Still, I’d think calcium carbonate … something like Tums. But you know, it just occurred to me that you might have some dishwasher powder in the kitchen, and that would add a little silicate to the mix. Something to take up the fluoride and something to neutralize the acid. But like you say, add it slowly if you have a big mess to absorb.
Around the lab in college, we learned to dilute the H2SO4 with ice. You add the vitriol to the ice, not the other way around, to avoid splashes.
[edit]
Ha, now that I’ve read the document you offered, it does say:
Apply an HF neutralizing substance such as slaked lime for larger quantities or high concentrations or HF Acid Eater liquid for smaller quantities
And it mentions that you should avoid vermiculite. That makes me want to watch Sir Martyn Poliakoff toss a handful of vermiculite into that vat. It should be better entertainment than the lightbulb.
Remind me to never go within a block of your basement.
Logical idea, with a wart - the insoluble calcium fluoride will deposit on the surface of the carbonate grains and retard the reaction.
…but as they suggest it in the document, it may even quite work.
And produce a somewhat toxic gas, silicon tetrafluoride. The reason why the document discouraged use of vermiculite and other clay-based sorbents. Sand also won’t be a good idea.
We just cooled the flask under running water, after adding some acid and before adding more. Maybe because we didn’t have a ready source of distilled-water ice. But any way to dump the heat will do.
Roof usually counts as hyperspace-enough. There theoretically should be sorption patrons in the pipes but that’s often skirted due to maintenance lapses and/or costs.
One local university had a mishap with a runaway in ethyl formate synthesis. The whole area smelled like a pirate ship!
But it could be worse. A friend once evacuated a part of some institute with a foamed-out synthesis of bromoacetone, aka chemical warfare agent White Cross, more specifically bromoacetone, a fairly potent and deceptively simple to make lachrymatory agent. I myself managed to make a test-tube worth of it by accident when I did not consider the solvent to be part of the reaction. I cried over the reaction yield. Good times…
Well I can’t really top that, but the thread reminded me of the few occasions when I stunk up the campus some forty years ago. Sulfur compounds are always a lot of fun (as you are obviously aware, Mr stink-bomb And I discovered that armpit smell is made of short carboxylic acids of 4-6 carbons. Yup no doubt about it.
Back when I was fresh out of the Mandatory Education Chamber, I worked for a food flavourings company. Old-school science there. Pipetting by mouth and everything. I’ve got some horror stories from that place.
One of the sulfide? (but ICBW) groups used at the ppm level and in berry flavouring had to be kept triple-sealed. And opened and dispensed at the far-end of the car-park, when the wind was in the right direction. Not hazardous, but really really fetid.
I wonder why they did not have it in a dilute solution. That would reduce the vapor tension. Storage and handling in cold state could go even further.
Check the wheel in detail. Many of the ppm and sub-ppm stuffs are spawns of the god of stenches, just by their names, so I am entirely unsurprised by the fragrance-richness being released when a bottle of a pure one gets opened.
On a side note, flavor (and fragrance) chemistry is fascinating!
(…did I ever see a boring field of chemistry?)
And I discovered that armpit smell is made of short carboxylic acids of 4-6 carbons. Yup no doubt about it.
