After spending the better part of last weekend preparing a fresh batch of formic acid Ab2 took a density reading which indicated that it was only about 30-40% formic acid. No problem, Ab2 thinks, she has this whole bucket of 3A seives she has been saving for just such an eventuallty.
This is where Ab2 kicks herself. Rather than testing a small amount she takes several kgs of seives and dumps them into the flask of aqueous formic. The first clue that things were going awry was how hot the flask became, too hot to hold without gloves. FuCK fuck fuck! Oh well too late now she thinks, hoping the heat is somehow being caused by the sudden dehydration. Half an hour later she goes to have a look and the entire flask has crystallized into a solid mass! Still hot.
It was almost impossible to empty the flask. I felt like throwing the flask against the wall. And I think the seives are now useless.
So Ab2 isn't sure exactly what happened, but assumes the formic acid reacted with whatever the sieves are made of to yield some form of formate salt. Ab2 had been under the impression that the sieves were supposed to be inert, lol, NOT!
sigh . . . .
This is where Ab2 kicks herself. Rather than testing a small amount she takes several kgs of seives and dumps them into the flask of aqueous formic. The first clue that things were going awry was how hot the flask became, too hot to hold without gloves. FuCK fuck fuck! Oh well too late now she thinks, hoping the heat is somehow being caused by the sudden dehydration. Half an hour later she goes to have a look and the entire flask has crystallized into a solid mass! Still hot.
It was almost impossible to empty the flask. I felt like throwing the flask against the wall. And I think the seives are now useless.
So Ab2 isn't sure exactly what happened, but assumes the formic acid reacted with whatever the sieves are made of to yield some form of formate salt. Ab2 had been under the impression that the sieves were supposed to be inert, lol, NOT!
sigh . . . .
