February 5, 2004

Ka-Booom!

Derek Lowe (website here) is a pharmaceutical chemist and from time to time, recounts stories of 'interesting' reactions he has experienced in the lab. Today's is a good one: bq. ...But I'm not surprised that it was an organoaluminum compound that took off on him, because I've had several of them do the same thing to me (without injury, fortunately.) bq. And the most nerve-wracking part of them was the time delay. Most reactive compounds are very forthright about their reactivity. They burst into flame on exposure to air (like tertiary-butyllithium, or for the hard-core pyromaniacs, the dialkyl zincs.) Or they give off great clouds of choking fumes (I can recommend neat titanium tetrachloride for those who want to experience this special effect - the one molar solution in dichloromethane is for dilettantes,) or hiss and splatter violently if they encounter water (chlorosulfonic acid is a winner in that category.) At any rate, you know very quickly, if you didn't already, what kind of substance you're dealing with. Drink alert - if you have anything in your mouth, swallow before reading the rest or you will be spending a few minutes wiping off your monitor and keyboard... Posted by DaveH at February 5, 2004 9:53 AM