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Topic: Identifying an unknown white powder substance  (Read 1075 times)

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Offline johnk

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Identifying an unknown white powder substance
« on: April 17, 2020, 07:35:31 PM »
Hi All,

I am trying to work on identifying an unknown white substance. Guesses are its either an amino acid or pharmaceutical chem.

Here is what I know about it so far:
Odourless
Low melting point/ dissolves in warm/hot water
Floats in cold water
Did not float nor did it dissolve in alcohol
When I recrystallized, it seemed to have dissolved quickly at a lower point, and it almost immediately recrystallized within seconds.

Sorry that I don’t have exact measures at the moment.

Thanks all.

I will attach a photo of the substance in original form and its recrystallized form.
 
https://ibb.co/y8zXXFQ
https://ibb.co/7nkNFdC

Offline Borek

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Re: Identifying an unknown white powder substance
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2020, 03:35:21 AM »
Not enough data, can be anything.
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Offline johnk

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Re: Identifying an unknown white powder substance
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2020, 06:40:39 AM »
Any tips on which direction I could go next to better identify it? Thanks 

Offline Borek

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Re: Identifying an unknown white powder substance
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2020, 12:39:25 PM »
Nothing that can be done at home I am afraid.

Low melting point suggests it is an organic substance. There are tests that could help determine some possible functional groups, but they require reagents that you won't easily find. Even once you know them, the only way to make really sure what you have is to do some spectroscopy - that in turn requires expensive hardware.
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