So I was attempting to make nitrocellulose with approximately 30mL of sulfuric acid. It was being heated under a hood, when the container ruptured. I opened doors and windows and cleaned up the mess, but I wanted to know if this was sufficient, or if I am at any major health risk. I felt slight throat irritation, but nothing more than the throat irritation I have felt when using HCl in the lab at school, possibly less. Even that has subsided now. Am I good?

In case you are going to tell me how stupid what I did was: I know. I learned my lesson.

Um, I hope you were using a nitrate salt, or nitric acid as well, because nitro groups don't magically appear, in which case you also inhaled nitric acid vapor as well as a shit ton of NOx gasses.

Were there orange vapors? I mean, you will be fine either way, as long as you are alive right now lol, but were there orange vapors?

Why were you heating a nitrating bath? I'm assuming you tried to use a nitrate salt with a low solubility and the bitch wouldn't dissolve?

Either way, that amount, if you leave the room to fumigate for a while should be fine.

Call your local Health & Accident place, (dunno what its called in the US) and tell them what you inhaled, they always gave me some great advice! (Use skype and do not tell them how on earth you inhaled NOX fumes and what not ;) )

There will be no long term damage. A slight sore throat, fucked up sense of taste and smell for a bit maybe, maybe permanent partial loss of either sense depending on the amount inhaled, but really, I doubt even that.


I've inhaled hot NOx fumes several times in my life, and am just fine, though I do have an excellent voice for growling and screaming some heavy metal ala George Fischer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBhg51kROQ8&feature=related

lol

Well I was going to put in potassium nitrate, but I didn't even get that far before the damn thing broke. There were no orange vapors. There were no visible vapors at all until the thing broke, and then some white/grey-ish smoke came off.

Why in god's name were you heating it? You are supposed to use an ice bath and keep the temp under something like 50 degrees celsius.

Why in god's name were you heating it? You are supposed to use an ice bath and keep the temp under something like 50 degrees celsius.

The guide I read said to heat to 60-80 degrees C, then begin adding KNO3 slowly, THEN cool.

The guide I read said to heat to 60-80 degrees C, then begin adding KNO3 slowly, THEN cool.
The guide you read was dead wrong. Where did you find it? Please post it. For nitrations you need to prechill your acid, and SLOWLY add the xnitrate salt while monitoring the temp and keeping it below 50 C.


Whoever wrote what you read wrote it for the specific reason of causing a nitration runaway. Please post this write up so I can hunt down its author and teach him a little more about nitric acid.

The guide you read was dead wrong. Where did you find it? Please post it. For nitrations you need to prechill your acid, and SLOWLY add the xnitrate salt while monitoring the temp and keeping it below 50 C.


Whoever wrote what you read wrote it for the specific reason of causing a nitration runaway. Please post this write up so I can hunt down its author and teach him a little more about nitric acid.

Alright, I'm about to go hunt through the BB forum to find it.

Edit: Found it: http://web.archive.org/web/20050515021944/www.freepgs.com/pyroteknix/NC.htm

It is posted in this thread, which I'm guessing a lot of people who are looking for info (like me) will find: http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=1988335

Alright, I'm about to go hunt through the BB forum to find it.

Edit: Found it: http://web.archive.org/web/20050515021944/www.freepgs.com/pyroteknix/NC.htm

It is posted in this thread, which I'm guessing a lot of people who are looking for info (like me) will find: http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=1988335That's fucked up. Thank you for pointing that out, I don't have the time right now, but I will contact the site owner with the error, and will also post a note in that thread asking the OP to take that link out, or at least put a disclaimer.

Pretty sure you might of inhaled some NOX fumes, which condese back into nitric acid once in your lungs, right?

Erm, I was under the impression that I inhaled Sulfur Trioxide, which condenses to sulfuric acid inside my body once it comes into contact with the water in my system. However, since I did have a fume hood going and I was dealing with only 30ml or so of the acid, I'm guessing it wasn't that big of a deal.

Did you heat an exothermic rxn? wtf, you just would have gotten fucked over by le chatliers.

Care to explain further? We haven't learned le chatliers principle yet.

Care to explain further? We haven't learned le chatliers principle yet.

