Which Chemicals Smell Deceivingly Good?

[@THYZOID]

I really love the smell of Phenol too but I know I shouldn’t smell it….. diethyl ether is kind of nice too. Even if you hate the smell it is at least a warning indicator that the lab you are working in might have an explosive ether/air mixture in it

[@adrianhenle]

I love the smell of ether, in small amounts. Getting a whole lungful by spilling a beaker on a hot plate is a whole other experience, though...

[@Kirillissimus]

The strange thing with phenol is the more you smell it the more you like it. In low concentrations the smell gets especially warm, rich and pleasant. Combined with general toxicity and bad health effects of prolonged exposure even to the low vapour concentrations makes the magnificent compound a truely forbidden pleasure.

[@drussell_]

I like the smell of Bakelite baking an a heated press bakeliser doodad, I think that gives off some some sort of phenol compoundy-thing, doesn't it?

[@adrianhenle]

@@drussell_ That and formaldehyde

[@littleh4xx0r]

@@Kirillissimus phenol is one of the flavor compounds in smokey scotch :3

[@Zwelious087]

Diethyl ether always smelled like sweettarts to me. I smelled it for the first time accidentally in my O chem lab and my legs nearly gave out. Totally worth it.

[@VerbenaIDK]

i want to smell diethyl ether for some tile now but goddamnit it's hard to make

[@noecarrier5035]

The devil ether!

[@oscarcastillero5108]

@@VerbenaIDK I may be very wrong, but I'm finishing orgo I in a week, and couldn't you just react ethyl bromide with sodium ethoxide? And if the ethyl bromide is difficult to make couldn't you make it using Br2 with Ethane and heat? (In the lab we haven't really synthesized anything. And everything is pretty much readily available so I'm not really sure as to what makes something difficult to make or not )

[@bagggg445]

@@oscarcastillero5108 sulphuric acid and ethanol is the done method i believe

[@blackbeast9268]

It's a NMDA antagonist. Just like n2o. It was used for pain relief before n2o.

[@MeriaDuck]

A matrix with smell on one axis and toxicity on the other would be interesting. Showing a relation between toxicity and bad smell, and possibly interesting outliers. 🤔

[@singerofsongss]

I could totally see this format in a future video. Cool idea!

[@bruhmoment8658]

Diethyl Ether should be S tier. Being able to go from the bright lights of the lab to complete darkness and seeing stars is always fun.

[@That_Chemist]

Haha

[@pacificcoastpiper3949]

@@That_Chemist is automotive starting fluid made from diethyl ether? I always associate the smell of it with banana for some reason

[@dasjulian3]

@@pacificcoastpiper3949 Thats probably Amyl acetate. Its a common solvent and also used as a banana flavour.

[@Jokke13th]

​@@pacificcoastpiper3949 Only partly, the other part being pertol distillates. But the composition probably varies quite a bit.

[@TagetesAlkesta]

I’m a computer/phone repair tech. A torn (but not yet blown) lithium battery smells like acetone, so I’ve come to unconsciously associate that smell with danger. I think that smell is actually diethyl carbonate, but it smells exactly like nail polish remover.

[@zyeborm]

Heh I do robot wars, there's a lot of interesting smells in burning electronic components.

[@TagetesAlkesta]

@@zyeborm mmm ozone 🤤

[@tommihommi1]

I'd be a terrible chemist, I absolutely can't stand the smell of acetone

[@That_Chemist]

Cool!

[@douro20]

The solvent used is actually dimethyl carbonate (DMC). I think some people smell DMC differently from others. To me it smells nothing like acetone.

[@jmowreader9555]

Gotta have limonene on this list. It is completely nontoxic and is used as a food flavoring agent. The hazard is its flammability. Not only is it flammable enough John D. Clark fired it as rocket fuel on a test stand in the 1950s, it's hypergolic with white fuming nitric acid. The smell - like fresh citrus - is just fantastic. Methyl ethyl ketone should be somewhere between A and S, It is better at making your brain look like Swiss cheese than just about anything else.

[@monoamin_]

When life gives you lemons, fly to the stars.

[@word6344]

Ignition boi!

[@thor1829]

And the other enantiomer smells like pine trees!!

[@evildude109]

At some point in inorganic lab, probably when we were learning about metal sandwiches, we had to generate cyclopentadiene from the dimer, and my professor said it was his favorite smell and kept putting his face in everyone's hoods. Crazy bastard, I love him.

