Quote:
Originally Posted by wooohooo
That's insanely crazy. And Incredibly stupid!
I remember hearing a story about how someone was t-butyl Lithium and it's so reactive that exposure to air caused the person to light on fire.
|
It is not uncommon to have the syringe needle tip catch on fire while handling t-butyl lithium. Recently, at UCLA a grad student was handling a large amount of t-BuLi (~50 mL of solution). My understanding was that she was working alone over Christmas (mistake #1) and while pulling back the plunger on the t-BuLi it popped off and sprayed all over her. It lit on fire and she ended up dying from the burns she sustained a few weeks after the accident. I've used t-BuLi a lot before but you need to handle it properly and with respect (like a lot of chemicals).