• Question: what is the most dangerous chemical you've worked with

    Asked by #Teddy Bear 108 to Richard on 17 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Simons

      Richard Simons answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      Most of my research is done with a computer simulation, so I haven’t worked with chemicals in a few years.

      One of my friends has to use aqua regia in their lab. It’s a nasty mix of nitric and hydrochloric acid and is a fuming yellow or red solution. It’s one of the most corrosive chemicals we know. There’s actually a great story attached to this about two Nobel prize winners and their plan to hide their gold medals from the Nazis:
      http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story

      The above link is well worth a read, and it just goes to show how nasty aqua regia is, since it’s able to dissolve gold, the most inert metal we know.

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