[@That_Chemist]

Haha

[@ravencrovax]

This reminds me of the old joke of walking up to someone with a damp rag, putting it up to their nose and saying "Does this smell like chloroform to you?"

[@That_Chemist]

100%

[@HypnoKnight]

My diethyl ether story is kinda funny. Was using it as a solvent for thin layer chromatography for verifying a product and walked maybe about 2-3m away from a bunsen burner while carrying a conical flask of it. My flask momentarily became a pillar of fire and I temporarily freaked out before it immediately went out. Fun times.

[@That_Chemist]

It is so scary when diethyl ether burns

[@That_Chemist]

WOOOOMFFFFFF

[@sawspitfire422]

Jesus.. I knew it was flammable but that's terrifying

[@PwdrdTstMn]

One that we use medically for anesthesia, the replacement for Aether, is Sevoflurane, smells like plastics, but 2 good breaths and you're half asleep without realizing it. It's a boatload of fun, solid C Tier

[@That_Chemist]

Interesting - i did some work with methoxyflurane - i came across a cool one today called azisevoflurane

[@PwdrdTstMn]

@@That_Chemist I wonder if they're good anesthesia gases with sevo. In certain cases we also use Isoflurane instead of sevo, especially in cases where we need nerve monitoring or continuous EEG in neurosurgery cases. I havent gone to anesthesia school yet so I'm not sure of the exact mechanism, but it is one of the safety checks us nurses look for in those cases before we start them in coordination with our anesthesia team. Long story short is gas is fun lol.

[@surkey5055]

Isoflurane smells nice but in its pure form for anesthesia it is very potent and burns quite a bit, although I can help but inhale it sometimes cause boyyy does it feel great 😆

[@sandvich101]

I love restocking the sevoflurane in the OR because it smells so satisfying hahaha. And there is always residual smell left even when the bottle is fully sealed again lol

[@Odin1465]

I love the smell of TEMPO. It smells so refreshing. Whenever I smell it I wish I was in a sauna and the sauna master would put a solution of TEMPO on the hot stones.

[@That_Chemist]

Cursed

[@Felixkeeg]

That's definitely gonna be in the next chempolation

[@oitthegroit1297]

What does it smell like? I'm especially interested, because it's a stable, persistent radical, and it's coloured red.

[@Odin1465]

@@oitthegroit1297 it smells very fresh but it is a very distinct smell i cant really compare to anything else. it smells similarly fresh to menthol, but also very different. i cant really explain it, you have to smell it yourself to understand.

[@oitthegroit1297]

@@Odin1465 Alright, then I guess it's TEMPO-getting time!

[@oitthegroit1297]

One of my favourite "forbidden" smells is the smell of tar or burning coal. It reminds me of when my Dad and I would burn it in our forge in order to forge metal for fun. The only downside is that the neighbours probably didn't appreciate it very much because the strong tarry smell and copious amounts of thick smoke created when we first add the coals to the forge, not to mention the potentially carcinogenic products created. It's also illegal to burn it where I live, apparently.

[@anonymouseovermouse1960]

Based dad though. Fuck the feds.

[@RylTheValstrax]

What a topical video for the day! I am getting quite the F-tier experience today with methyl methacrylate from some dirty 3D print wash propanol that spilled. Some people say it smells like fruit, others say it smells like fish. I don't think either is quite accurate, but fish is closer. It stinks though, and despite being a mild irritant, its less lethal than table salt so... I give it F-tier.

[@That_Chemist]

It’s bad - I hate acrylates

[@willh2739]

invaluable contributions to the development of smell theory

[@OneCentChemist]

You have thiophosgene on here, but not phosgene? That's a smell you don't forget. I get flashbacks whenever my neighbor mows the lawn.

[@PepekBezlepek]

when they mow the lawn? elaborate 😁

[@OneCentChemist]

@@PepekBezlepek Phosgene has this musty earthy smell that is kind of like freshly mown grass or an old bale of hay.

[@scabbarae]

Phosgene is no joke. There was actually a young youtuber named myfanwy who died after attempting (succeeding?) to make it.

[@OneCentChemist]

@@scabbarae Agreed. Scariest time of my life. Nothing is scarier than an SDS sheet that reads "48 hours no symptoms followed by death." At one point I was crying in the bathtub in fear of death.

