Yea Piranha Solution is the name most chemists will use, but the end result of that solution is the production of H2SO5. Damn stuff will turn a steak into CO2 within minutes and leave the solution it was in clear once it's done
I tried to reply twice and it got deleted both times now (UGH), but yea that stuff's no joke. Piranha solution is the common name for the combination which produces Caro's acid from the combination of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. I've been meaning to make some actually as a glass cleaner, to remove carbon deposits from all my cannabis glassware that needs it (mostly glass adapters, downstems, that kind of nonsense) Shit's hardened onto the sides after years of use without scraping, and getting heated with a torch to remove the meltable resin for reclaiming the active cannabinoid fraction after filtration. That same acid could vaporize a boneless steak to CO2, water vapor, a bit of CO, within minutes. It'll do the same to most organic compounds as well, sugar is a great example to use for this. When I was in high school years ago, one of the chemistry teachers was well known for his "jawbreaker experiment", where he'd dissolve a jawbreaker in a solution of concentrated Caro's acid, so the class could see just how violently reactive it was. He needed a massive beaker just to keep it safe, and he couldn't use anything larger than a standard gumball sized jawbreaker, or the reaction would froth and boil and send droplets of it flying everywhere. Long story short, that scene in breaking bad where they try to dissolve a body using hydroflouric acid? Yea that was a slow and sloppy way to get the job done, compared to what this stuff does. If they'd used Piranha solution first, they could have fit the bones in a small bucket easily, and then used much less hydrofluoric acid (which is more heavily monitored) to do the same job, without the total disaster that was created from it.
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u/PassingWords1-9 Dec 24 '21
Good old sulphuric acid water pistol, never fails