your-god-empress-lavender

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Fun little discovery (i think)

So, nevermind why i have taurine on hand, but i was just doing some chemistry and noticed that copper sulphate is extremely soluble in alkaline taurine solution (i mixed taurine with lye until it tasted basic). It also appears to dissolve small bits of cotton, though not as fast as schweizer's reagent. Also, when you mix this solution with borax, you get an extremely dark blue gel. Also, while i didn't try with the basic solution, i added a bit of calcium chloride (acidified with citric acid) to this (the taste now being just barely acidic and there being a very small amount of precipitate) and it seems to colour hair very nicely. Kinda greenish blue rn, so that's neat. Anyway, idk who (if anyone) needs/wants to hear that, but it's pretty neat imo.

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Henrow blorbo

first off, ohmyfuckinggodyouaresocoolllllllllllllllll

secondly, what ya workin' on currently? <- is deathly interested, yes please please please info dump if you have the spoons

- Ryan

Bonjour my furry friend. At the moment i'm mostly working on getting a job so that i can afford rent, but when i'm not doing that, i'm working on designing some new N-substituted 5MeO-tryptamines (in order to avoid being banned for breaking tumblr TOS, i can't say exactly what for, but if you look up 5MeO-tryptamines, you should see). So far i've only managed to make things that make me super sleepy (and maybe a tiny bit inebriated), so presumably my body is mainly metabolizing them into melatonin. I also have been working on working through the details of making a rocket engine which relies on both muon catalyzed fusion and z-pinch fusion (mostly because even though i know it's way above what i'm probably capable of, i just love space so much i desperately need to see it for myself and i figure that since rockets are so absurdly expensive, the only way i'll end up in space is if we can get a whole new generation of ultra-efficient rockets (for example, given p-N14 fusion, if we manage to get 1% or more (i don't really expect more than 0.1% max, but still) of the hydrogen fusing with nitrogen, we'd be able to put 150 tons on the moon from earth with only using about enough fuel to fill a small car (instead of needing a skyscraper sized rocket to send maybe 30 tons)). Now, if it were as easy as my calculations show it to be, i can't imagine how there are any rockets flown that aren't fusion, but seeing as i haven't even made a working proof of concept yet, i'm not in a position to criticize the thousands of aerospace engineers who are working on conventional chemical rockets. I love fusion because it's simultaneously so easy (i live pretty close to an old uranium mine where i can actually pan some uranium out of the creek near me, then use that uranium to make a neutron source (B10(α,n)) which is really just fusion between helium and boron, happening at room temperature because of how high energy the α particles released by uranium are) and so absurdly difficult (without catalysts like muons, it requires absurdly high temperatures and pressures that almost always take more energy put in than they can give out). Anyway, i've also been sorta working on studying a material that a while back i got way too excited over and may have called a room temperature superconductor (almost certainly not the case), but in an attempt to make it more pure and study it for real i've been trying to work on the exact calculations of its composition and finding a better way to heat it up to high temperatures (i might just put it in a flat-bottomed flask, especially since it finally warmed up enough for me to go back outside where the fumes released by its production won't make folks mad).

And then there's the biological experiments, currently with electroceutical tissue modifications since most of the other projects i have planned require me to have a gene printer capable of reliably printing genes thousands of base pairs long and i'm not sure when i'll be able to build that. The most recent thing i've been working on is really exciting because if it works it means that i've successfully done something that has never been done before to a human body (and given the long lasting pain in that part of my thigh, it seems very possible it is working), but i'm hesitant about sharing what the project is because i don't really want folks putting gap junction blockers, calcium channel blockers, and sodium channel blockers into open wounds without knowing how to do it safely and correctly to get the desired results and not just a really messed up wound. If/when this experiment turns out well, i might give directions in private, but i'm still somewhat hesitant due to the risks inherent in this (the biggest and most likely is literally giving yourself a form of cancer, something i'm not eager for others to risk). Soon i might try chemical dedifferentiation of skin cells (thinking on my back or upper arms) followed by some mildly dangerous experiments to test how reliably i can make it turn into other cell types. And while i haven't made good work on it in a while, i've also been trying to make something similar to shimmer from arcane (ideally not addictive or harmful to the user, but most importantly the quick energy burst, decreased pain, and increased regenerative abilities (obviously it won't be anywhere near as dramatic as in the show, so calling it shimmer may not really make sense, but it is where i got the inspiration)).

Then i suppose there's the battery project i was talking about in my last post, and i'm also trying to learn how to make alcohol under my desk (i mean, it's super easy, it just doesn't taste great). There might be a few more things i'm working on but rn i'm super eepy and have talked about a lot already. If this seems like i'm doing a lot or impressive, also note that i'm actively failing out of college (for my own pride: the material is super easy and mostly i already know it, i just can't stand wasting so much of my time doing homework that doesn't help anyone or anything) and not yet working a job, so i have a lot of time and so much free brainspace to think about and do all this. I also work very slowly on each thing because i keep bouncing back and forth between all of them and almost always end up adding new projects before i've finished the old ones and so i almost never see a project all the way through to completion (at least some of the bio projects are just sitting in my body and i am just waiting to see how they turn out in the next 2-3 months, so those necessarily will see completion, even if it's failure). I really hope i see the fusion rocket to completion because if i don't think i'll ever be able to see the earth from afar or the moon from up close.