[@punishedexistence]

I've had a few whiffs of phosgene, it does certainly smell like a tall grass lawn that's been cut the day before and you're smelling it the next morning in the sun, combined with a somewhat chemical smell. I doubt it was enough to cause harm but enough to know the smell in case I ever encountered it for real.

[@lefthandedspanner]

many years ago, phenol used to be used as a general disinfectant (carbolic acid) and it was the active ingredient in carbolic soap while it was undeniably effective, it's since been replaced by less harmful alternatives

[@That_Chemist]

It’s still used in some throat decongestants!

[@Dovorans]

@@That_Chemist It's also an oral anesthetic, I have a bottle of cherry flavored 1.4% phenol that you spray in the back of your mouth to help with sore throats. I did a double take the first time I read the active ingredients label.

[@oitthegroit1297]

@@Dovorans Same! I used it when I got strep throat a while ago.

[@markb5249]

Surprised toluene and benzene weren't on here.

[@jmd1743]

Some lady had a bunch of gas cans in her house because she loved gasoline so much.

[@Mystictiki]

I work in a biochemistry lab and it's immediately obvious anytime someone opens up a bottle of betamercaptoethanol to use a reducing agent in buffers. Fortunately the buffers don't really smell because we only use a 5 mM concentration for practically anytime we actually need to use it. I think I'd put BME in C-tier or D-tier because it smells awful and is only mildly toxic.

[@robert36902]

I hear the smile in your voice when you mention some of these chemicals - it's forbidden but it still smells gooood :) It's maybe not chemistry, but I like the forbidden smell of soldering fumes - I think it's the rosin flux fumes that you smell?

[@Kirillissimus]

The smell of burning rosin is also not very healthy. Do not smell it too much.

[@estherstreet4582]

I don't know if it exists in all countries but there's an antiseptic cream called germolene that has phenol as its active ingredient, and I always associate the smell of phenol with that.

[@rkirke1]

Yep, phenol is used in a toothache medication in Australia, so likewise for me!

[@Kirillissimus]

We have a liquid 60/40 mixture of phenol and cresol branded "Ferezol" (the original russian name is "Ферезол"). Similar to your cream it is also used for skin and nail treatment against fungal infections and some other issues. It damages the skin and if you do not follow the instructions the cosmetic damage may become irreversable if you exclude surgical solutions, but the thing is extremely effective. It goes in very deeply, it works very quickly and it permanently kills any nasty stuff it touches. Apart from general toxicity, as a side effect I would also mention its very addictive smell of phenol so it is important to use it very carefully and moderately.

[@rkirke1]

@@Kirillissimus Yikes! The medication we have here is approved to use inside the mouth :O It's very effective for tooth pain. Mostly clove oil, only a low concentration of phenol, but I wonder how much it affects cells in the gums, esophagus and stomach? I knew phenol inactivates nerves, and that concentrated phenol can be toxic, but didn't realize it was *so* potent! Also yeah, the smell is a bit addictive :) Very pervasive smell (my first aid kit stinks of it), but I like the smell in small amounts. Odor wise, I kind of think of it as camphor's evil cousin :D

[@sweetshiba_]

needed benzoyl chloride for a synthesis last semester and when I asked my professor to get it he kept telling me "it smell like a shit . it make the whole lab smell like a shit!" it turns out he was describing benzyl chloride, not benzoyl cl, and it did, indeed, smell like a shit :( im also very anti-toluene smell i think it's so gross

[@madboycal7859]

Yes! I hate the smell of toluene

[@strangedivine]

I hate toluene! I haven’t used it since O Chem, but I will always remember it. And that was like 20 years ago. 😂

[@pyromen321]

I absolutely love the smell of acetone. In strong concentrations, it’s absolutely horrible, but in very light concentrations it’s confusingly pleasant.

[@maxpower18]

Cyclopentadiene is the forbidden fruit. My body says no but my brain says "Yes! YES! more! sniff it baby"

[@ninamarie177]

Yes! When I had to do a Diels-Alder reaction with it I first had to do a retro-Diels-Alder to crack the dimmer and the whole lab smelled like cucumber/watermelon even though I was working under an exhaust hood.

[@Elias-wu7on]

I worked with cyclopentadiene recently and I hated the smell. It smells like pickles potted in gasoline imo, but in a very unpleasent way.

