jorjor
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Boric acid + Isopropyl alcohol = ?
Hi...I've made some ant killer solution:
4.9 grams of boric acid,
39.4 grams of table sugar (sucrose?),
in 250ml water
Works fine. Take 1/4 of a paper towel, fold into a small rectangle, place on inverted saucer,
and saturate with ~1 tsp of Ant-B-Gone. When the paper pad is dry, dispose, rinse saucer,
and replace with new pad+solution. Wash hands, because boric acid is toxic, but not so much
that you can't use it in the kitchen, for example.
(Included this level of detail for completeness and because it might be of general use.)
OK. This evening I went to the jar of Ant-B-Gone to renew a pad, and saw floating toward the
bottom a ~2cm sphere of very fine fibers radiating from a denser center. Not a crystal, but
probably a fungal growth of some sort. I fished it out with a spoon and added 2 tablespoons
of 91% isopropyl alcohol to sterilize the solution, thinking that on application the alcohol would
evaporate.
Funny thing is, though, when I swirled the solution to mix it, a cloud of very small bubbles
appeared.
Question: did a reaction occur, resulting in something that isn't boric acid any more, or (perhaps)
did the addition of the alcohol bring dissolved gases out of solution?
Hi...I've made some ant killer solution:
4.9 grams of boric acid,
39.4 grams of table sugar (sucrose?),
in 250ml water
Works fine. Take 1/4 of a paper towel, fold into a small rectangle, place on inverted saucer,
and saturate with ~1 tsp of Ant-B-Gone. When the paper pad is dry, dispose, rinse saucer,
and replace with new pad+solution. Wash hands, because boric acid is toxic, but not so much
that you can't use it in the kitchen, for example.
(Included this level of detail for completeness and because it might be of general use.)
OK. This evening I went to the jar of Ant-B-Gone to renew a pad, and saw floating toward the
bottom a ~2cm sphere of very fine fibers radiating from a denser center. Not a crystal, but
probably a fungal growth of some sort. I fished it out with a spoon and added 2 tablespoons
of 91% isopropyl alcohol to sterilize the solution, thinking that on application the alcohol would
evaporate.
Funny thing is, though, when I swirled the solution to mix it, a cloud of very small bubbles
appeared.
Question: did a reaction occur, resulting in something that isn't boric acid any more, or (perhaps)
did the addition of the alcohol bring dissolved gases out of solution?