Does anyone here do materials analysis?

[Filip Sandor]

I need to identify a fluffy, white powdery substance I have. The material is extremely light weight and if you play around with it enough it seems to exhibit signs of being energetically charged somehow. It likes to stick to stuff and seems to jump away from itself when you break it up and push it around... gets more difficult to gather and move around the more you play with it and sticks to everything.

I'm wondering if anybody here can run a simple materials analysis test of some sort that could identify what it is so if anybody cares to experiment please let me know and I can send you a high-res photograph of the powder, if you are interested along with more information about it. I'm not sure how much this sort of materials test costs so I'm willing to pay for it as long as it's not too expensive. I am not looking to do spectroscopic analysis or anything like that, I just need a basic test to test for the more common substances.

Thanks.

 

[Vitnir]

One way would be to try and dissolve it in a organic solvent such as methylene chloride and analyse it using GC/MS. Its still a wild stab in the dark as to expect a meaningful result but if its cocaine this would be the analysis to pick.
Edit: Commercial tests are pretty expensive, like 200 dollars and if its cocaince I don't want you to mail the sample to me please though I would do it for free.

 

[Ziggurat]

I need to identify a fluffy, white powdery substance I have. The material is extremely light weight and if you play around with it enough it seems to exhibit signs of being energetically charged somehow. It likes to stick to stuff and seems to jump away from itself when you break it up and push it around... gets more difficult to gather and move around the more you play with it and sticks to everything.

It's picking up a static electric charge. That's why it repells itself and gets attracted to other things. That's really nothing special, a lot of powdered materials do that.

I'm wondering if anybody here can run a simple materials analysis test of some sort that could identify what it is so if anybody cares to experiment please let me know and I can send you a high-res photograph of the powder, if you are interested along with more information about it. I'm not sure how much this sort of materials test costs so I'm willing to pay for it as long as it's not too expensive. I am not looking to do spectroscopic analysis or anything like that, I just need a basic test to test for the more common substances.

Thanks.

Unless you have some idea of possible materials, I'm not sure there IS any simple tests you can do. Where did it come from, why do you have it, and why do you want to know what it is? Is it organic (like, for example, cocaine or starch) or is it mineral (like zinc oxide)? "White powder" is really uninformative.

 

[casebro]

Micro balloons ? Itty bitty plastic ballons, used as a light weight filler in fiberglass, etc. But any plastic powder would act that way.

 

[Kopji]

I agree, it sounds like a plastic. Some is considered/suspected carcinogenic in that state so you might find out what it is before exposing yourself to it.

 

[Vitnir]

Someone skilled could maybe look at it and say something but otherwise the question "What is it?" is hard to answer even in a lab. It's a lot easier to answer "Is this baking soda?" by adding some acid and see the reaction. If it's an organic chemical compound and has some vapor pressure GC/MS is the way to go since you can run it against huge libraries of chemical compounds. Otherwise you might have to pick it up and you might recognize and say "Hey this is just talc". I dont know much about identifying inorganic compounds but I would say its harder, you could find out what atoms are in it and what relative proportions they have to each other but I dont know how to find out the structure.
For fun you could see if it dissolves in household liquids, does it dissolve in water or a weak acid like acetic acid? Then its a salt of some kind like baking soda. If it dissolves in gasoline or acetone chances are its a organic compound.
I have naturally looked up the MS-spectra of cocaine so I know it can be analysed by it but could also be in the form of a salt and I dont know which of the forms is prefered by users.
Either way it could realy be harmful, you dont want to inhale it or get it on your skin.

 

[JLam]

Question. Where does one obtain unknown white powder? What is the chain of events in your life that leads up to you posting on a message board about unknown white powder? I find this kind of fascinating.

 

[KingMerv00]

I do some material analysis where I work and there are plenty of tests you can run. The problem is finding an lab that will do it for you for a reasonable price.

In the mean time, don't mess with it. Hate to see you get cancer or end up infertile.

Edit: Your description of the substance could apply to hundreds of compounds.

 

[Filip Sandor]

It's picking up a static electric charge. That's why it repells itself and gets attracted to other things. That's really nothing special, a lot of powdered materials do that.

I know the effect you're talking about and this stuff seems kinda unique - the field seems to 'relax' if you leave the material unmoved for a few minutes and 'tense up' again when you move it around (reposition the aggregates). It also doesn't seem to react to a magnetic field or a static charge, at least not visibly - I tested this by waving a strong magnet around it.. nothing happens, charged plastic that I've rubbed on the carpet will attract dust and other small stuff, but not this.

Unless you have some idea of possible materials, I'm not sure there IS any simple tests you can do. Where did it come from, why do you have it, and why do you want to know what it is? Is it organic (like, for example, cocaine or starch) or is it mineral (like zinc oxide)? "White powder" is really uninformative.

I don't think it's organic, it doesn't burn at all. I put a little 'chunk' on a red hot element and let it sit there for a few minutes, not so much as a puff of smoke, also tried burning it with a torch lighter, no smoke. When the material is spilled out into a little pile I noticed that some of the aggregates, seem to arrange themselves in a strange way.. have you ever seen those rocks people pile up in a way that looks like they should all just topple over, but they don't? Well little bits of this stuff seem to do the same in the pile near the top center... they will arrange and sit on the tips of other pieces without falling yet static doesn't seem to be the phenomena at work.

Anyway, here is a picture of the powder I took with my digital camera for you guys to interpret, maybe you can tell more.

 

[Filip Sandor]

Question. Where does one obtain unknown white powder? What is the chain of events in your life that leads up to you posting on a message board about unknown white powder? I find this kind of fascinating.