[@Davey_Spoons]

It reminds me of extremely cheap off-brand Pine-Sol

[@mathewperring]

If you want a similar but worse experience may I introduce you to the norbornene a similarly shaped molecule to the auto diels alder dicyclodeiene but oh so much worse smelling. First time I experienced it I spent 45 minutes outside feeling decidedly unwell. Got use to it after a few months.

[@mgdurandolo]

Methylene chloride always smelled good to me and I used to play with the stuff as a kid because it evaporates so quickly and chills whatever it's resting on. I'm still here 30 years later so it must not be overly toxic

[@Jared7873]

I'm not a chemist & the worst chemical accident I've suffered is spraying 10% menthol sore throat spray (sold over the counter) on my eyes.

[@That_Chemist]

:( that still sucks

[@BradSchmor]

We had this one wacky girl in undergrad who loved - LOVED - the smell of acetone. She would open squirt bottles of it to smell it. One day she went into the NMR lab and opened a bottle to smell it, not paying too close of attention when she did so. One other person in the lab watching her was a Chinese post-doc, who (I think like most people) when panicking reached for his first language and sputtered something out in Chinese. Then he stammered out "No.. that's... chloroform!". DOWN she went. Her head made an audible hollow coconut sound hitting the hard floor. She was OK in the end, but that was really stupid.

[@PepekBezlepek]

that's surprising! did she aggressively breathe it in multiple times? because otherwise I can't imagine it knocking her down just like that, I've smelled it many times

[@That_Chemist]

I’ve always heard it’s actually rather hard to get knocked out with CHCl3

[@BradSchmor]

@@That_Chemist she stuck her nose right in there and huffed it deep. I've also heard that it's not that easy, and I've smelled chloroform many times. Ether made me woozy many more times than chloroform ever did.

[@jeremybeaud4077]

Kinda disappointed toluene is not in the list. God I love the smell of toluene.

[@AwestrikeFearofGods]

Where would you rank toluene, xylene, benzene, and nitrobenzene? Gun nuts always talk about the odor of the older formulation of Hoppe's No. 9, and that the responsible ingredient was possibly nitrobenzene.

[@raideurng2508]

Surprised you didn't include any of the weirder, scarier alcohols. Some of them are said to have nice smells while being bad news.

[@j4mm3r61]

I hoped to see dichloromethane or chloroform in here too. DCM is quite common in labs too, from what I know.

[@RT42069]

I work at a chemical plant and I'm surprised MIBK isn't on here. I always thought it smelled like a candy cane

[@At0mix]

I love benzaldehyde, it smells like roasted almonds. But they say cyanide gas smells like that too... During my MSc the guy in the fumehood next to mine was working with benzaldehyde and the one on the other side used metal cyanide complexes. So I've asked the question "What am I smelling right now?" probably a dozen times in that context, luckily it was always benzaldehyde. As far as I know.

[@That_Chemist]

Cyanide smells distinct - it lacks all of the sweetness

[@annonym12321]

My worst experience with a smelly compoud was when I was working with concentrated ammonia. I was opening the container of it in the fumehood and could barely smell any ammonia at all. So me in my infinite wisdom decided to take out the beaker and instead of passive smelling, put my nose direktly on top of the beaker to inhale the ammonia smell. It legit felt like I was punched in the face and I couldn't smell anything for about 24 hours afterwards.

[@That_Chemist]

Yikes!

[@buixote]

Had a friend who did that with chloroform. He had to sit down.

[@custos3249]

Best way to tell if your lab mates are paying attention/you need better partners, casually hold up an empty test tube, "hey, this smell like hf to you?"

[@That_Chemist]

that is like shouting fire in a crowded theatre

[@Outwhere]

I really like the smell of tert-butyl hydroperoxide, which has a whopping six pictograms.

[@That_Chemist]

I haven't smelled it - someday!

[@oitthegroit1297]

What does it smell like? (Please don't smell it again though!)

[@Outwhere]

@@oitthegroit1297 It combines the refreshing smell of peroxides (e.g. mCPBA, which I also liked) and of tert-butyl groups.

[@ThePhysicalReaction]

a lot of these smells will give me a migraine headache if I can't escape the exposure

[@mouselmao]

In my high school, we had a four-year biomedical sciences program, the last year of which we got to work with indole to test for the presence of E. coli in water. In that setting, the smell was pretty unpleasant, especially given how potent it was (each group was only working with microliters of the stuff). It's far more pleasant outside of the lab setting.

