Peculiar Petunia
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- Apr 27, 2008
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Most chemical reactions generate heat, but many need applied heat to set them off. I'm not sure I'd call something at the level of body heat "warm," but I can't remember whether the day in question was warm or not. Since many chemicals (including the infamous sodium hydroxide) are shipped in plastic, and you wouldn't want the plastic to melt in an accident and make things way, way worse, I would say the plastic would not dissolve. (unless a solvent like gasoline was involved, and that's a big maybe) The one acid I think we could rule out is sulfuric (or hydrofluoric, either) because the reaction might be too intense for plastic. Also, I don't think DP would be smart enough (IMO) to safely use hydrofluoric acid, plus, it's way hard to obtain at high strength.
A lot of labs use plasticware when appropriate nowadays, since it's hard to break and much, much cheaper.
A lot of labs use plasticware when appropriate nowadays, since it's hard to break and much, much cheaper.