Saving time in a bottle
An accidental experiment
Place 100 ml of USP 70% isopropyl alcohol made with deionized water into an amber reagent glass bottle. Cap bottle.
Let 100 ml of nitric acid approximately 47%w/v made with deionized water sit over night.
Remove cap and pour nitric into bottle. Observe that no evidence of a reaction takes place. Use protective gear in a well ventilated lab. Note that a strong reaction will follow. Cap bottle and withdraw to a safe distance. Preferably behind a door with a fire and protective rating. Note a person was briefly overcome by fumes and fire the first time the experiment took place and was taken away by paramedics.
The ceramic cap will break and a flame and vapor cloud will erupt but bottle should not be harmed. Anything directly above will have paint etc removed in a round pattern.
It is believed that little acid/base reaction takes place since deionized water was used. Note preparation of the nitric acid involves a turbulent exothermic process in which deuterium replaces hydrogen and must be allowed to continue to completion over night. A similar process is presumed to happen in the preparation of the alcohol though it may not be as exothermic.
It is also believed that hydrogen peroxide is formed and reacts with some form of available carbon. It is my belief that a catalytic form between nitric and alcohol fuses deuterium forming an intermediate and destroying alcohol making carbon available to the peroxide causing a side reaction in addition to other reactions.
The take home lesson is that what was at first a safety factor became a serious liability. The entire stoichiometry of the solutions and reactants changed leading to a false sense of security. Few people know that the ph of a solution is altered by deuterium. The place where this accidental experiment happened sold millions of dollars of drugs and drug chemicals and consumed thousands of liters of deuterium laced water.
This accident shows that deuterium can have unintended consequences and cause stoichiometric alterations with dramatic effect.
12/20/2020 wsa.
