Also known as. Stuff so fucking toxic it will kill you and everyone you know in the amount that could fill a thimble (or much, much less). That's a good unit of measurement right? People still know what a thimble is right? ....right?
A teaser: we don't commonly encounter too many opaque red liquids with a fog of corrosive orange fumes above them in the container. Which is good.
Apparently this guy has a series of "Things I won't work with" on his blog. Im going to have to spend some time checking it out. I have always really enjoyed chemistry and he makes it more approachable and interesting.. Even though he is talking about things that probably will kill you.
Archive: https://archive.today/0ZAMa
From the post:
>Chemists have a familiarity with many elements and many compounds, from having worked with them or studied them in the literature. You get a feel for what's "normal" and for what's unusual, and there are quite a few degrees of the latter. Take compounds of bromine, for example. Most any working chemist will immediately recognize bromine (there are exceptions) because we don't commonly encounter too many opaque red liquids with a fog of corrosive orange fumes above them in the container. Which is good. That's bromine in oxidation state zero, elemental, and then you have bromide (oxidation state -1), one of the most common anions around. "Chlorides are rabble", said Primo Levi in one of my favorite lines from The Periodic Table, and he was right about that, but bromides are not of much higher social standing. Every cation has a bromide salt, and it's usually one of the cheaper ones in the catalog.
Also known as. Stuff so fucking toxic it will kill you and everyone you know in the amount that could fill a thimble (or much, much less).
That's a good unit of measurement right? People still know what a thimble is right? ....right?
A teaser:
**we don't commonly encounter too many opaque red liquids with a fog of corrosive orange fumes above them in the container. Which is good.**
Apparently this guy has a series of "Things I won't work with" on his blog. Im going to have to spend some time checking it out. I have always really enjoyed chemistry and he makes it more approachable and interesting.. Even though he is talking about things that probably will kill you.
Archive: https://archive.today/0ZAMa
From the post:
>>Chemists have a familiarity with many elements and many compounds, from having worked with them or studied them in the literature. You get a feel for what's "normal" and for what's unusual, and there are quite a few degrees of the latter. Take compounds of bromine, for example. Most any working chemist will immediately recognize bromine (there are exceptions) because we don't commonly encounter too many opaque red liquids with a fog of corrosive orange fumes above them in the container. Which is good. That's bromine in oxidation state zero, elemental, and then you have bromide (oxidation state -1), one of the most common anions around. "Chlorides are rabble", said Primo Levi in one of my favorite lines from The Periodic Table, and he was right about that, but bromides are not of much higher social standing. Every cation has a bromide salt, and it's usually one of the cheaper ones in the catalog.
(post is archived)