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/equilibria/lechatelier.html


essentially, Le Chatelier said that a system in equilbrium will alter it's dynamics to incroporate a change in conditions. A simple example would be if you had the reversible reaction:

A + B <----------> C+D


If everything was in solution, the equilibrium point could be where the concentration of [A] + [B] = [C] + [D].

If this were the case, then you could potentially use some sort of engineering control (Dean-Stark trap anyone ?!) to remove C + D from the vessel. This would upset the balance, and the system would attempt to right itself by pushin the reaction over to the right hand side, thus forming more C + D.

Care to explain further? We haven't learned le chatliers principle yet.

Dont take it badly but your really should learn simple chemistry principle and read as much as possible on experiments you do before even thinking about trying it!

sidenote: Dean-Stark trap are fucking expensive and hard to find for a good price :( but i love it!

Hehe, I knew the concept, but not the name. Damn my lack of formal schooling.

For you, this is a lesson learnt. Thankfully, it seems no real injury or long-lasting effects have resulted - Lucky indeed, but imagine others who try this 'Write-up', will they be as lucky?

*You should post your results and flag the write-up as bullshit and challenge the writer to explain himself.

The lesson here is something that MUST BE FOLLOWED each time one does research on the net - DOUBLE Check, Triple check and check again. NEVER rely on a single source, get multiple write-ups and compare them, in doing so one will begin to see what is correct and what is not.

Sometimes it can be a simple error in the write-up, a spelling mistake, a moments lapse of concentration, a newbee going beyond his abilities and on the rare occasion, a malicious write-up intended to cause harm or otherwise. Such write-ups are not limited to chemistry alone, ALL subjects be it PC repairs, Pyro, carpentry or whatever, they all suffer from the same erroneous or malicious write-ups.

Always re-confirm the write-up by researching the subject to it's fullest, it will pay-off in the end in that you will learn a lot more, begin to see what sources are generally reliable and which are not and reduce risk to a minimum.

Eyes and cocks are generally not replaceable and are best treated with the respect due - Safety and safety products, a cheap and essential investment.

I've inhaled hot NOx fumes several times in my life, and am just fine,
If thats what you call it.......hehehe



OP, Why'd you heat sulfuric acid for making nc? If you were doing it right(h2so4/hno3/cellulose) then there wouldve been enough heat from the reaction for whatever you were doing. But basically rule no:1 in life is "Google will get you killed, mutilated, serverely injured, dead or other"

OP, Why'd you heat sulfuric acid for making nc? If you were doing it right(h2so4/hno3/cellulose) then there wouldve been enough heat from the reaction for whatever you were doing. But basically rule no:1 in life is "Google will get you killed, mutilated, serverely injured, dead or other"

Why did I heat it? Did you read the thread? It's what the guide said, so I assumed it wasn't bullshit. If you had read you would know I didn't find it on google.

The lesson here is something that MUST BE FOLLOWED each time one does research on the net - DOUBLE Check, Triple check and check again. NEVER rely on a single source, get multiple write-ups and compare them, in doing so one will begin to see what is correct and what is not.

To be honest though, I did double check sources. The thing about pyro I usually find, and especially in this case, is that all of the guides gave different methods on making it, with different ingredients. One had it starting with nitric acid, for instance. I assumed that this one was reputable since it was posted on the first page of a stickied thread in totse and because to my eyes it seemed non-ghetto, but alas, I was wrong.

Why did I heat it? Did you read the thread? It's what the guide said, so I assumed it wasn't bullshit.

You have to love natural selection, at its finest.

You have to love natural selection, at its finest.

Are you calling me stupid because I thought the guide was legitimate?

Are you calling me stupid because I thought the guide was legitimate?

Yes i am :( Seriously, NEVER assume that something is right! Just because its in a official looking paper doesn't means it works or wont kill you! Look at the reaction, find other papers like it, look what they say, do some research on the reaction itself. Attempting a reaction without knowing the correct parameters could get you killed! Research, Research, Research and Research then do!

When I first started in this kind of thing, I saw someone say this regarding the subject, or rather, something close to it, it's been fucking YEARS. I also have no clue who said it.



Research. Research more. Research until you know fucking EVERYTHING from front to back, and then once you do that, realize you don't actually fucking KNOW anything, and start ALL over.


Then maybe you will succeed. Maybe.