[@That_Chemist]

Wow

[@douro20]

My father used to bring home methylethyl ketone in cans from where he worked to use as a cleaning solvent. It's far more aggressive against plastics than acetone, to the point where it actually makes a very good bonding agent for certain types of plastics. Nowadays he only has access to the less potent methylpropyl ketone.

[@Raffael-Tausend]

Once, when one of my classmates really wanted to smell some chemicals, i went to the teacher ( who is an easily amused old woman) and brought out of the chemicals cabinets room some cyclohexane, which the student immediately proceeded to smell. Within minutes, the 10mL had left the dish and enered his lungs. I didn't think it was that funny, but the teacher and the class were really amused. But it was the teachers second-to-last lesson before retirement, so idk.

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah but she still has a responsibility to other human beings - F-tier

[@namibjDerEchte]

At least that situation wasn't even acutely dangerous beyond drowsyness leading to balance failure and hitting his head during the fall. Addiction/addiction-enabling seems the far worse aspect there, partially mediated by somewhat downplaying the risks/dangers through how it seems to have been handled.

[@benjerranger]

I'm so glad you exist. This was fun :)

[@jonsimpson6690]

Classical phenol. That stuff helped me for my throat

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah someone shared a picture of that stuff and it nopes me out

[@sage5296]

I had my big toenails removed completely after they became ingrown for like the fourth time, and didn’t know it was phenol that they used, that’s cool

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah one of my chemist friends had it done

[@isaacthedestroyerofstuped7676]

Personally, I think chloroform, sulfur dioxide, and ozone should've been on this list.

[@That_Chemist]

The latter could be in an upcoming vid

[@christopherleubner6633]

Definitely chloroform, pleasant sweet smell like etOH but a slight chemical hint that its probably unhealthy to be smelling it LOL 🤓

[@matthewmailloux3567]

Pentafluorophenol smells really sweet like cotton candy. Downside is the instant headache when working with it.

[@That_Chemist]

Interesting!

[@chrisbradshaw649]

On diethyl ether, I worked in a lab for a year that constantly smelled of it. On a hot day, it was almost a dizzying amount in the air, even though no one in the lab used ether in the lab except for me, he also used a few ml at a time. Eventually I discovered the smell was strongest when bending down by the eyewash sink in a rarely used corner of the lab to tie my shoelaces. Turned out, it was rising out of the drains. A couple of times a day for the rest of the week, I'd go upstairs to investigate. One afternoon, I found an undergrad pouring ether down the sink, and passing under our lab. We had some kit (can't remember what it was, I never used it) that had a constant circulating jacket of hot water, which drained into the same pipes. The ether from upstairs would reach our level, hit the hot water and boil, and come out of the drains on the floor.

[@young-stove]

A tiny bit of Xylene diluted in water smells amazing

[@oitthegroit1297]

It just smells like gasoline to me, and I don't like that smell.

[@young-stove]

@@oitthegroit1297 what I'm specifically talking about is when there is a drop or less of xylene in a few litres of water, at that point it has a unique and very gent;e and sweet smell, otherwise, I totally agree. Xylene on its own smells evil. Also, some shampoos leave a very similar, if not identical smell on hair to the smell of diluted xylene

[@unicorntulkas]

I love the smell of turpentine substitute and acetone. Reminds me of woodworking with dad.

[@douro20]

Octyl acetate, an ester present in citrus fruits, has the distinct smell of oranges. If you've ever worked with Loctite 592- a highly oil resistant thread sealant- you'll know what it smells like as it is one of the ingredients.

[@punishedexistence]

One of my favorite was methyl benzoate. I don't think it's terribly toxic but it has a very intoxicating smell, at least to me. And yes, cyclohexene is quite a nice one in small quantities. I had a small sample we made from adipic acid in Chem class, and I took it home with me. Every so often, I'd open the vial and catch a very small whiff of it, much like an aromatherapy compound. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but hey, it was quite an aroma!

[@hansguentertv2142]

In our undergrad lab, someone wanted to melt cyclohexene on the hot plate, but forgot to put the lid off and the vessel (100 mL) exploded and everything smelled for several days afterwards.

[@That_Chemist]

:(

[@PepekBezlepek]

melt? it's a liquid 🤔

[@Elminator666]

I work with MEK a lot at work. It's a good cleaning solvent for paint.

