The Question : 24 people think this question is useful Recently, while cleaning a neighbour’s fridge (turned off for a few weeks), I came across a cup (closed with a lid). Inside the cup was, to my olfactory horror, congealed milk, with a steel (iron) teaspoon nicely wedged into it. The milk had separated into
The Question : 27 people think this question is useful Although the wikipedia page on Hydronium indicates a $\mathrm{p}K_\text{a}$ of −1.74, I noticed in the discussion of this page that the subject seems debated (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hydronium#pKa.3F) since alternative (apparently more rigorous) reasoning leads to $\mathrm{p}K_\text{a} = 0$ for $\ce{H3O+}$. Also, many demonstrations lead to $\mathrm{p}K_\text{a}$
The Question : 26 people think this question is useful In studying about amines, I read that lemon juice is also used to wash fish because it reacts with the amines on and in the fish to convert the amines to its salt, just reducing the “fishy smell”. I was thinking that it must be
The Question : 26 people think this question is useful I know that fluorine is more electronegative than bromine. However, because of the size of bromine, it is more stable with a negative charge. In the case of $\ce{HF}$ vs. $\ce{HBr}$, to me, $\ce{HBr}$ is without a doubt the stronger acid. When it comes to
The Question : 29 people think this question is useful Obviously it depends on the context whether you would call a particular species a nucleophile or a base but are the two terms largely synonymous or is there a difference? The Question Comments : Basicity is simply a special kind of nucleophilicity, namely towards protons.
The Question : 28 people think this question is useful What are the general ways to treat an accident involving highly concentrated or similarly dangerous acids? I have a lab instructor who recently debated with our group about treating an acid spill on the skin. According to him, one should immediately rinse off the acid
The Question : 29 people think this question is useful I bought different kinds of acid for experiments and home usage that I stored in secured containers into an IKEA cabinet. I just realized that despite the fact that all the containers are properly closed, the metal parts of the cabinets are completely rotten. I
The Question : 29 people think this question is useful According to Wikipedia, $\ce{HeH+}$ and fluoroantimonic acid are the strongest. According to Nature, Carborane acid is the strongest, but Wikipedia says fluoroantimonic acid is stronger. Links: $\ce{HeH+}$ / Wikipedia – stating HeH+ the second most acidic $\ce{HeH+}$ / Wikipedia 2nd source – stating $\ce{HeH+}$ the
The Question : 32 people think this question is useful Methanol is slightly more acidic than water. Their $\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a}$ values, in water, are $15.5$ and $15.7$, respectively. All other aliphatic alcohols, however, are less acidic than water. Is the following reasoning correct? This is my best rationalization; is there anything better or anything that can
The Question : 32 people think this question is useful Phenol has a $\mathrm pK_\mathrm a$ approximately equal to $9.9$. When one studies the acidity of chlorophenols, one notices the following: First of all, chlorophenols are more acidic than phenol, due the negative inductive effect (−I) of chlorine, that reduces the negative charge, located on
The Question : 33 people think this question is useful I’m a writer. I have a scenario in which a sizable amount of gold needs to be rendered unusable, preferably completely destroyed. I know an acid like aqua regia is able to dissolve gold, but would there be a way to make it impossible (or
The Question : 35 people think this question is useful From Wikipedia’s article on pyrimidine: Because of the decreased basicity compared to pyridine, electrophilic substitution of pyrimidine is less facile. But why is pyrimidine less basic than pyridine? Pyrimidine has two $\mathrm{sp^2}$-hybridised lone pairs available for protonation, compared with pyridine’s one. The Question Comments :