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Calcium sulphur batteries (uwu)

Okay, so, i've become interested in z-pinch studies for aerospace purposes (i'm really excited about the prospects, everything works on paper, but i naturally want to actually witness p+N14 fusion for above 0.01% of available protons before i go trying to get the materials to build a real liquid fueled SSTO fusion rocket, especially since there are thousands of folks way smarter than me who have presumably thought of this before and we don't have it yet, so yeah). Anyways, if i want the extremely large electricity input without making my electricity bill higher than a whole month's rent and getting my roommates mad at me, i'll need to collect solar or wind in a battery bank. Since lithium batteries are just about all immoral and expensive (yes i am writing this on a device powered by lithium batteries, it would be lovely if capitalists would take a hint and switch to things that just objectively perform better and are cheaper, but whatever), i figured this would be a nice excuse to experiment around with some new battery designs. Since all of them will require sulphur, i won't be able to really get into it before mid may due to some concerns about the smell and risks of getting sulphur powder everywhere (it's very yellow and hard to clean out), but i felt i might as well share my preliminary ideas. First off, in order to make the organic sulphur polymer, i'm looking to explore mostly citrate based polymers, perhaps with phenylalanine mixed in in order to both give more bulk as well as providing nitrogens for sulphenamides to form. Since i'll need urea later, i was also considering partially polymerizing urea with citric acid and adding that into the molten sulphur mix, but i'm less confident in the stability of that and a bit concerned about the potential noxious fumes produced. Regardless, that's the short of the sulphur cathode, details will definitely change after i refind that paper which went over a great way of preventing insoluble polysulphide production. I'm also gonna experiment with anode material and even the ions i use. I know i said "calcium sulphur batteries" in the title, but due to how common aluminium is and how much easier magnesium is to work with (and the fact that their specific energies are higher), i'll also be considering those two. Even beyond that, there are so many potential anode materials, including even amorphous carbon and carbon nitrides which i'd love to test since there's just so much to improve on and i'd rather do a lot of experiments with cheap to make materials and potentially land on a great solution than accept something subpar because it took less effort. Anyways, of the materials i plan on using, there's magnesium sulphate, aluminium sulphate, calcium chloride, potentially other calcium salts (is the salt with taurine soluble in water? IDK, can't find an answer so i'll test it), charcoal, vegetable oil, urea, and phenylalanine. Those may seem like an unrelated hodgepodge of compounds, but they've been chosen because they're what i have/will soon have and they're also all extremely cheap. If the urea works out well in the battery, i may have to make this project a meme and attempt to make a z-pinch device with as much urine as possible (use it to make ammonia for the plasma, to make the batteries, and i'm sure there's some way to use urine in a capacitor (maybe just distilling off the water to use as a dielectric? idk, it's been a while since i tried making a capacitor)).

Anyway, i really didn't expect this long trainwreck of a post to end with discussions of urine, but what can you do? This is all probably nonsensical, even by my standards, but basically i want batteries and i think i can make them cheaper per megajoule of stored energy than the ones i could buy, even accounting for the inevitable failed experiments.

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Update (2/April/2024)

First off, tumblr used to not lag much if at all when i used it on laptop but now i type a sentence and i takes 5-6 seconds to load (and forget about scrolling through posts).

Second, i have been doing a lot of projects that i can't talk about here because they involve things that technically count as nuclear weapons (trying to build a prototype fission catalyzed fusion rocket and currently working on a promising way to get enough thrust to lift 2 tons of payload into low earth orbit without irradiating everyone in a very wide area and for only using cheap materials (and some uranium from a local mine)) or (technically not illegal yet) drugs (i found a new electrochemical process that allows me to do a lot of chemistry i've never seen people do before, and it seems to be working; sadly i can't share here because of tumblr's tos and having some of my earlier (fully within TOS) posts deleted put my account in danger of permanent deletion).

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Possibly last update on the material:

After a fair amount of testing today, i found that there is no significant reaction to a magnet when the substance is placed on a metal surface. There is also no significant magnetic response when it's placed on paper. The only magnetic response comes when the material is on a plastic card or sheet. After doing a test i should have done months ago, in which i test the relative importance of plain ol' static, i found that an electrically inert powder with no significant magnetic properties (borax) reacted similarly but to a lesser degree than my material (it moved about half as much). Given that my material still moves significantly more than the borax with the magnet but about equally when i used a piece of silver under it, i still believe that there is probably some magnetic or electrical significance to this material, but honestly i think my past ways of looking at this material were just so heavily covered by my need or want that it was an important or at least interesting material that i hardly stopped to check if my tests (and thus results) were any good.

Honestly today has been a weird fucking day and i'm glad i took 20 minutes between writing the first part of this post and now as i write this second paragraph. Not that the tests today haven't shown that i have major issues that i have to fix, but thinking back on everything, i know i have (back when i was using the messy and seemingly worse liquid state synthesis) observed the particles moving on stiff sheets of paper and also seen particles repelled from the edges of my magnets, so idfk. The more i think about it, the more everything feels and sounds absurd. Like, i have no doubt i need to fix things, but i also really ought to get to the bottom of this, because unless i somehow had extremely dramatic changes in testing conditions that i didn't notice (not out of the question, but even if so, it would be useful or at least interesting to find out what these changes were), i did in fact have some magnetic effects that changed based on both composition and yet unknown factors. If i had just stopped thinking about it while i was still thinking as i was in the first paragraph, i would have missed some relatively obvious things from my earlier studies and probably not have realized that at the very least before i halt this project i must entirely rethink and redo the testing protocol given that it is apparently prone to false positives and likely has many more issues that i had been overlooking

