September Q&A submissions

do you synthesize Acetaminophen for your family when they are sick?

Can you make sodium hydroxide by simply reacting sodium metal with water?

Zack Miletich

Thoughts and opinions on the topic of nuclear energy, specially LFTR Thorium reactors (is it the future?)

Can you please explain how to determine the concentration of an ammonia solution from the percentage of NH3 or mass of the solution? I can't wrap my head around it because it is a gas in solution and gets lighter as the ammonia concentration increases. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Cullen Purkis

At the end of your "make purified chloroplatinic acid" video, you said it was a precursor to useful compounds you would make in an other video, while showing large red crystals in a vial. Will that video ever come out? And what compound were those red crystals made of?

Gabriel J.

Acetone, methanol, dichloromethane and trichloromethane, gasoline and other light hydrocarbons (up to decane) and fluoroalkanes (like fluorinert or most freons) are all less viscous than water.

Gabriel J.

I have to do a something like a very simplified thesis for my high school in my country. I wanted to do something with chemistry, so my question to you is: do you have any suggestions for a subject. To help you out, I like things like particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, higgs boson etc.) and also nuclear chemistry. So maybe something like the LHC, I know it sounds like something that crosses over to physics as well, so maybe a bit of both chemistry and physics. Of course it doesn't have to be very complicated, so maybe you have some tips on some simpler stuff. Thanks in advance!

There was no clear solutions using what I leant in the 2-years course. I added the heating process as my desperate guess. I highly doubted if my method would work because the z-metal compound had higher affinity to calcium ions. I still do not know the solution after 9 years.

Keith

I was asked a question in my secondary 5 public chemistry exam about a metal ion cage (name starting with z, probably zoelite). The question stated that the sodium z-metal compound was used to exchange the calcium ions in water because the compound had higher affinity to calcium ions than sodium ions. It asked how to regenerate the used z-metal ion cage. My guess was to add sodium hydroxide, heat it to release the calcium ion and filter the calcium hydroxide precipitate . What is the correct solution?

Keith

Water is always used as a reference viscosity for things that aren't very viscous (i.e. when cooking) I was wondering are you aware of any conventional (non-superfluid) liquids that are appreciably less viscous than water?

What dictates the amount of energy stored in a conventional chemical explosive, and is there a theoretical maximum on that? How close are compounds like C4 or TNT to that limit?

jason black

Do you know of any way to deactivate antibiotic molecules like say penicillin? I'm wanting to know because I have my senior thesis for my bachelors degree in chemistry, and I need to devise a way to deactivate antibiotics in cattle feed. Thank you and keep the videos coming.

What is the chemical process by which Portland cement gets stronger when exposed to water? Why does it get stronger?

Mark Rose

Can you talk about catalytic polymerization of 2-part silicone compounds and how they end up so ridiculously tough once cured? I don't understand anything of the process.

Bryan Boettcher