• Question: how many of your expirements have blown up

    Asked by Casey to Sankar, Sarah, Jo on 6 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Emily, Emi534.
    • Photo: Sarah Kirk

      Sarah Kirk answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Haha! None of my experiments have blown up, I’m very safe 🙂 Explosions sound cool but lab accidents can be very dangerous, we do everything possible to avoid them.

    • Photo: Sankar Meenakshisundaram

      Sankar Meenakshisundaram answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Most of my experiments are carried out in high pressure reactors. There is always a potential possibility of blowing up in ALL the experiments. However we take necessary safety measures to avoid it and even if it happens to safeguard ourselves and our colleagues. These reactors do have safety valves that can vent in case of any explosion. Sometimes they develop leak because of wear & tear, we normally detect them during the start of the reaction. This will avoid major explosion. I have broken glasswares, that is relatively common.

    • Photo: Jo Sadler

      Jo Sadler answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      None, luckily! I did get a fairly dramatic suprise purple flame though once when I added in some powder to a reaction.

      There is also an experiment that we do in Process Chemistry to intentionally explode something. When we are designing a process to make medicines on the tonne scale, we need to know if there is a risk of explosion. To do this we have to find out at what point materials will decompose, so will heat them under pressure until we get an explosion! Of course this is done under very controlled conditions and on a very small scale to ensure it is safe!

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