[@taylaevens24]

Have a story about MEK, but outside the lab. Have used inside the lab, but that was perfectly routine, though you always seem to get a whiff of the stuff. So I was working in a convenience store, and the owners wanted to expand the shop. Part of this was moving the wall behind the tills back a couple of meters. This needed a floor, obviously; but the owners did not want to close the store during the pouring of the floor (Side note, that place only closed Christmas, it sucked). And the flooring mixture chosen used MEK as a solvent. So, during on of the shifts I was working, the workers were pouring the new floor, and of course the shop had awful ventilation, meaning me and my co-workers were breathing in MEK for about 8 hours, as well as the customers that came in. I personally ended up with an awful headache, and I seem to recall my co-workers were the same, and I do wonder if that resulted in any longer term damage.

[@That_Chemist]

Hopefully not, although I am no medical professional!

[@garrettmineo]

Benzophenone and methyl salicylate both common and nice, I also have worked too much with mercaptoethanol (aka mercraptoethanol), 3 mercaptopropionic acid (fresh dog poop}, and methylmercaptopropionate (sweet and terrible). All of the latter group have resulted in late night Chemtrek calls when things went even a little wrong.

[@That_Chemist]

“Are you working with sulfur compounds” no it’s just the undergrads taking fat dumps down the hall Karen

[@rem520]

I think the best smelling compound I smelled in organic lab courses was Benzaldehyde. Its not really that toxic, no more than the average organic liquid, but its well known as the main component of bitter almond oil from the cyanide-containing bitter almonds, and indeed it did smell like the best almonds or like those amaretto cookies. I think this is why people say cyanide smells like almonds despite many reports that cyanide smells nothing like almonds and more like pool water or nothing, but I've not really smelled straight cyanide myself and only worked with a few nitriles. Have you smelled any cyanide-containing compounds, and if so what did they smell like?

[@firstname_lastname3507]

It’s crazy, every video I think I’ve heard about the most crazy chemical, and then the next video I get proven wrong

[@That_Chemist]

Same - even I’ve been surprised a lot

[@Methylenedream]

I probably don't want to know the answer to this but ... how do you know what 'old people poop' smells like?

[@That_Chemist]

I have grand parents

[@airysquared]

Every time I hear about diethyl ether, I remember reading about "ether frolics" . I imagine those resulted in some buildings burning down.

[@viorp5267]

After years of chemistry I grew to love the smell of acetone

[@That_Chemist]

Same

[@spokehedz]

I live with someone that says certain gloves smell "sweet" but I don't smell it at all. So weird.

[@That_Chemist]

Probably phthalates

[@spokehedz]

@@That_Chemist She says they smell sweet, like an entire candy store, and absolutely nothing for me. She looks forward to the new pack every time. For me, the smell of PCB/Electronics is something along those lines as well. Smells too good for it to be healthy. Good gosh, who KNOWS what that is made out of.

[@phenethylamine91]

I love the heck out of the smells of MTBE and tetrahydrofurane.

[@Momfasa]

Love this! This is chemistry at its best

[@sagewynngames4222]

MEK is huge in aviation. One of the best cleaning substances for us. I love the smell but it would also love to tell you if you had a cut on your hand. ( I assume the paint thinner we used was MEK based, it smelled different than our acetone and it wasn't as sweet as acetone is)

[@robertlapointe4093]

Judging by my experience, and the other comments here, odor is very subjective. I find the odor of MEK to be much more objectionable than acetone (which, to me, is quite unpleasant). MTBE is another nope for me. Benzene and chloroform both smell OK to me, but toluene, xylenes, carbon tetrachloride and dichloromethane smell horrible. I find the odor of dienes nauseating (butadiene, isoprene, cyclopentadiene, methylcyclopentadiene, ethylidene norbornene, etc.). Although phosgene doesn't smell all that bad, knowing its toxicity makes it a definite no.

[@That_Chemist]

Interesting

[@oitthegroit1297]

What do each of the dienes smell like, specifically?

[@robertlapointe4093]

@@oitthegroit1297 To me they all have both a sharp and pungent component, somewhat like HCl, and a dirty sickening stench, like a mix of butyric acid, fatty amines and alkylphosphines. If you have ever been in a tire store, or a Harbor Freight, you have probably gotten a good dose of butadiene (which is constantly out-gassing from synthetic rubber), which leans more towards the sharp and pungent, while the heavier dienes have more of the stench component to their odor. Note that butadiene is listed as a class 1 carcinogen (confirmed human carcinogen), although its acute toxicity is low.

