TEST TUBE VANISHES IN LAB
EXPLOSION
by Der Voron. [September 18, 2004]
 [WeeklyUniverse.com]
An unexplainable occurrence happened to me in my youth, about 1990.
I was very curious and one of my passions
was chemistry. I electrolyzed a water solution of sodium chloride
(plain salt), and I received some amount of chlorine.
I felt it was not on my level, so
I decided to move further to conduct an experiment with fluorine, by electrolyzing
a water solution of sodium fluoride in a glass capacity. I knew I
would not get fluorine that way because of its chemical properties, but
I wanted to see how it reacts with water. I indeed could see that.
Suddenly, the
capacity exploded right before my eyes -- but I was not somehow injured
by the glass fragments!
After that I tried
to find the glass fragments in the room where I'd conducted the experiment
-- but was unable to find any!
There is nothing
wondrous in that the capacity exploded. During the electrolysis,
hydrogen extracting from the cathode was accumulating in the water and
partially in the air, and active oxidants such as ozone and oxygen fluorides
that were extracting from the anode were accumulating in the water and
in the air:
2NaF (sodium fluoride) = (electrolysis)
2Na + F2
2Na + 2H2O = 2NaOH + H2 (hydrogen)
F2 + H2O -> HF + OF2 (oxygen fluoride) + O2F2
(another kind of oxygen fluoride) + O3 (ozone) + O (atomic oxygen) [different
reaction products]
The explosion
was evidently caused by reaction between hydrogen (a part of which was
partially solved in the water and another part leaving it from water surface)
and ozone, oxygen fluorides, and atomic oxygen also partially solved in
the water and leaving it from the surface. That is, the oxidants
that were solved in the water reacted with the hydrogen solved in the water,
and oxidants that left the water from the surface reacted with hydrogen
which was also leaving the water from the surface.
Nothing wondrous.
The wondrous is that there was no injury, and no fragments of the capacity
found after that!
I swear by God
that this is the absolute truth. If someone doubts my words, I don't
mind to be checked with lie detectors, such as conventional lie detector
or helmet with electrodes.
What might have
been the reason for what happened?
Copyright 2004 by Der Voron
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