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Hey, i'm super tired and kinda delirious, but honestly i feel like i'm hitting the edges of what i can personally study when it comes to this material. Most certainly i can keep doing more and more of the same things every week, very slowly finding out new things and working out increasingly complicated and increasingly accurate ways of measuring the properties of this material, but i'm not sure i'm up for that. At least not right now. In the future, especially if i can get better equipment, i bet that i could continue research in a much more effective way that doesn't leave me feeling like i'm just chasing my own tail, but seeing as i seem to be spending more and more time on this project with exponentially decreasing importance of results, i think the next step would be someone else stepping in and not only verifying that they get the same results (it's not really science if it can't be replicated), but also hopefully being able to do more and better tests. Unless i can get a good die set to compress the powder into nice little bricks that can be tested for bulk properties, i'm not sure what else i can even do. I mean, i'm coming to the realization that i've scaled up production despite having worked with most of the materials that i was thinking i should test and doing essentially all the tests i can think of that i can do. I've gone from messing with a liquid production process that was unreliable at best (while using a really super shitty testing process) and which produced a material that was unstable in air to being able to very consistently produce a fairly homogeneous powder that behaves reliably (with a more reliable and more sensible testing process) and is stable over long time spans (it's been like a month and there's no noticeable degradation). I've come a long way, i feel like i've done jack shit, and quite frankly, i think that for now i should put this on the back burner or even bench it until i either get better equipment or get someone to independently reproduce my results (ideally with their own, better, equipment).

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Quick kinda exciting update:

I have shown a (very) rough range for critical temperature (at least, for the temperature where it reacts to a magnet) and i believe the magnetic effect is caused only in part by innate diamagnetism but rather by induction.

The critical temperature is between 80 and 120 degrees C, (based on my accidentally pouring the very hot powder onto plastic that melted, then realizing i could probably measure the temperature by what things it melts, then testing a bunch of substances (mostly plastics) to get a good estimate of melting point) so that's good. I have little doubt that further research can raise this temperature even higher. The second point of interest from recent studies is that i think that i was wrong about the cause of the reaction to a magnet. I think it's some sort of static-like effect, caused not from typical static, but rather from induced electric current that then causes the particles to become charged and fly away from the plastic card as it becomes charged itself. I tried seeing if it were somehow just normal static by using a piece of copper (as non-magnetic metal), a piece of cloth, and another piece of plastic against the plastic card i was using as my testing surface and found there to be a very slight effect, but it was extremely minor compared to moving a strong magnet under the powder. This does seem to indicate that the testing has always only worked because of the material that i was using under the particles, however it does also indicate that the particles are electrically conductive, though this phenomenon alone does not indicate superconductivity. The fact that the effect is (likely) not from strong diamagnetism is not a good sign, but honestly i'm currently quite confused. In order to get better results, i'll be trying with the powder on different surfaces, including but not limited to flat sheets of copper, paper, and aluminium.

This quick update went much longer than intended. Anyway, the first result (about temperature) is the one i'm most excited about, but the second one will be the focus of more research once i have free time again

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Even more materials science updates:

First (not materials science), i've been far too quiet about the genocide in Gaza. Not that my platform is very big at all or that my shouting with the crowd will make a big difference, but for all that is still human about me, i can't say nothing about the atrocities happening right now. I recommend that anyone who reads this also reads about the genocide presently occurring. I am far from the best source, but i can recommend Al-Jazeera as one of the best official news sources for the goings on in Gaza. There are also countless Gaza residents who are posting their own experiences and lives on practically any social media site if you want a first-hand account of the genocide.

Second (materials science), the 2 weeks or whatever since i last posted, i've done a lot of research with solid-state synthesis and it is working so well. I've achieved so much better results (the particles are so much more diamagnetic that they can be moved around or thrown around through a much thicker plastic sheet (the added thickness helps extra to prove that the effect isn't just from the warping and flexing of the very weak plastic lids i was using to test the material before) and are strongly enough repelled from a magnet that i have a hard time putting them directly on it). The synthesis is far easier as well as i just have to mix all the chemicals in to a bottle 1/3 full with saturated sodium bicarbonate solution, then leave it to sit for like a day, filter off all the sodium rich water, rinse it with water a few more times, then cook it real hot. Just about every run i've done so far has demonstrated far better results than the last which has really lifted up my spirits. The magnesium has helped a lot. Using majority calcium (5Ca, 1Mg), shows improved results over just Ca, using majority magnesium (5Mg, 1Ca), shows even better results, but unfortunately using all magnesium isn't noticeably better than majority magnesium. I tried doping it with a tiny bit of chromium (yay for stealing 5 grains of potassium chromium sulphate from lab) which appeared to help somewhat, then i tried doping with a tiny bit of boric acid which appeared to help even more which was interesting. Unfortunately, due to work and being very sick for the last week, i have only gotten 1-2 trials done with each new formulation and most certainly am not making the batches consistently. I've noticed that some runs dehydrate and turn from blue to dark brown much faster than others, though it's not exactly clear why. It may be due to the calcination process seeing as batches with higher calcium tend to turn far slower and never have i seen it turn more than just a slightly less bright shade of green (calcium carbonate has the highest calcination temperature of anything else in the mix so it would make sense to me). In some of the runs, i terminated the heating process early simply due to time constraints, something i regret doing. The best batches also tend to be the ones that were the darkest, so i have no doubt that the simple act of heating it more/less dramatically changes the results. Given the fact that every single sample i've made with the solid-state/precipitate synthesis has shown far greater stability (i've yet to notice even the slightest decrease in strength from the first batch, made around 2 weeks ago), i may just try heating the lighter samples again to see if it improves their qualities. All in all, i've been very excited to see how this turned out. Given all that we've learned, i'm fairly surprised it worked at all in the liquid stage and i'm betting that the only reason it did was because of some oxygen displacing some of the chlorine, making it (in some tiny amount), into the oxides. I can further say that the material shows no magnetic properties before being heated which as far as i'm concerned is very strong evidence that the material needs the oxides in order to work (or at the very least, carbonates and hydroxides don't let it do whatever the fuck lets it be so diamagnetic). Some runs have been conducted without washing the precipitate first (usually unintentionally), and while they usually do work somewhat, the results are (far) less spectacular, so inclusion of a large quantity of sodium appears to interfere with its working.