[@chang.stanley]

Your nose is broken

[@RangerOfTheOrder]

In grade school I loved the smell of my white out. My 3rd teacher told me it's not good for me to smell it, to which I said "It smells so clean". Also broken glowsticks have a very distinct chemically sweet smell, which I think is the phenol that's produced as a byproduct.

[@That_Chemist]

It could also be the Phthalate solvent

[@jimsvideos7201]

This channel is exactly what happens when smart people aren't adequately occupied and I am _here_ for it.

[@That_Chemist]

:)

[@szilveszterszalai230]

Once I was helping in a lab and they had an old mason jar that had DCM in it and it smelled like white chocolate

[@wilderuhl3450]

That chemist: I’m gonna rank chemicals The viewer: based off of versatility and safety That chemist: *anakin stare* The viewer: versatility and safety right?

[@That_Chemist]

you: I’m a youngling :) Me: not for long

[@alanh.790]

I love acetonitrile's smell.

[@ThatRedHusky]

If you snap 2 methyl tert-butyl ethers to a diethyl ether you get what I like to call the "kindergarten seagull"

[@indigateau241]

I actually prefer the smell of THF to plain old diethyl ether, the only problem being that it's THF. On the topic of incredibly toxic things that smell nice, when working with high-voltage electronics, I find the smell of ozone to be so alluring.

[@That_Chemist]

In small amounts of THF I agree, but it gets too intense too fast

[@Felixkeeg]

THF smells like ass. No other way to describe it

[@oitthegroit1297]

I love the smell of ozone too!

[@gilburtfilburt8779]

You keep saying MEK smells good and it's blowing my mind here. As someone who works with PVC solvent, I think that acetone-cyclohexane-MEK nose you get from glue and primer is just noxious.

[@That_Chemist]

it is also nauseating

[@colkadome]

Very controversial, but I love the smell of H2O

[@That_Chemist]

Lol

[@jacobengland7285]

Had to work with thiophenol for the first time this summer 🤢, me and the grad student I was working with hated it enough to swap it for diphenyl disulfide and luckily the reaction still worked

[@That_Chemist]

It is potent alright

[@madboycal7859]

I just got my first whiff of what acetonitrile smells like this summer. From a far it really smells like captain crunch cereal.

[@That_Chemist]

weird - I can't really smell it

[@PepekBezlepek]

@@That_Chemist me neither, very weak.. maybe it was contaminated

[@Hoosteen4]

Really fun video! Got me thinking of the political compass meme and how this follows a similar pattern: I'd love to see a follow up with more chemicals on axes of bad smell - good smell vs toxic - harmless (eg hydrogen sulfide, isoamyl acetate, etc)

[@athmaid]

Always get a massive headache from all the acetone in the ochem lab

[@chem525]

Pyrdine. Can't stand the smell of it. We try anything to substitute it out.

[@DrachenIvy]

will never forget when i accidentally inhaled too much diethyl ether during lab. fucking splendid.

[@That_Chemist]

Burning suffocation

[@matdyke5046]

Ive always liked the smells of hydrazine, morpholine, mek, gasoline, diesel, paper mills, and anfo smoke.

[@SizzleCorndog]

Man I really wish working in an ICP lab that had somewhat lax safety measures didn’t rob me of my sense of smell

[@gandalf8216]

Ozone is supertoxic to breathe in, but it smells so good. Ever removed a yarn jumper with all the static electricity going off? That smell, I just want to take deep breaths of it.

[@squareacid]

Chlorotoluens have this nice almondy/cherry like smells until you sniff too much then it burns your nostrils

[@ZA-mb5di]

6:35 it's for ingrown toenails not hangnails

[@pakey423]

To me, benzaldehyde has the most wonderful odor; I wonder where this would have ended up in this list. Same goes for pyridine, triethylamine (both of which I don't dislike at all) & methylacrylate (which I just hate).

[@AnderGdeT]

It smells like lillipops. HS students than came to the lab in summer all wanted to work with benzaldehyde.

