Dr. Phil today... acid attack?

[Dudd]

What about HF? We used that in AP Chem last year, and just the fumes ate away at the glass. Not sure of the molarity vs the HCl we used, but it definately seemed nastier.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Dudd
What about HF? We used that in AP Chem last year, and just the fumes ate away at the glass. Not sure of the molarity vs the HCl we used, but it definately seemed nastier.

Yeah my first thought was Hyrdofloric acid. We had a spill of that stuff at work, guess it was a pretty bad mess to clean up. Glad I'm not spill response 🙂. Most people guess HCL/NaOH just because they've heard of them before, however, they're not all that strong in easily obtainable forms. I'm not sure if just anyone can order super-strength acids either.

 

[mithrandir2001]

I used to work in a water testing lab during college and I used to work with HCl and NaOH solutions for several testing procedures. With sodium hydroxide in particular I remember finding it nearly impossible to remove with water...it gets slippery on your skin. You get a few drops on your skin and it can really burn. You don't necessarily feel it immediately on contact, the pain just suddenly hits you.

Oh the days of working in a lab. I remember the day I knocked over a container of sodium cyanide. That was fun. I also recall seeing a bottle of ammonium nitrate fairly close to the bench that tested for HCs in contaminated soils. I always wondered if you would get an chemical reaction if you sprinkled some ammonium nitrate on top of soil that smelled like gasoline. BANG!