Sulfuric Acid

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Sulfuric Acid (N50).  I have a buttload of it. I work in the oilfield and use it in chemical testing of drilling fluids, alkalinity comtents of drilling fluids. No paperwork, no jumping through hoops to get it.

[280plus]

2) It's absolutely amazing and a testament to the resilience of the human body that it can survive the ingestion of such a product.

Yes it can, but not for all that long. it's the kind of stuff that leaves you with two choices. Smarten up and quit,,, or die.

[209]

Yep, of course, sulfuric can be used to make nitric, too.

I'm still just stunned by this mentality of "ban/control all chems used to possibly make drugs".

I remember sitting though a class given by a DEA agent on meth production telling us that possession of large qualities of iodine (either crystals or tincture) were a tell-tale indicator of meth-making.  I said I had a few gallons of tincture and probably several bottles of crystals at home.  He eyed me sort of suspiciously.  So I had to admit I have a small horse farm. 

There is a law requiring data collection on anyone buying over 0.4 kilograms of the crystals.  They don't require an instant background though.   

I could see them pass some law for acid too, though I think the drug makers commonly use drain cleaner for their acid source.

[Physics]

I like perchloric acid myself.   Shake, shake, BOOOM! 

It's funny that my boss made me the lab chemical safety officer.  All my colleagues were a bit worried when they came in one day and I was going over MSDS's.  "Hey, did you know that can make HCl explosive?!?" 

"Oh hey, wow, I didn't know (insert name of chemical stocked in the lab) was explosive in the presence of (insert name of other chemical stored right next to other chemical)!" 

"Hey Mike!!!  Put on your damn safety goggles!  And get me the silver perchlorate, carbon tetrachloride and the HCl, I've got a little something I'd like to try out back!"   

MSDS's are fun.

[PTK]

 

[Viking]

It is really funny that you said that.  I was telling a coworker about this at work, who said, "Well why would nitric acid be worse then sulfuric?"

Der, most every explosive out there is based on nitric acid. RDX, PETN, Nitroglycerin, etc.  Apparently most people are unaware of this.

What are they teaching kids in school these days. 

Not enough fun stuff. I was allowed to make blackpowder, and the teacher didn't object to me trying to mix up nitrocellolouse either. I do wonder what became of that. It turned out to be the last lesson, and I shoved on top of a cupboard for it to dry. I wonder if it's still there after all these (9 or 10) years?

[kgbsquirrel]

We had a chem teacher we called Mister "Boom-Boom" Bloom at my high school. If I recall one of his favorite pass times was a few drops of gasoline and ether in a 2 liter with a spark plug. He was also responsible for setting the east lawn on fire more than once. Despite these eccentricities he was a bloody genius with an English sense of humor. Fun times were had by all (except for the more nervous and timid students, heh  ).

[HankB]

I could see them pass some law for acid too, though I think the drug makers commonly use drain cleaner for their acid source.

I thought drain cleaners were alkali? Doesn't Drano contain sodium hydroxide?

In my (much) younger days we had all sorts of chemicals . . . potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate, potassium cyanide, uranium nitrate, iodine crystals . . . and never did anything nefarious.

But it did serve to keep chemistry class interesting.

[Stand_watie]

I thought drain cleaners were alkali? Doesn't Drano contain sodium hydroxide?

In my (much) younger days we had all sorts of chemicals . . . potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate, potassium cyanide, uranium nitrate, iodine crystals . . . and never did anything nefarious.

But it did serve to keep chemistry class interesting.

Yes. We use a lot of sodium hydroxide at work (produced by other divisions of our company). Interestingly enough our wastewater tends to be too high ph to release to the sewer...solution? Add small amounts of HCl until the Ph is right.

[zahc]

I used to buy gallons of sulfuric acid at a time to do anodizing of aluminum parts.

Now I play with HF all the time at work.

[AJ Dual]

Johnny was a chemist's son, but alas, Johnny is no more.

What he thought was a glass of H2O, was eighteen molar H2SO4.

[209]

I thought drain cleaners were alkali? Doesn't Drano contain sodium hydroxide?

I think there are three or more methods used to make meth.  But the class was about 4-6 years ago and since meth isn't a major issue 'round my parts, I didn't exactly retain a lot of the info imparted to me.  For some reason, I recollect drain cleaners were something used in at least one method.

What I really remember was listening to all of the toxic materials used in the various processes and wondering why anyone would consider using the stuff to begin with. Can't be good for a person. 

[Monkeyleg]

When I had my photo studio, in the building next door was a chemical company. They did pretty much all chemicals, and every so often they'd have a spill.

Once they had a spill of hydrochloric acid. I don't know what the strength was, but you could smell it for blocks. It ran down their driveway and into the street.

