Skip to main content

Unanswered Questions

779 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
11 votes
1 answer
144 views

Is gallium slippery at room temperature in an inert atmosphere?

Ice is slippery when it isn't too far below it's melting point because the surface molecules are less loosely bound than the bulk and form a thin liquid layer. Pressure melting is a much smaller ...
10 votes
1 answer
328 views

Why are IUPAC's definitions of exo- and endothermic disconnected from the direction of heat flow?

I'm wondering if anyone can provide a rationale for IUPAC's definitions of exothermic and endothermic since they disconnect these terms from the direction of heat flow. Specifically, here are IUPAC's ...
7 votes
0 answers
183 views

Why does entropy increase in reactions that make more molecules?

I used to understand this (more molecules ⇒ more degrees of freedom), but do no longer, because the total number of atoms is conserved, so translational d.o.f. should just be turned into internal d.o....
7 votes
0 answers
99 views

Why does diethylmethylamine have such a low melting point?

According to PubChem, diethylmethylamine has a remarkably low melting point of $-196.0\ \mathrm{^\circ C}$. This is substantially lower than the melting points of dimethylethylamine ($-140.0\ \mathrm{^...
6 votes
0 answers
171 views

Which xylenes, if any, are immiscible with DMSO?

"Xylene" is reported to be immiscible with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), according to a few solvent miscibility tables found online (chart 1, chart 2, chart 3). I have tried to locate some ...
6 votes
0 answers
82 views

Do "pseudo Van der Waals" gases exist?

In college, when deriving the Langmuir isotherm for gas-solid adsorption, the professor proposed a modified version of the Van der Waals state equation, what he called the "pseudo Van der Waals ...
6 votes
0 answers
164 views

Why is supersaturated sodium acetate so (meta)stable?

Sodium acetate is a common example used in general chemistry lectures to illustrate the idea of supersaturation, and that precipitation of a supersaturated solution can be initiated by a seed crystal. ...
6 votes
0 answers
428 views

Why is there preferential adsorption of a common ion during preparation of colloids by peptization?

There was a similar question asked here on Chem SE, but the answer was not very satisfactory to me, so I am asking a fresh question. Peptization is the process of creating a colloid from a precipitate ...
6 votes
0 answers
206 views

Why is the reverse aldol cleavage of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate highly endergonic under standard conditions?

I have another question similar to this one. I just don't have intuition for why reactions are thermodynamically favorable or unfavorable and I'd like to build it. This time I'd like to ask about ...
6 votes
1 answer
197 views

Understanding elementary rate laws from a probability stand point

I am learning about chemical kinetics and dynamics and as I understand for a general chemical reaction $$\ce{aA + bB -> cC + dD} $$ whose reaction rate, r, can be described by an elementary rate ...
6 votes
0 answers
614 views

Thermophysical properties of liquid Galden LS 230 between 25 °C and 230 °C

I'm looking for thermophysical properties of Galden LS 230, a liquid polymer (PFPE) produced by Solvay (https://www.solvay.com/en/markets-and-products/featured-products/Galden.html) at temperatures ...
6 votes
0 answers
207 views

I found transition states (TS), but calculations aren't supported by experiment. Do I look for more TSs or somewhere else?

I'm using Gaussian to investigate a catalyst system. Experimental evidence showed that one of three analogues (R = phenyl, Ph), yielded a benzosultam when treated with 2,4,6-...
6 votes
0 answers
143 views

Seeking titanium compound, melting point <1600 °C, decomposes to TiO

The title says it all. I’m new to glass making, and I need a titanium compound that will render me $\ce{TiO}$ through decomposition, and has a melting point under 1600 °C. Hopefully I can get one ...
6 votes
0 answers
89 views

How can I compute the temperature change from the de-excitation of excited particle species?

The motivation for the question in the title is that I have some formula given, $$\Delta T=\frac{3410\ \gamma_{O_2}}{2.5+\gamma_{O_2}},$$ where $\gamma_{O_2}$ is the molar fraction of oxygen in a ...
5 votes
0 answers
65 views

Dependence of elasticity on temperature and degree of vulcanization of typical commercial rubber band

I am doing a school experiment that tries to find how the elasticity of rubber band depends on temperature. From all the research I have done, theory suggests stress to increase linearly with ...

15 30 50 per page
1
2 3 4 5
52