[@pakey423]

@@AnderGdeT I love the 'artificial' almond odor of benzaldehyde. As a matter of fact benzaldehyde is indeed used for almond liquors (Amaretto), almond cookies, etc. Although pure benzaldehyde has a burning taste that doesn't resemble its odor at all.....(yes, I tasted it 😅)

[@andrewv3905]

Amyl nitrite might be one to consider

[@manuelmanolo7099]

Benzoquinone should at least be in B-tier for looking like a stunned alien

[@petermorph0se]

holy crap I hate phenol smell so much, never imagined some1 to like it. but well if the rest of your chemistry is sulfur I can see the reason for your tolerance

[@Kirillissimus]

I would expect DCM and DCE to be on the list as well. Dichloroethane (a somewhat popular glue for some types of plastics) has a very nice sweet smell but it is still toxic and slightly cancerogenic. In terms of forbidden pleasures it is probably quite close to phenol. And unlike phenol you can even taste it without getting your tongue burnt although I would really not recommend it.

[@IIIAnchani]

in my opinion the best smelling nasty chemical is acetone peroxide. It's hella cursed because it detonates if you do as much as tickle it a little energetically, it's sublimating, thus inherently trying to kill you by forming crystals in any space of your container, it's kinda toxic and it smells like spices for some reason. My prof made some on accident (well, that's what he said) and he showed it to us and taught us how dangerous it is. Never ever in my life do I want to smell that chemical again, and even when I'm just getting a whiff of something that smells similar, the hair on my neck stands up and I'm thinking someone is carrying a bomb.

[@Hoshimaru57]

MEK for me will forever be synonymous with modeling glue. I’m not even sure if that’s its doing it if it’s just a solvent for the agent that does the job. But yeah, smell it once and know its name and you’ll know it anywhere forever.

[@Hoshimaru57]

I’ve also had the misfortune of spilling an entire bottle of Tamiya modeling cement, which has toluene in it. While suffering from bronchitis. In the middle of the night. I was awake all night frantically trying to get rid of the smell and cursing my stupidity even more than mom did. I could smell and TASTE it for a month afterwards. It was imbedded in my sinuses and when I brushed my teeth it made my toothbrush taste like it. I don’t even want to know how bad that was for my health.

[@wailingalen]

Omg I wish I had a collection of organic chemicals to smell! Like an inventory or library. I do this with perfumes already, so I know I am fascinated with chemical smells

[@That_Chemist]

Perfumers apprentice is a good place to buy pure chemical ingredients - they also have a terpene kit which is all food grade and I highly recommend!

[@lancer2204]

Great episode, just one question however... WTF have you been smelling that acetone smells OK?

[@pakey423]

Can someone tell me how Boc anhydride can be so toxic through inhalation? Is it because it forms CO2 in contact with moisture? I worked with this as a student 25-26 years ago, but in that time there was absolutely no warning about inhaling this stuff. I remember it as a pleasant-smelling, low-melting solid, that's why it amazes me that nowadays it is considered to be as toxic as phosgene. So if anyone knows why this is so toxic by inhalation only, please let me know.

[@That_Chemist]

It should say in the MSDS sheets

[@user-yk1jl6ch7i]

My best guess is that Boc anhydride alkylates proteins in the lungs, which destroys them. If I remember, phosgene is toxic because it acylates proteins upon inhalation so I assume there's a similar mechanism of toxicity

[@pakey423]

@@user-yk1jl6ch7i Thank you so much for this explanation! To me this makes perfect sense! I wish I had known this when I worked with it 25 years ago. I don't remember seeing any ☠sign on the bottle. It smelled nice though, although not a very strong smell.

[@KATinBLACK]

My favorite forbidden fragrances were cyclohexane and formaldehyde back when I did labs. Although formaldehyde is associated with gross specimens and cadavers, by itself it smells like sickly sweet-ish pickle juice. Well, I do like to sip the juice for pickles, olives, and daikon so maybe I just like pickling solutions.

[@JQ3B941]

benzene and whatever else makes petrol/gas smell should go on this list

[@magnusmalmborn8665]

Since you mentioned white-out, classic white-out smelled of trichloromethane, which smells kind of good but is super banned. And re the smell of MEK (buthanone), it's the magic sauce in plastic glue, so there's you first reference.

[@That_Chemist]

Oh interesting!

[@magnusmalmborn8665]

I misspoke, it's of course trichloroethane, not methane.

[@thedevilofmetal5335]

Ether is a classic. Anyone takes that out in the lab and the whole place be smelling like anesthesia

[@Bloated_Tony_Danza]

VM&P Naptha from the hardware store smells wonderful

[@surkey5055]

I think one that belongs on here is Diflouroethane and other HFC refrigerants, they smell like cotton candy but are relatively toxic, eith Diflouroethane being the most toxic and tetraflouroethane being the least toxic.