The hazmat crew showed up and closed off the street. Somewhere I have a photo of the hazmat crew effortlessly sinking a shovel into a concrete sidewalk slab. Pretty nasty stuff.

[Nick1911]

So I've phoned around a bit...  No luck.

The real chemical supply houses don't see interested in selling to the general public.  Places like hardware stores don't stock such a product (Although I seem to recall the hardware store in my parents home town carried it?)

[RocketMan]

An arsenic trioxide release, RocketMan bare-assed in the parking lot, about to go through the FD's portable hazmat shower.  Film crews from the local news station busily videoing everything.  What a fun evening that was.

[HankB]

. . . What I really remember was listening to all of the toxic materials used in the various processes and wondering why anyone would consider using the stuff to begin with. Can't be good for a person. 

I'm picky about where I shop for groceries and what restaurants I eat in . . . and I tend to avoid the jerky samples at gun shows, too.

I just can't see the attraction in snorting/swallowing/injecting something a grubby wacko cooked up in his garage or basement using toxic substances that would make a chemist blanche while following a recipe scribbled in crayon on the back of a shopping bag that he got from another stoned druggie. 

[Cromlech]

A little nitric acid, a little glycerine, and some foolish kitchen chemistry....kaboom!

I did something like that when I was maybe 14. Put it in a plastic bottle, and hit it with a stick.   
Nothing happened of course, because the acid was super-weak stuff that I had 'borrowed' from school.

I shudder to think how stupid that was and how lucky I was to not have actually succeeded, when I got around to reading up on exactly how sensitive Nitroglycerin was.

[RevDisk]

Why does the mere though of RevDisk with nitric acid scare the bejeebers outta me?

Apparently I should not mention that I've moved around 55 gallon drums of nitric acid?

[AJ Dual]

Apparently I should not mention that I've moved around 55 gallon drums of nitric acid?

I've got a bunch of Hexamine fuel tabs for a British SAS field stove. Who's going to bring the Lecithin and the Mineral Oil?

[Cromlech]

I remember reading a 'recipe' from TBBOB that mentioned those. I had a whole bunch of those Hexi Blocks myself at one point, but they never got replaced when used, after buying myself a lovely little gas camping stove.

[Harold Tuttle]

joy of innerwebs:
http://www.bombshock.com/forum/drugs/6988-how-make-crank-meth-aka-shake-n-bake.html

[280plus]

Heck, I worked at an anodizing plant for a while and we had like 3000 gal tanks each of 100% Sulfuric, Nitric and sodium hydroxide. I discovered the hard way one day that a 5 gal bucket of undiluted sulfuric ways a LOT more than a 5 gal bucket of water. I also took a nice maybe 30% sulfuric acid bath one day. Got it in my mouth but somehow avoided getting it in my eyes. Yup, naked under the emergency shower I went. My favorite thing to do was toss a penny into the diluted nitric tank cause it fizzled like an alka seltzer and made pretty orange smoke.  

We had skids of 100 lb bags of baking soda for neutralization purposes and we had a huge holding tank with a big mixer for waste water that was monitored electronically and automatically fed acid or base to maintain a 7 ph. Took a bath in that *expletive deleted*it too.

The outside contractor techie who was working on the tank somehow managed to break the bottom drain valve off. I think the bolts on the flange had rotted through. There the guy was trying desperately to blank off the flange by himself while an enormous "Uh oh squad" stood there and watched. Well, I had Navy damage control school under my belt and it appeared I was the only one besides the tech who had a clue of how to blank off a gushing flange so I dove in with him and we had it done in like 60 seconds. I was hero of the plant for about 5 minutes.

First and only time I ever got to use that training for real.  

[Sawdust]

I edited a video of farmers making cocoa base in columbia

they set up a block holding pen with a concrete slab
fill it with cocoa, then masticate it together with bleach & water using gas weed wackers

then they pour on kerosine and drain

then they extract the alkaloids using hydrochloric or sulfuric acid solutions
finally they use sodium carbonate to precipitate the base out of the solution


they don't seem to file an environmental impact report for all the crap they drain off to the jungle

Holy crap!

*That's* how chocolate is made?!?!?!?!?!

Sawdust 

[280plus]

Takes the Quik right out of your Nestle's doesn't it? 

[Harold Tuttle]

oops

Coca (Erythroxylum coca) is a plant in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to north-western South America. The plant plays a significant role in traditional Andean culture. Coca leaves contain many alkaloids including cocaine, which is a powerful stimulant.

I also made a sweet video of the indigenous indians of the Sierra Madre and the gourds of mashed coca leaves that they used.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature3/index.html