Also, i got 500 grams of copper sulphate pentahydrate. That's 2 moles of soluble copper for less than the price of 100 grams of copper chloride (only like 0.75 moles soluble copper). Not that the only consideration is the copper, the sulphate may be significant in that it may react with calcium or otherwise mess with the reactions, but based on some water test strips a friend gave me, it appears most of the sulphate does get taken up by the sodium and does not react with the calcium (fortunately the calcium gets taken up by the carbonate faster, at least while the bicarbonate is in much higher concentrations than the sulphate). Now, it's still unknown how the copper sulphate will react, i still have some of the copper chloride solution and i intend to fully use it up before i switch due to having a shortage of containers to store the dissolved copper.

[your-god-empress-lavender]

For some reason i seem to have posted about basically nothing but my materials science ventures in the past few months. Sadly now is not about to break from the trend.

While not much has changed (i haven't even done more experiments because it's literally been below freezing for the last 4-5 days), i have come across more papers on theory and synthesis methods. I also, fortunately, have slightly upgraded my setup.

What's new? Not a ton, but i'm now going to be cooking in a clean borosilicate flask (yay for finally getting some actual lab equipment), i also now have 2 kilos of magnesium sulphate which i may actually get to work with, and finally i have decided to at least experiment with an altered method. This altered method is very similar, but instead of putting the dirty solution on the hot surface, i'm adding sodium bicarbonate to precipitate everything out together (it can then be washed real nice before being heated up). The calcium comes out as CaCO3, the copper as Cu2CO3(OH)2, and aluminium as Al(OH)3. Upon heating, all of these decompose to the respective oxides. This should make everything work better and give a better product. Upsides: more pure, won't damage metal pan, more stable, probably a better mix, a more "lab safe" method, and no chlorine fumes. Downsides: IDK if it'll work at all, may require temps as high as 800C which may be above what i can do, no more liquid metal state (probably), and i don't know how to do it well yet so i need to do many experiments.

Also, i may start getting into zone melting/zone refining. Idk if i really can since it seems like it may require a degree of precision (and maybe some equipment) i don't have in order to get good results. It also may destroy the compound if some other crystal phases are either more favorable or just because the aluminium fraction may not enter the melt properly without heating beyond what i can provide.

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Okay, i'm not gonna re-read everything in my last post to make sure everything i say makes sense, so sorry if i forgot to give a full background or am repetitive.

So, the material, presumably with the formula Al4Ca6Cu(SO4)8X (or rather, in this case, Al4Ca6Cu(SO4)6X) works when made with Al2(SO4)3. Like, it still does the thing, and a lot stronger than when made with KAl(SO4)2. It also is far less hygroscopic and when left out for 4 hours, showed no signs of being deliquescent. Despite this, the magnetic effect doesn't seem to last quite as long. Why is unknown. In addition to these effects, the Al2(SO4)3, despite requiring that i add far more of the solution to get the same amount of aluminium, caused the whole thing to be extremely thick, somewhat chunky, and while cooking have a jelly-like consistency. Why this happens is not known, but presumably it has something to do with the fact that the potassium allows it to hold on to more water for longer. While the first time cooking with only Al2(SO4)3 was somewhat disconcerting because of how sticky and jelly-like the mixture was as well as its more gradual change to black (it stayed green for longer, until it was almost entirely dry), this mixture still released a very concerning amount of chlorine gas (it made me gag, cough, and fell a substantial amount of chest pain because there was no wind and i was kinda stupid) and still turned metallic. Very soon after the mixture turned metallic, it started melting again, turned a bit orange, and at this point it stopped releasing quite as much chlorine and i took it off to test.

The test where i attempted to make it like bscco 2223 (honestly idk if it's reasonable to compare it to that, but the Al4Ca8Cuc(SO4)8X) turned out odd. It followed a batch that did not work at all, and i didn't thoroughly clean the pan between runs, so i suspect that part of the reason it didn't work was contamination. I used the KAl(SO4)2 as the aluminium source, so this may have impacted the results. Despite not working, the process of production was the most promising. While the cooking process started far greener in appearance than typical, it very quickly changed to a dark colour, and then almost immediately into an extremely metallic looking liquid state. It was scarily similar to mercury in appearance, with few signs to indicate that it was not in fact a metal. Though i did not at the time have the wisdom to test its properties at this phase, the liquid metallic phase almost immediately solidified upon removal from heat. I made the unfortunate decision to wait until after it stopped off-gassing chlorine, by which point it had entirely stopped looking metallic and instead was mostly just dark gray and slightly green. This showed only extremely weak response to a magnet, and even this only lasted less than a minute. I suspect that if i had let it react for a shorter time, i may have gotten better results.

