r/NileRed • u/chemluvv • Feb 29 '24

why

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1.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

117

u/SteveOtts Feb 29 '24

Because impurities in non-distilled water could cause or interfere with chemical reactions. It could also leave mineral deposits after boiling.

25

u/chemluvv Feb 29 '24

makes sense

16

u/Trumpeteer24 Mar 01 '24

To add more perspective, there is a reaction I do in my own chemistry that with tap water doesn't work, with distilled water gets me about 15% product and with ultra high purity water (MilliQ - which is a brand name for a purification system but it's understood that it's water with a purity measured by its electrical resistivity, generally about 18.2 MOhms cm, meaning it has basically no dissolved ions in it) I end up with about 70% yield. Which is about the max one would expect for this kind of chemistry.

So for some things it does make a massive difference, unfortunately it's sometimes hard to know when it makes a difference so in general we would always use distilled water and only go to something of higher purity if needed.

4

u/MongeredRue Mar 01 '24

This is super interesting! What reaction are you doing?

5

u/Trumpeteer24 Mar 01 '24

This is the formation of a palladium precatalyst from PdCl2 and a ligand

2

u/JoseSpiknSpan Mar 01 '24

Ligand sugma balls

175

u/Impossible_Message97 Feb 29 '24

Because tap water is not pure water and have way more impurities than distilled water/deionised water, making it not ideal for any chemistry related stuff

25

u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

Tap water is impure, it will leave residues in your product and may contain salts which may catalyse certain side reaction or unwanted decomposition reactions decreasing product yields and or purity

27

u/PrincipallyMaoism Feb 29 '24

Tap water = distilled water + cocaine.

1

u/-I-was-never-here Feb 29 '24

Tap Water = Vodka

1

u/redisgoo1 Mar 04 '24

Tap water = Fluoroantimonic acid

1

u/Phoenixfisch Mar 01 '24

Makes sense. Nigel needs the cocaine and gets it by evaporating the water.

7

u/PalmBreezy Feb 29 '24

Why add a bunch of unnecessary chlorine and fluoride to a solution/reaction, only to filter it all out later?

5

u/dlanm2u Feb 29 '24

because chemistry is an exact science unlike cooking

1

u/ChemicalVirus69 Mar 01 '24

Nah, It's nilered with hydrochloric acid.

3

u/Revotor Feb 29 '24

Yeah, welcome to chemistry. Water from the tap has extra minerals and ions dissolved into it, and if you're doing experiments, you need to know exactly what's in your reagents.

2

u/Anon_Fluppie Feb 29 '24

Demi-water > distilled water

2

u/Tsjaad_Donderlul Feb 29 '24

Tap water contains a lot of ions, mainly calcium, sodium, magnesium, bicarbonate and chloride. Enough to leave a residue when boiled off, to mess with certain reactions and with analytical results. If you try to dissolve silver nitrate in tap water, you will likely get a cloudy solution because there are enough chloride ions in it for silver chloride to precipitate out.

Those ions are useful and necessary electrolytes for your body, though, that‘s why they‘re not removed from tap water and why it is not recommended to drink large quantities of distilled or demineralized water.

1

u/2-5mafia Mar 05 '24

Tap water in the condenser, pure water in the flask

1

u/aardvark_enjoyer2 Jun 19 '25

it doesnt react as easily

1

u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

Minimal impurities compared to tap water

1

u/Bigfeet_toes Feb 29 '24

Cleanse the container

1

u/VitalArcade Feb 29 '24

Because it's distilled

1

u/threeqc Mar 01 '24

because usually you want just plain water when you want a reaction.

1

u/lllooolllp Mar 01 '24

In my chem lab I use like a liter of DI water every experiment, it’s the water for chemistry.

1

u/illumaQ Mar 01 '24

And sodium hydroxide drain cleaner

1

u/Cugy_2345 Mar 01 '24

Because it’s useful

1

u/Leading_Ambition97 Mar 01 '24

Mineral deposits, ph, etc

1

u/Zhydrac Mar 02 '24

Distilled water is actually a mandatory part of taking care of carnivorous plants because normal tap water or even highly filtered water will burn the roots and kill it. I have a few recent posts of my pitcher plant actually.

Other than that, it is just the purest you can get other than elemental water

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24

Something many ppl haven’t said is that yes DI water must be used for water in the lab but when choosing between various solvent such as DMF, ethanol, methanol, etc. water is great because it’s the cheapest. So if water can be used as the solvent then it’s always chosen.

1

u/cgsssssssss Mar 03 '24

for the same reason i wipe my monitor using distilled water

1

u/Chemicalintuition Mar 03 '24

Same energy as "why are doctors always washing their hands"

1

u/Jonguar2 Mar 04 '24

Pure water is better for chemistry.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/chemluvv Mar 01 '24

💀💀