knowledgehungry
December 22nd, 2002, 04:34 PM
Well I had the "brilliant" Idea to follow Nbks idea of decanting the mixture of HNO3 and DCM then allowing the DCM to evaporate. Except I had no DCM, so being the dumbass that I am i decided to use acetone, i mean sulfates are insoluble in acetone and it evaporates fast. BAD idea, at first i used very small amounts and the whole thing went off with out a hitch. Then i decided to try about 150 mls of the stuff. At first the acetone wasn't mixing it was separated by a layer of sulfate so i decanted the acetone and added some more. I stiirred the mixture to try to let the sulfate settle. As i let the mixture sit the liquid started to bubble, i figured that it was only Acetone boiling since the mixture was relatively warm. It started to bubble faster and faster and i got runaway nitration of acetone i think. Lots of NO2 and foam, I quicly dumped my mixture down my sink with lots of water :rolleyes: . So my questions are... Can you nitrate acetone And Why did the first one work and the second one not.