Most of the other intentional tests were either mostly unremarkable (very slight changes to composition don't make big differences in activity, especially when working in an already very imprecise environment, having an extremely dirty pan makes everything not work, etc.) however two of the most enlightening and interesting tests were ones that were unintentional. The first of these that i noticed was that the places on my silver ring that were touched by the material turned very dark. Why this happens is unclear to me, especially seeing as the reduction potentials for Cu, even Cu(i) are far lower than would be needed to onto silver, however i recognize that those potentials are usually calculated at pH of 7 and with no other active species in solution, which are both definitely not true here. The second unintentional discovery was that this same silver ring turned a very dark, almost black colour on the side that was most exposed to the fumes released. This indicates to me that not only was the chlorine being oxidized, but plausibly the sulphur from the sulphate was also being released as some volatile compound. That being said, i have heard of chlorine oxides being able to react with both silver and gold, however i'm not quite convinced that such a reaction would cause the effect that i'm seeing here. Knowing the smell of both chlorine gas and sulphur dioxide, i wouldn't be surprised that i missed the sulphur for the burning pain of breathing in chlorine. If the sulphur really is being oxidized, the formula that may better describe the compound is Al4Ca6CuO13, though given that letting the off-gassing go to completion appears to be extremely detrimental to the effect, i would not be surprised if sulphur (either as SO4 or another form) or chlorine were still important players in creating the final product.

Closing remarks and all that: I am really running out of copper chloride, i may buy copper sulphate, i may provide my results to one of the professors now, show that i have in fact received the lab safety training needed to use a campus lab, and hope for the best. Honestly i'm not sure what to do, but at this rate, i'm going to run out of soluble copper by the end of this week. I was considering replacing the calcium chloride with either magnesium chloride or sulphate, just for a test, but seeing as i can't even reliably make it work the same way 3 times in a row using the same recipe, i am hesitant to use my limited resources (honestly i have a ton of everything except the copper) on high risk ventures. Since i'm not only running low on my chemicals (i mean, mostly just the copper chloride), i am considering turning to drug dealing to pay for refills on everything. Might that be too extreme? Yes, probably, i should probably find some other way of getting money that isn't insanely time intensive. Given that we regularly have reps from petroleum companies on campus, i may try to find a way to make them pay for my experiments. Also, given the dramatic cost difference, i think i may try buying bulk CaSO4 and hope it works, but even if it doesn't, it should still be relatively easy to convert it to CuCl2. Hopefully i can have good results to report by wednesday.

Medium/big update!

So, first off, while i still don't have an official lab, i now have a hotplate and a pan that i'm just plugging in outside the physics building at my college. In my many attempts, i have unfortunately used up a ton of my starting chemicals, now only having about 1/2 of the 100 grams of copper chloride i started with, and a little over 1/2 the 500 grams calcium chloride. It's kinda shocking how fast even the little experiments eats through material. I've been considering using CuSO4 instead of CuCl2. Not only is the sulphate much cheaper, but it also may improve the properties. Based on a little bit of background information that i had been ignoring as well as further experimentation, the formula for the compound would appear to be Al4Ca6Cu(SO4)8Xx where X is either Cl or O, and x is the amount (for only Cl, this would be 10, for only O, it would be 5 (presumably)). The anions are less certain due to their volatility (i do assume the sulphate stayed in, but not as sure about Cl). The main reason i added the O as a possibility in the formula is because upon heating it releases a fair amount of chlorine gas, and afaik, oxygen is about the only thing i could expect in this environment to oxidize the chlorine and presumably take its place. When the material is only lightly heated, it releases very little chlorine, however this does not produce as impressive results. When heated beyond the point of being dry, it gains a metallic shine and starts releasing chlorine gas. If heating is continued, it eventually turns orange and stops releasing gas. It appears to me that the best results are obtained early into the metallic shine stage, about 20 to 30 seconds after it starts. Though at this stage it would be foolish to jump to conclusions, signs that make me more convinced that this is a superconductor include 1. the chemistry is fairly reminiscent of bscco, though notably with much less copper. 2. The metallic shine that closely correlates with the material's diamagnetic reaction. 3. The colour ranges from white (when too little copper is present) to green (when there is too much copper) with the only place in that scale known to possess very strong diamagnetic properties being a central place where is dark but with a metallic shine. 4. The borax was found to not be necessary (a run was completed with high success without it), though somehow it seems to allow for a wider range of compositions (especially variations in copper concentration). Why this happens is not understood, but it does make me more confident in the formula.

In the next few days it is my intent to try slightly different starting ingredients and see how that affects things as well as attempt a run with the final output to be Al4Ca8Cuc(SO4)8Xx where c is some number between 1 and 3, and x depends on X which i can't quite predict yet. This would be somewhat analogous to bscco 2223, though again, with notably lowered Cu content. Given the expense of chemicals, i am starting to get pretty worried about funding. Fortunately most of the materials i'm using are very cheap and easy to obtain

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Medium/big update!

