Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: niertap on April 21, 2006, 11:05:35 PM
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Ive been searching the net to find out the real chemical reaction. Thinking it made only chlorine gas, i mixed a little in a gatorade bottle and tried to "take care of" some ants on my out side porch. i was wrong. in sudden wonderment i decided to throw a match in the bottle of thick white fumes. it exploded. the bottle didnt break, and was only coated in a layer of white powder. The noise was tremendous. just as loud as an m-80. it left my ears ringing for about a day. just wondering what happened. and as a general rule, it's safe to say dont light unknow substances and find out whats going to happen before you do something. i know it was stupid and dangerous, no need to coment on that part, just the chemical reaction.
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White fumes might be ammonium chloride.
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Mixing aqueous ammonia and sodium hypochlorite results in the production of chloramine gas. In addition, the presence of ammonia and free elemental chlorine can result in the formation of nitrogen trichloride which is an insidiously nasty explosive. Therefore, it's no wonder that the bottle exploded.
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Chlorine tablets are not sodium hypochlorite. Probably you mixed trichloroisocyanurate with ammonia. These tablets also could be sodium dichloroisocyanurate or calcium hypochlorite. Could you please check out which product you used (brand name, or even better, chemical compound)? With that info, I can give more info on the observed phenomena and maybe I can reproduce this on a smaller scale ;).
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Gatorade? :o
I take it your not in the UK, never heard of the stuff, but sounds interesting ;D
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Gatorade? :o
I take it your not in the UK, never heard of the stuff, but sounds interesting ;D
its a sports drink like coca cola, he probably meant a soda bottle in general :P
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i checked the package i had a red circle around HTH pace(R) the chem name was
trichloro-s-triazinetrione 90% free chlorine. i might try it again and fill a ballon with the gas and light it, so if it's that or ammonium trichloride.I did the exploding of it in vessles with really large openings, mabye 1/4 compression of a soda bottle.
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I can just picture the look on all the little kids' faces when you blow up that balloon...
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covered in burining latex, while cl gas rolls across the ground? i kid.
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i checked the package i had a red circle around HTH pace(R) the chem name was
trichloro-s-triazinetrione 90% free chlorine. i might try it again and fill a ballon with the gas and light it, so if it's that or ammonium trichloride.I did the exploding of it in vessles with really large openings, mabye 1/4 compression of a soda bottle.
That is trichloroisocyanuric acid. Its formula is C3N3O3Cl3. Its structure is
*C(=O)-N(-Cl)-C(=O)-N(-Cl)-C(=O)-N(-Cl)*
It is a cyclic compound, at the *'s the chain is closed, but I cannot draw that over here.
Each 100 gram of this compound gives over 90 grams of elemental chlorine gas, when added to excess hydrochloric acid. That is why this is called "90% active chlorine".
With ammonia this gives chloramines or even NCl3. Very dangerous indeed. The bottle says that this never should be mixed with other chemicals. Know what you are doing, before you blow up things.
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Wilco - install free ACD/ChemSketch.
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oh yay, now i know what im doing while i blow things up. no, that is some dangerous stuff, didnt the inventer and pretty much anyone that fools around with it end up blind, mamed or dead. when it deflagerates or detonates what is the creaction, im guessing ammonium chloride and chlorine, or most likely hcl, hydrogen, and nitrogen. mabye...probably not.
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For something to detonate, it has to create a larger number of gas molecules than it starts out with, and those molecules have to have a great deal of energy. Energy is released upon the formation of bonds, so typically if you form a lot of strong bonds (such as double and triple bonds) you will release a great deal of energy.
When NCl3 decomposes, you wind up forming nitrogen gas (which has a triple bond) and chlorine gas. You begin with 2 molecules of a liquid (NCl3) and get a total of four molecules of gas. (3 molecules of chlorine gas and one of nitrogen gas).
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For something to detonate, it has to create a larger number of gas molecules than it starts out with
We've been through that already... http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=5190.msg23091#msg23091