Spill stories, stinky and sticky and Ew, what’s that smell? Sticky situations

Abstract

Ew, what’s that smell? Newscript’s recent coverage of “poop” chemicals (C&EN, April 10, page 40) prompted retired forensic chemist Mark Maxwell, of Egg Harbor City, N.J., to share a memory of foul-smelling chemicals from his undergraduate days. “A few years before 1965, at the University of Dubuque, in Iowa, someone placed a small bottle of cadaverine in the organic laboratory storage refrigerator,” says Maxwell, a regular correspondent to Newscripts. “Unfortunately, the bottle was not tightly sealed and when the bottle tipped over after someone slammed the door shut, the contents wound up in the bottom.” That summer, the refrigerator lost power and the normally solid cadaverine melted. “When the power was again turned on, the cadaverine crystallized, but a lot of it also permeated the rubber seals on the door,” says Maxwell. Even years after the spill was cleaned up, when Maxwell accidentally bumped against the door seal, he couldn’t