So, first off, while i still don't have an official lab, i now have a hotplate and a pan that i'm just plugging in outside the physics building at my college. In my many attempts, i have unfortunately used up a ton of my starting chemicals, now only having about 1/2 of the 100 grams of copper chloride i started with, and a little over 1/2 the 500 grams calcium chloride. It's kinda shocking how fast even the little experiments eats through material. I've been considering using CuSO4 instead of CuCl2. Not only is the sulphate much cheaper, but it also may improve the properties. Based on a little bit of background information that i had been ignoring as well as further experimentation, the formula for the compound would appear to be Al4Ca6Cu(SO4)8Xx where X is either Cl or O, and x is the amount (for only Cl, this would be 10, for only O, it would be 5 (presumably)). The anions are less certain due to their volatility (i do assume the sulphate stayed in, but not as sure about Cl). The main reason i added the O as a possibility in the formula is because upon heating it releases a fair amount of chlorine gas, and afaik, oxygen is about the only thing i could expect in this environment to oxidize the chlorine and presumably take its place. When the material is only lightly heated, it releases very little chlorine, however this does not produce as impressive results. When heated beyond the point of being dry, it gains a metallic shine and starts releasing chlorine gas. If heating is continued, it eventually turns orange and stops releasing gas. It appears to me that the best results are obtained early into the metallic shine stage, about 20 to 30 seconds after it starts. Though at this stage it would be foolish to jump to conclusions, signs that make me more convinced that this is a superconductor include 1. the chemistry is fairly reminiscent of bscco, though notably with much less copper. 2. The metallic shine that closely correlates with the material's diamagnetic reaction. 3. The colour ranges from white (when too little copper is present) to green (when there is too much copper) with the only place in that scale known to possess very strong diamagnetic properties being a central place where is dark but with a metallic shine. 4. The borax was found to not be necessary (a run was completed with high success without it), though somehow it seems to allow for a wider range of compositions (especially variations in copper concentration). Why this happens is not understood, but it does make me more confident in the formula.

In the next few days it is my intent to try slightly different starting ingredients and see how that affects things as well as attempt a run with the final output to be Al4Ca8Cuc(SO4)8Xx where c is some number between 1 and 3, and x depends on X which i can't quite predict yet. This would be somewhat analogous to bscco 2223, though again, with notably lowered Cu content. Given the expense of chemicals, i am starting to get pretty worried about funding. Fortunately most of the materials i'm using are very cheap and easy to obtain

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Update on material:

So, i haven't said much of anything for a while now, but here's a brief update.

Update on material: I still haven't been able to make any of the material anew due to very strict RAs for my dorm, but of the stuff i already had, it seems to have changed very dramatically. It has separated into a strange, transparent, stiff, gel-like substance and what appears to be a sponge of copper metal. This is from storage in a (presumably) inert glass dish. Not sure how or why it's turned into copper (i mean, sure, there's some copper in it, but what's doing all the reduction?). This may be a partial explanation as to the previous batches turning orange? In fear that the magnetic response could have been caused by eddy currents in the copper somehow (based on how it looked, this seems very implausible because, like, it hardly required much motion to send pieces flying), but this fear seems to have no good foundation. I took sections of the copper sponge, broke it up into small pieces such as to have particle sizes similar to what i had before, and tested them in the same way with the magnet. They literally just didn't respond in any notable manner. While this isn't definitive proof that the copper metal isn't responsible, this test has made me fairly confident that the magnetic effect is something more specific to this material. I mean, that's what i had assumed before, but it's nice to have a little more confirmation

Personal section: Not being able to work on this has really sucked. I tried making scoby leather, but i was too ambitious and made big batches at first, one of which leaked and now a small section of my dorm's carpet is sticky (i'll definitely need to work on cleaning it up). The whole batch was ruined by mold. I'm not sure what i should do now. I have a fair amount of free time (because i ignore half of my school work), but i'm not sure what to do with it. I tried learning C++ with the intent of making a fairly simple game, but it's hard to find folks who can help, and while i understand most of the C++ basics, i'm having issues finding out more about the things i really need for my project. Most of my other diversions have been similarly unsuccessful, and it's definitely not helping. I'm not sure what i can/should do. I'm glad to have such great friends here. Not many, but a few folks that make my life a lot better. I keep forgetting to eat and drink, i would probably begin to starve if it weren't for my friends who bring me to eat dinner with them. IDK, i guess mental health isn't great, but idk what i can do to get better.

[your-god-empress-lavender]

I love tangerines. The cafeteria at my school is an all you can eat thing with a ton of tangerines and oranges, so i always have 1-2 with my food and then take 3-4 back to my room. So, yes please. Luckily a good night's rest has made me feel much better

Brief update:

One of the RAs on my floor has completely prohibited me from doing more experiments in the dorm. I'm going to try to find some lab space or something, but it's not seeming like something i'll be able to continue to do. Also, my last few experiments have been absolutely awful in that they don't work at all. Like, i used the same ingredients in the same proportions as in the experiment that worked best, and it showed no reaction to a magnet, all the way up until it fully dissolved itself. The only thing i changed was doing it in a ceramic coated pan. I don't see why that would be an issue, but it presumably is the issue. It may also not be getting hot enough since the whole pan does heat way slower than a much thinner can, but it's not like i can test that now (and the burner got red hot, even with the pan on it, so presumably that's also evidence that it's not the heat).

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Brief update:

One of the RAs on my floor has completely prohibited me from doing more experiments in the dorm. I'm going to try to find some lab space or something, but it's not seeming like something i'll be able to continue to do. Also, my last few experiments have been absolutely awful in that they don't work at all. Like, i used the same ingredients in the same proportions as in the experiment that worked best, and it showed no reaction to a magnet, all the way up until it fully dissolved itself. The only thing i changed was doing it in a ceramic coated pan. I don't see why that would be an issue, but it presumably is the issue. It may also not be getting hot enough since the whole pan does heat way slower than a much thinner can, but it's not like i can test that now (and the burner got red hot, even with the pan on it, so presumably that's also evidence that it's not the heat).

