573
Chemistry is weird (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
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[-] eatsumbum@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago

Fun fact; cats can drink straight seawater. Mad good kidneys or something, so the soup is going to get far too salty for a human before it gets too salty for a cat.

[-] Hupf@feddit.org 2 points 18 hours ago

True—salt is the worst.

[-] jawa22@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 day ago

I was going to make a sodium joke, but Na.

[-] tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

I could Barium hold my laughter at this.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 26 points 1 day ago

It is the other way round though isn't it?

Sodium Chloride is just chilling as a rock or in suspension and then humans put a lot of energy into it, so it is forced to separate. Imagine you and your spouse being torn apart with a lot of violence.

Of course you get traumatized and act out until you get reunited and have some time to become chill again.

[-] chortle_tortle@mander.xyz 2 points 13 hours ago

Finally someone that respects that marriage is about the bond between an alkali and a halogen, and should not be separated.

[-] ulterno@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago

Ionic bonded compounds such as NaCl, when in water, interact with other ions around them.
Even other Na^+^ and Cl^-^ ions...

[-] chortle_tortle@mander.xyz 2 points 10 hours ago

Which is why I don't drink water. It's satanic.

[-] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago

This is how the Karens and Mommy Blogs sound when they complain about "Mercury in vaccines" but it's just one mercury atom in a molecule that no longer behaves like elemental mercury

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 33 points 1 day ago

That's one thing that annoys me about lithium batteries. Every time there's an EV fire, people pop out of the woodwork to shit on the FD for using water to put it out.

Just because the name has lithium in it doesn't mean it's elemental lithium.

[-] corvi@lemm.ee 21 points 1 day ago

It’s a situation of just enough knowledge, I think. It’s true that water won’t put out an EV battery fire, but it will cool it down and prevent the fire from spreading.

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago

Well, it will put out the fire, but it does it by cooling the battery down so the reaction stops (like you said)

[-] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 day ago

I guess it depends on what burns. Water is conductive, so you might not want to use it to put out an electrical fire because of the risk of electrocution.

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago

A lithium battery fire is a chemical fire, not an electrical one. There's pretty much a zero percent chance of getting electrocuted putting one out with water.

[-] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

What does EV and FD stand for?

[-] ghostlychonk@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

Electric vehicle and fire department.

[-] Geodad@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

On one side of the battery, it is elemental Lithium.

It exchanges electrons across a membrane with another substantial.

Using water on it is bad because the reaction between Lithium and water evolves Hydrogen gas, which ignites in the fire.

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You're wrong.

Lithium batteries contain little to no elemental lithium. They normally contain lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, or lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide as the anode, and a lithium salt as the electrolyte.

Water is about the only way to put one out because it's an exothermic reaction (water is to cool it down so it stops), and two out of the three are self-oxidizing so you can't just smother it.

The biggest danger of a lithium battery getting wet is that it shorts, which can lead to a fire because it goes into thermal runaway. But this can happen if you have one in your pocket with spare change (most of the vape fires in the 2010s were this)

[-] shroomato@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

A tiny "ackshually" is that there also exist non-rechargeable lithium batteries that have actual elemental lithium in them, which might be adding to the confusion.

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

Even those aren't elemental lithium. They use Lithium-iron disulfide, Lithium-thionyl chloride, Lithium-manganese dioxide, and Lithium-sulfur dioxide.

[-] shroomato@lemmy.world 0 points 20 hours ago

In every one you mention elemental lithium is the anode and whatever second part in the name is the cathode.
https://youtube.com/shorts/yGDkiUAwxRs

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 1 points 15 hours ago
[-] shroomato@lemmy.world 0 points 14 hours ago

Lithium metal batteries are nonrechargeable primary batteries that have metallic lithium as an anode.

You're trolling or what?

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Metallic lithium != elemental lithium. If you scrolled down to the chemistry section, they list both the anode and cathode. Nothing in the list has elemental lithium.

[-] shroomato@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Elemental lithium means that it's pure lithium, i.e. not being in a compound with any other element. Metallic lithium means that lithium is a metal in its pure form. You're awfully confident for how little you seem to know about basic chemistry.

[-] entwine413@lemm.ee 1 points 9 hours ago

Still didn't scroll down to chemistry, did you?

[-] shroomato@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I did. Every one except lithium iron phosphate at the bottom has elemental lithium as anode. What is your point and why do you like to argue so much?

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

Even just H and O on their own can be quite scary. Throw them together and BAM, ubiquitous lifegiving liquid.

[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 2 points 19 hours ago

You guy drink H2O?, in my household we drink D2O.

[-] dankm@lemmy.ca 1 points 18 hours ago

That sounds expensive.

[-] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago

I know you wrote H and O, and not H2 and O2, but I'm going to assume the gas forms because those two substances pretty much cannot exist in their pure forms

And for those, O2 is necessary for our life, and H2 is non-toxic, it's just very flammable. So I don't know if the comparison fully works

Of course, you're right if you mean pure H and pure O, but, again, they will immediately combine to form a new substance

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 20 hours ago

H3... We drink heavy water in this house!

Idk, I quite like O on its own. Pretty addictive stuff

[-] logicbomb@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Salt is scarier than the elements sodium or chlorine because, according to Wikipedia, "Salt is essential for life in general." Without salt, there wouldn't be humans creating things like chlorine gas. Life is scary.

this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
573 points (98.6% liked)

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