this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I remember in my orgo chemistry lab we were once running an experiment to add a single nitrate group to Toluene as part of a larger synthesis, and someone pointed out that if we left the reaction going too long, things could go boom.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's that sort of nasty reaction. Nitration is exothermic and its ratio depends on temperature, so all you need to get it exploding is to let the ice melt.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

...I think we did it on a hotplate.

Maybe we were using toluene as a solvent or something. It's been quite a while.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You said that you only did the first nitration, right? You were probably using slightly less concentrated ingredients then. Doing it on a hotplate with oleum and fuming nitric (required for all three nitrations) is madness.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Yeah that probably makes more sense. I think we were just using bog standard sulfuric acid and nitric acid.