It's a long story... and it took me a long time to get my hands on this 'stuff'. I was listening to Coast To Coast AM on the radio one night when I heard some information about some strange material made from the platinum group metals. I would just like to have some experimental confirmation that this is indeed the material I am looking for.

Any ideas where I can start without going to spectroscopy right away??

 

[Filip Sandor]

Here is the photo

 

[casebro]

Mashed potato flakes? Or maybe short fiber Asbestos- the kind that causes Mesothelioma? or the stuff they seed clouds with? Pixie dust? How many crop circles did you have to vacuum to get that much of it? Frost granules from your fridge? Titanium Dioxide, paint pigment?

 

[Filip Sandor]

Mashed potato flakes? Or maybe short fiber Asbestos- the kind that causes Mesothelioma? or the stuff they seed clouds with? Pixie dust? How many crop circles did you have to vacuum to get that much of it? Frost granules from your fridge? Titanium Dioxide, paint pigment?

Hahaha, very funny, maybe it's a superconductor!

 

[geni]

It's a long story... and it took me a long time to get my hands on this 'stuff'. I was listening to Coast To Coast AM on the radio one night when I heard some information about some strange material made from the platinum group metals. I would just like to have some experimental confirmation that this is indeed the material I am looking for.

Any ideas where I can start without going to spectroscopy right away??

Platinum group metals? To be honest mass spec would probably be the way to go. Various forms of ionisation spectrometry are also posible. While there probably is a chemical test for those methods that would seriously be the hard way to go.

By any chance does the description of these strange materials include the word monoatomic?

 

[Filip Sandor]

Platinum group metals? To be honest mass spec would probably be the way to go. Various forms of ionisation spectrometry are also posible. While there probably is a chemical test for those methods that would seriously be the hard way to go.

By any chance does the description of these strange materials include the word monoatomic?

Yes, it does. Have you heard, seen, or read the transcripts of any of David Hudson's lectures? I've heard a lot of the lecture material in audio and it sounds quite genuine, especially once David begins to make references to the physical reviews. Since he claims that spectroscopy analysis doesn't pick up on these materials and given the chance that this material (made by someone else) according to David Hudson's pattent

 

[geni]

Yes, it does. Have you heard, seen, or read the transcripts of any of David Hudson's lectures? I've heard a lot of the lecture material in audio and it sounds quite genuine, especially once David begins to make references to the physical reviews. Since he claims that spectroscopy analysis doesn't pick up on these materials and given the chance that this material (made by someone else) according to David Hudson's pattent

Mass spec isn't (despite it's name) a spectrographic technique. While there are methods involveing neutrons and gammer rays that would be quite caperble of detecting platinum regedless of any electron setup they are somewhat expensive. Thus Mass spec would be the logical choice.

What is the number of the pattent?

If it was posible to make room tempreture monoatomic platinum or indeed any monoatomic metal it would be a gas. The reason being is that monatomics can only interact through van der waals forces. Now for monoatomics the strength of van der waals forces is pretty much directly related to the number of electrons. Radon which is a monoatomic substance has 8 more electrons than platinum. However it is still a gas at room tempreture.

 

[Filip Sandor]

Platinum group metals? To be honest mass spec would probably be the way to go. Various forms of ionisation spectrometry are also posible. While there probably is a chemical test for those methods that would seriously be the hard way to go.

By any chance does the description of these strange materials include the word monoatomic?

I wouldn't be asking for help unless I knew that for sure, but suspect these might be 'those'. The makers of this material claim it to be pure monatomic (or monoatomic) gold or "the white gold powder" as David Hudson coined it; I thought some in depth, physical testing would be interesting to carry out on the stuff to see what shows up (or doesn't).

 

[geni]

I wouldn't be asking for help unless I knew that for sure, but suspect these might be 'those'. The makers of this material claim it to be pure monatomic (or monoatomic) gold or "the white gold powder" as David Hudson coined it; I thought some in depth, physical testing would be interesting to carry out on the stuff to see what shows up (or doesn't).

Mass spec would be the way to go since it measures the weights (ok charge mass ratio) of the atoms. Gold weighs in at 196.96655 atomic mass units so high res mass spec would give results that were pretty much certain for showing that the sample was in fact gold (ok you could get away with low res no problem)

$55 from here:

http://research.uiowa.edu/vpr/units/hrmsf.htm

To figure out how any atoms in the stuff are arranged you would be looking at X-ray spectoscopy more precicelsy stuff involveing using the material being tested in the form of a powder. This is somewhat more complex.

No idea how much that would cost.

chemical tests are a waste of time since we have no idea how monatomic gold is meant to react chemicaly (ok that isn't true but it appears people are claiming it doesn't undergo standad metalic bonding).

 

[Filip Sandor]

Mass spec would be the way to go since it measures the weights (ok charge mass ratio) of the atoms. Gold weighs in at 196.96655 atomic mass units so high res mass spec would give results that were pretty much certain for showing that the sample was in fact gold (ok you could get away with low res no problem)

$55 from here:

http://research.uiowa.edu/vpr/units/hrmsf.htm

To figure out how any atoms in the stuff are arranged you would be looking at X-ray spectoscopy more precicelsy stuff involveing using the material being tested in the form of a powder. This is somewhat more complex.

According to David Hudson the material either shouldn't read at all or you would only get a reading of the impurities. If the impurities can be somehow tested for chemically and the chemistry doesn't allign with the expected results then I know I have something 'out of the ordinary' at least.

The consistency of the material when it is in solution is exactly like Hudson described - a white milky, gelatinous substance like semen.

 

[LTC8K6]

White powder gold, eh?

I have seldom seen so much woo....