Semiconductor fabrication is complicated requiring nasty chemicals for everything from dopants to etchants. Working with such chemicals at home is dangerous and after releasing hydrochloride acid fumes into his lab, [ProjectsInFlight] decided the time was right to get one for a mere $200. I can hear the readers down in the comments already saying, “why […]
[BPS.space] takes model rocketry seriously, and their rockets tend to get bigger and bigger. If there’s one thing that comes with the territory in DIY rocketry, it’s the constant need to solve new problems. Coating the inside of a tube evenly with a thick, goopy layer before it cures isn’t easy. One such problem is […]
Most research on electroplating tries to find ways to make it plate parts more uniformly. [Ajc150] took the opposite direction, though, with his selective electroplating project, which uses an electrode mounted on a CNC motion system to electrochemically print images onto a metal sheet (GitHub repository). Normally, selective electroplating would use a mask, but masks […]
Although Charles Hall conducted his first successful run of the Hall-Héroult aluminium smelting process in the woodshed behind his house, it has ever since remained mostly out of reach of home chemists. It does involve electrolysis at temperatures above 1000 ℃, and can involve some frighteningly toxic chemicals, but as [Maurycy Z] demonstrates, an amateur […]
Content warning: Human alteration and scalpels. General warning: We are not speaking as doctors. Or lawyers. If you watch sci-fi, you probably do not have to think hard to conjure a scene in a trendy bar where the patrons have glowing make-up or tattoos. That bit of futuristic flair was possible years ago with UV-reactive […]
Modern fertilizer manufacturing uses the Haber-Bosch and Ostwald processes to fix aerial nitrogen as ammonia, then oxidize the ammonia to nitric acid. Having already created a Haber-Bosch reactor for ammonia production, [Markus Bindhammer] took the obvious next step and created an Ostwald reactor to make nitric acid. [Markus]’s first step was to build a sturdy […]
You probably do not need us to tell you that Arsenic is not healthy stuff. This wasn’t always such common knowledge, as for a time in the 19th century a chemical variously known as Paris or Emerald Green, but known to chemists as copper(II) acetoarsenite was a very popular green pigment. While this pigment is […]
[ProjectsInFlight] has been on a mission to make his own semiconductors for about a year now, and recently shared a major step toward that goal: homemade spin-on dopants. Doping semiconductors has traditionally been extremely expensive, requiring either ion-implantation equipment or specialized chemicals for thermal diffusion. [ProjectsInFlight] wanted to use thermal diffusion doping, but first had […]
It was such an innocent purchase, a slightly grubby and scuffed grey plastic box with the word “P O L A R O I D” intriguingly printed along its top edge. For a little more than a tenner it was mine, and I’d just bought one of Edwin Land’s instant cameras. The film packs it […]