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Shoulda said this earlier, but like, the colours are almost definitely coming from copper complexing with Cl. Like, the red, literally probably just CuCl3(-) and the light green that happens when you leave it out for too long is probably just CuCl4(2-) Now, the colours match, but then i ask why that only happens in old samples. IDK if it really matters, but yeah. Also, turns out that maybe the boron is less important than previously thought? Like, the mixture doesn't work without it, but given the saturation solubilities, there's like, so so little boron in the final product. Calling this a borate is stupid, it's more likely a sulphate (from the KAl(SO4)2), oxide, or chloride (most likely a mixture of those things). I would theorize that the purpose of the borax is to neutralize it and that the job may be accomplished by other bases, except when only NaOH was used, the resulting compound was not observed to have the property. This may, however, be because of the excess Na, not the lack of boron? Given that i now have boric acid as well as borax, we should try more things. The *very quick and almost definitely inaccurate* formula would look something like CuAl4K4Ca5Cl11S7O30. This makes no sense to me, but this is just based off all the ingredients that were present as more than 1% of the total. If you want to include all ingredients, it looks something like NaB2Cu11Al40K40Ca50S80Cl122O326. Now, this is based off rough estimates, so give like +-5% to all those numbers. This continues to not make a lot of sense to me, so if anyone can make sense of what's happening, i'd appreciate it.

Short update

College is pretty nice, the people are great, the classes mostly easy (though the workload is a bit worse than IB and worse, most of the homework is actually graded). What i really wanted to talk about was the magnetically interesting substance. I've finally got some pure, lab-grade chemicals from a local science supply store, and have done quite a few experiments.

The first thing i will report is that this thing is so porous/puffy, probably because all the water boiling off leaves tiny pockets in everything. Next thing is that i'm consistently seeing much stronger colouration (most batches come out quite strongly green, then turn orange/red as they grow older, and usually only after re-heating, they sometimes turn white). In the first experiments, the red particles only showed up about 20 minutes after finishing cooking and showed no response to magnets, whereas the green ones were strongly reacting. After further study, this is expected to not be because whatever is giving the colouration is not giving the effect after oxidation (or reduction maybe???????) but rather because the pieces that turned red were the ones removed from the cooking vessel first and thus had the most exposure to moisture, which waterlogged them. This brings me to my next point which is that every* batch that worked was deliquescent and within around 25 minutes of cooking, every particle having its own little puddle around it. This, probably obviously, is a problem as it means that the samples *must* be tested and or used fairly immediately. Related to this, i tried one batch where i kept a standard formulation, but removed just one of the ingredients. As there were 4 ingredients, there were 4 batches. (none showed any response to a magnet) The batch with removed calcium was an extremely dark green, showed no response to a magnet, but did not deliquesce nor absorb moisture to an appreciable degree. It also fluoresced strongly under UV light, but only the samples that were partially cooked but not fully (it bubbled way more than any other batch and threw blobs of partially cooked copper aluminium borate everywhere). The batch without copper just sat there as white chunks and then dissolved itself, very uninteresting. The batch without aluminium was faintly blue, but generally just kinda a lame powder that dissolved itself. The batch without the boron was really lame, it also just sat there as a dark green powder and then dissolved itself.

Some batches (most notably the first one) were more interesting in that they would dissolve themselves into puddles the colour of the particles that the puddles surrounded, but then when water was added, they would turn into a bright blue like most hydrated copper. Other interesting effects include the gradual whitening of the material with each time it was re-heated and the fact that over all, there weren't significantly different effects between particles of different colours which indicates, of course, that whatever is causing colour has little to no effect on the magnetic effect.

Batches with less calcium show less sensitivity to water, even to the extent of not dissolving/coming loose when water is added (adding calcium solution and then re-heating it, then trying to take it out with water does seem to work tho). Batches with very little (but not no) calcium are barely sensitive to a magnet, however batches which are extremely high in calcium show somewhat worse sensitivity to a magnet, but are also extremely deliquescent. The batch with extremely high copper showed no reaction to a magnet, but also took longer to dissolve itself and as of 24 hours after making it, has not changed colour at all. Batches where boric acid was used to replace the borax (admittedly, not by mole, but instead by volume of the saturated solution, so not really a good substitution) showed significantly less sensitivity to a magnet, but also showed slightly less deliquescence.

* There was one batch that both showed the effect and didn't dissolve itself, however it was also the weakest batch that showed any response and so i kinda just scrapped it

Also, before i go, i wanted to say that for my earlier attempts (back at home) "high sensitivity to a magnet" meant "there's like a good 1/15 of the particles that jump or react to this magnet" but now "high sensitivity" means "just about every single particle reacts to a magnet in some way and the first time i brought a magnet near the sample, a few dozen particles were violently shot across the room". I don't know how much of this is just due to purity changes and how much is something else, but either way, i'm impressed. (also, if it's just purity changes, i must have been significantly overestimating the purity of what i had before)

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Short update

College is pretty nice, the people are great, the classes mostly easy (though the workload is a bit worse than IB and worse, most of the homework is actually graded). What i really wanted to talk about was the magnetically interesting substance. I've finally got some pure, lab-grade chemicals from a local science supply store, and have done quite a few experiments.

