5 ms·
It's "easily prepared", eh? Let's take a moment to appreciate the toxic, volatile, pyrophoric nature of this concoction: "sodium powder, crown ether, trimethyl
by burfog 6y ago
It's "easily prepared", eh? Let's take a moment to appreciate the toxic, volatile, pyrophoric nature of this concoction:
"sodium powder, crown ether, trimethylsilyl bromide and N2"
Well, the N2 is probably fine.
The pyrophoric sodium powder might even be a good thing, because it will cause an inferno long before the crown ether has a chance to form explosive peroxides.
- dnhz 6y agoThe reaction should be conducted in an oxygen-free, pure nitrogen atmosphere where those compounds should be safe to handle.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- URSpider94 6y agoWhen it’s boiled to dryness, crown ether can produce peroxides that are unstable enough to explode on their own with shock or additional heat - no oxygen needed. It’s a not-uncommon mistake to make in a synthetic lab.
- dnhz 6y agoMy understanding is that evaporating solvent away doesn't form peroxides. Rather, as an ether ages, it can peroxidize. Removing the solvent concentrates the peroxides is all. Sure, it's a little tricky, but they're reporting results of chemistry research, which doesn't mean immediate real world application.
- krige 6y agosounds like a classic In The Pipeline "Things I Won't Work With" [0] tale [0] example: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/th...
- zensavona 6y agoSounds super easy
- dnhz 6y agoIn a chemistry lab, it's not so tricky.
- DrAwdeOccarim 6y agoYea, seriously. I love how nonchalant it sounded in the article, too. "They also treated the nitrogen with a silicon compound that allowed the nitrogen to combine with benzene." I flinched when I got to "silicon" out of force of habit...