saveliberty Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Boston Herald:Chemical blast at Boston College lab hurts studentBy Colneth Smiley Jr.Saturday, June 25, 2011 - Updated 5 minutes agoE-mail Print (2) Comments Text size Share At least one person was injured in an apparent explosion at a Boston College chemical lab, according to authorities.Boston firefighters, EMS and Boston College police responded to a reported explosion at the Merkert Chemistry Center at about 10:45 a.m. today.BC spokesman Jack Dunn said three BC graduate students were working in a chemical lab when some sort of chemical reaction took place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltbag Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 A student injured in the explosion told emergency workers that she was using a chemical called thionyl chloride alone in the lab. Thionyl chloride can be used to make mustard gas and nerve toxins. Yeah, let's not go crazy. It's also used to make intermediate chemicals for agricultural and pharmaceuticals needs. SOCl2 + H2O → 2 HCl + SO2 If you get the stuff wet, you get an exothermic reaction (fast and hot) and it probably made a gas explosion with sulfur dioxide and hydrogen chloride (strong acid) gas. Probably a good guess on what happened. Some knucklehead poured a bottle down the drain and made a sewer pipe bomb spewing acid gas. Nothing nefarious, just grad students that don't know their chemistry... Even though they're chemistry grad students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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