.

isoprophlex 7y ago

Thanks for reminding me of this undergrad student who tried to recover the product of a bromination... By sticking the reaction mixture, bromine and all, on a rotavap. Outside a fumehood.

dschuler 7y ago

How do you move it around if you can't use a pipette? Or if you say "well, you can't", do you know how the manufacturer gets it in the bottle?

saagarjha 7y ago
Some precise pouring, maybe?
- fuzzfactor 7y ago
  Things like this you try not to spill a drop. Sometimes more is spilled, take a look at this, where a noticeable release in Shandong was being filmed from a _safe_ distance when it got worse fast and filming continued whilst fleeing. Footage was then stabilized by a reddit viewer: https://gfycat.com/aggravatingagileherring https://gfycat.com/aggravatingagileherring >Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, May 9 (Reporter Zhang Zhilong) The reporter learned from relevant departments of Shouguang City, Shandong Province that at around 14:00 on May 9, the bromine tank of Shouguang Yumeng Chemical Co., Ltd. was tilted, and part of the bromine leaked. Short-term red smoke band. No casualties. > After the accident, Shouguang City safety supervision, environmental protection and other departments immediately rushed to the scene to assess the disposal. At present, the site has been disposed of and the cause of the accident is under investigation. > It is understood that chemical bromine is a red-brown fuming liquid that has strong irritating and corrosive effects on the skin and mucous membranes. Google translation of source http://www.xinhuanet.com/2018-05/09/c_1122808340.htm http://www.xinhuanet.com/2018-05/09/c_1122808340.htm Glad only a small part of it overflowed, wouldn't want a significant incident. What you see here is just the spill, not a result of chemical reaction or other runaway condition.
fabian2k 7y ago
You pour it instead of pipetting. If you need specific amounts, you use a measuring cylinder. Or you pipette it hastily, leaking some drops along the way. Which of course is a bad idea as it's not very safe, creates a bit of a mess and means your final volume is lower than intended. That is often what happens when students aren't warned about this behaviour of Bromine. It's not terrible (not good of course either) from a safety point of view, cleaning up some drops of Bromine in a fume hood is straightforward. Unless you don't work in a fume hood, which you and other people in the room will regret very quickly.
fuzzfactor 7y ago
The manufacturer puts it into lead-lined rail cars and ISO containers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53243414@N00/3941298659/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/53243414@N00/3941298659/ https://www.wew.de/en/news/archive-20152/new-bromine-iso-tank-container-announced-by-wew.html https://www.wew.de/en/news/archive-20152/new-bromine-iso-tan... Then often pressure transferred under inert gas into progressively smaller lead-lined or Monel cylinders. These are closed systems as much as possible. Then somebody who really wants it in glass finally pressure transfers into an open container, decent amounts can be dispensed under its own pressure. In a regular glass-stoppered acid bottle it can best remain under a hood, or underhood cabinet after that. To get a few milliliters from the bottle you carefully pour the smoking liquid into a small graduated cylinder. While suited up for dinosaur vivisection sans anesthetic in a toxic fog. It's basically impossible to make the most precise measurements of such volatile materials anyway. Then if you're making bromine water, once it's diluted it's not expected to come out exactly the same concentration every batch, you're either going to standardize it or run blanks each time.

philjohn 7y ago

A science teacher at the secondary school I went to was doing an experiment related to brownian motion by demonstrating with bromium diffusion in air, and then a vacuum. It leaked, and the entire science block was evacuated.