The first thing i will report is that this thing is so porous/puffy, probably because all the water boiling off leaves tiny pockets in everything. Next thing is that i'm consistently seeing much stronger colouration (most batches come out quite strongly green, then turn orange/red as they grow older, and usually only after re-heating, they sometimes turn white). In the first experiments, the red particles only showed up about 20 minutes after finishing cooking and showed no response to magnets, whereas the green ones were strongly reacting. After further study, this is expected to not be because whatever is giving the colouration is not giving the effect after oxidation (or reduction maybe???????) but rather because the pieces that turned red were the ones removed from the cooking vessel first and thus had the most exposure to moisture, which waterlogged them. This brings me to my next point which is that every* batch that worked was deliquescent and within around 25 minutes of cooking, every particle having its own little puddle around it. This, probably obviously, is a problem as it means that the samples *must* be tested and or used fairly immediately. Related to this, i tried one batch where i kept a standard formulation, but removed just one of the ingredients. As there were 4 ingredients, there were 4 batches. (none showed any response to a magnet) The batch with removed calcium was an extremely dark green, showed no response to a magnet, but did not deliquesce nor absorb moisture to an appreciable degree. It also fluoresced strongly under UV light, but only the samples that were partially cooked but not fully (it bubbled way more than any other batch and threw blobs of partially cooked copper aluminium borate everywhere). The batch without copper just sat there as white chunks and then dissolved itself, very uninteresting. The batch without aluminium was faintly blue, but generally just kinda a lame powder that dissolved itself. The batch without the boron was really lame, it also just sat there as a dark green powder and then dissolved itself.

Some batches (most notably the first one) were more interesting in that they would dissolve themselves into puddles the colour of the particles that the puddles surrounded, but then when water was added, they would turn into a bright blue like most hydrated copper. Other interesting effects include the gradual whitening of the material with each time it was re-heated and the fact that over all, there weren't significantly different effects between particles of different colours which indicates, of course, that whatever is causing colour has little to no effect on the magnetic effect.

Batches with less calcium show less sensitivity to water, even to the extent of not dissolving/coming loose when water is added (adding calcium solution and then re-heating it, then trying to take it out with water does seem to work tho). Batches with very little (but not no) calcium are barely sensitive to a magnet, however batches which are extremely high in calcium show somewhat worse sensitivity to a magnet, but are also extremely deliquescent. The batch with extremely high copper showed no reaction to a magnet, but also took longer to dissolve itself and as of 24 hours after making it, has not changed colour at all. Batches where boric acid was used to replace the borax (admittedly, not by mole, but instead by volume of the saturated solution, so not really a good substitution) showed significantly less sensitivity to a magnet, but also showed slightly less deliquescence.

* There was one batch that both showed the effect and didn't dissolve itself, however it was also the weakest batch that showed any response and so i kinda just scrapped it

Also, before i go, i wanted to say that for my earlier attempts (back at home) "high sensitivity to a magnet" meant "there's like a good 1/15 of the particles that jump or react to this magnet" but now "high sensitivity" means "just about every single particle reacts to a magnet in some way and the first time i brought a magnet near the sample, a few dozen particles were violently shot across the room". I don't know how much of this is just due to purity changes and how much is something else, but either way, i'm impressed. (also, if it's just purity changes, i must have been significantly overestimating the purity of what i had before)

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Shorter update: So, y'know, after a while the material stops reacting to a magnet, and just straight up heating it doesn't help (i even tried that with this batch) but at least with this new batch, adding a little water (which turns everything into a weird goop) and then boiling it down and continuing heating it to high temps does make it work again. Just like before, it takes like 6 minutes after heating before it shows the skipping effect strongly, and it seems that a slightly smaller portion of the material shows the effect (so, presumably something is lost either with the cycling or with the initial loss of effect). That observation may, however, just be because there was less total material as some was accidentally blown away because i breathed too close to it

(potential) Superconductor updates:

Replicated it in the dorms despite the fact that the suspension had turned an awful yellow-red colour (it was a faint blue-white). Unfortunately, despite putting a lid on it, it doesn't seem to work 20 hours later. Also, this was a mix brought from home more than 2 weeks ago. The fact that the amount of time in water doesn't seem to show any difference indicates to me that the most important part is in the cooking. Alas, i have no copper or calcium chloride despite begging the chem department. So, that'll be needed for future experiments. Gonna try to get them from the uni again but i may have to buy it sadly. It's very strange that the colour was so dramatically changed and yet the effect was largely unchanged. That seems to indicate that the colourant (presumably a copper ion) was not in fact a necessary part? And it's not like it remains unchanged afterwards either, with the earlier samples, after i heated it it would be off-white whereas now the whole substance is an awful yellow-green-brown colour. It may be solely working with Ca2+, Al3+, and B3+. IDK tho. It'd still be kinda weird to me, if there was no help by the copper at all. I gotta get some calcium chloride first and test to see if i really do also need the copper. Or even if i can replicate it at all.

At the very least i saved a few drops of the suspension in an airtight container so that if worst comes to worst and i can't make it anew, i can (hopefully) run a mass spec and a few analytical chem tests (assuming the chem lab folks let me). Ideally though i'd just make it anew sometime soon. I can very super easily and definitively rule out iron contamination this time as any sort of possible factor since the cooking step took place in an aluminium container (the cut out bottom of a thoroughly cleaned out monster energy can). I was pretty sure it wasn't iron contamination (like, it was doing the wrong effect from what one would assume from iron anyways), but now i'm very confident.

I feel like there was something else important to say, but idk what it is.

Last thought on the matter: I will hopefully very soon be able to have more resources because i'm gonna be in conversation with one of the professors at my school who's an expert in magnetism and also ceramics and her research group is currently focusing on things that aren't publicly disclosed, but vaguely about inorganic "magnetically and electrically interesting" compounds. Also her students say she's the nicest person in the world, so i'm double excited. Anyway, so, tuesday afternoon, i'll either be infantilized, found to be not quite up to spec, or be given a great opportunity.