Had no hair ties. Need to get some. Also I've started shaving apart from a little patch under my lip and re-growing my goatee again, or as some call it 'the devil beard'. Plus I have to get the mask on, tie it so its tightly fitted, then put on my goggles and finally, don the adjustable blast shield that flips down over my face covering everything down from the top of the head to upper chest level.
Will be needing those, especially for today's lab-work, saved the side-arm of the alembic that broke yesterday whilst ful of white phosphorus, and fused one end closed with a torch and pair of heated pliers, going to pack it with red phosphorus mostly, and then torch, carefully, after filling the deadspace with inert gas to prevent ignition of the phosphorus, fuse it closed at the open end and, outside, start torching the bejeebers out of it until the red turns to white, since I was unable to recover the phosphorus I'd produced yesterday, only a small amount was trapped during the distillation, much stayed in the flask, and what was left in there, a mixture of red P, soaked in white to make a begrugingly pyrophoric solid solution, as the molten willy pete soaked into the remaining quantity (did a couple of hundred grams or so) and made it unfit for use as a reagent, so I just took it into the garden and allowed it to burn, watching it as it did and flicking bits over the garden to watch the smoking trails of blazing greenish-yellow lurid coloured liquid fire, dripping blobs of willy pete along the trajectory of the flicked pieces, and spitting off bits of WP at an angle, themselves burning and cracking and sparking with that eerie white-green-yellow fire.
It was quite fun, although fucked off about the loss of my alembic, I need to buy another one now, think I'll buy two or three actually just because, and this time make SURE its borosilicate heat resistant glass. I'd really love to have some made out of fused quartz, since those could withstand REALLY intense heat, way above what the torches here can produce, even with supplemental oxygen.
So, after working a full night and day, before losing the product, which wasn't recoverable since it just burst into flames the instant it escaped from the alembic (which was filled with inert gas and purged thoroughly with the tube submerged in a long volumetric tube full of water. This time, I'll try doing it in a sealed, argon-purged tube, which I've had success with in the past. I WILL have my violet phosphorus, never mind it taking up to two days stewing in molten lead, and concentrated nitric acid to dissolve away the lead. At least I'll end up with useful lead nitrate as a byproduct and recrcle that. Need to buy some fuming nitric acid (I always buy my acids as concentrated as I can obtain, with the exception of perchloric acid, which is extremely dangerous above about 65% concentration. Well perchloric acid is just dangerous no matter what, but at least at that conc. or less, it doesn't explode. Wouldn't mind some perchloric anhydride though. But its probably the commonly available acid, bar the deadly as hell hydrofluoric acid, which I really don't want to ever work with if I can avoid it, its probably the most notorious non-niche chemical there is amongst chemists. Skin contact, despite being a relatively weak acid is potentially fatal, even for a smallish exposure to dilute HF solution because it passes through the skin really easily and chelates the calcium from your blood, bones, and precipitates i as an insoluble calcium fluoride salt, also causing massive hypocalcaemia interfering with and potentially stoppingthe heart. HF is REALLY nasty shit, and it needs handling in teflon containers, because it dissolves its way straight through glass. Perchloric, HClO4, is one of the strongest of the mineral acids, special superacid combinations aside, and a trace on skin of concentrated acid will burn potentially down to the muscle. I've had it happen once. Its safe, sort of, at up to about 65-70% but above that it becomes unstable and explosive. Also one needs, if using a fumehood rather than handling cooled right down, outside, at arms length with heavy, heavy protective gear, special dedicated fumehoods for perchloric, because of the potential to form explosive organic perchlorates in fume hood ductwork and filters. Very, very strongly acidic and a powerful oxidizing agent. Also, it needs to be avoided ever spilling it on a wooden benchtop because it can render the parts of the bench itself explosive and shock-sensitive, potentially leading to an exlosion years later. HCLO4 is one to be very, very careful with
So after the long work on the phosphorus, I was again tired enough to just flop down on the sofa. Plus it was too cold. So I wanted to be wrapped up under the quilt.
