Is there a test I can do to positively identify boron nitride, or white graphite? Ideally, this would be a simple test that I could do in my kitchen...

What?

Call up your CSI or FBI amigos!

Sorry, guys. I was asked to take a look at a white powdery substance from overseas, and make a recommendation. Under a microscope, it looks like glass marbles, and it's used as a dry lubricant in a printing operation. I think it's boron nitride, but am totally unsure and was looking for some basic chemistry or analytical processes that would prove or disprove my hypothesis....

FYI, wikipedia lists some of its properties: Insoluble in water, and with a melting point of 2700C. I'm no expert, but I think that's about as hot as the sun.... I tried the water solubility experiment, and also to try to dissolve it in a 30% phosphoric acid solution, which should eat just about anything that's reactive with acid. Both yielded zero results.

Can you weight it and do volume testing to calculate molecular weight and compare?

I could, but I need a basis for comparison, i.e., I have no idea if the bulk density is dependent on atmospheric pressure. It's pretty 'fluffy'.

Work backwards? Can you find a way to get pH and a couple of other variables to get into a probability problem to confirm your hypothesis?

D, you've outsmarted me. I'm not sure. It's pretty inert, as-is. Slippery as hell, though.

Tastes like white chocolate, compared to regular graphite which tastes like pencil lead?

Ok, scratch that or someone will think they should actually taste test it.

kinda wishin you had bought a mass spectrometer instead of paying the last couple months mortgage right about now?

CJS, sorry to hijack the topic but I couldn't resist. The last time I was asked to look at a white powdery substance from overseas I was a cop, we were making a major bust and my recommendations went something like..."You have the right to remain silent....(you know the rest) .

Now back to your regularly scheduled serious topic. Sorry.

Sounds like a 'small' version of that stuff you shake on the shuffleboard table at the watering hole...(which is what, little wax balls?)

Did some searching, cool stuff! The stuff you're talking about is 'hexagonal Boron Nitride', (h-BN) and there's also 'cubic Boron Nitride (C-BN), aka Cubic Zirconia...both seem to be nearly indestructible!

Got an acetylene torch setup? Since hBN melts at 2700°C (one website says 3000°), and an acetylene torch burns at 3200° to 3500°C, you would just barely be able to melt it. I would think that pretty much any other white powder would just vaporize(?)

Yes, I do have a torch. I'll give that a shot, and we'll see what happens.

i've got no experience identifying white powdery overseas stuff and it seems you don't either (and that's not necessarily a bad thing). so i was wondering why you were asked to identify the stuff.

The anticipation is killing me!

My only thought would be to take it to a local testing laboratory. Not the solution that you would want.

I was in on the bust and had the test kits in my brief case. Turned out to be very high grade cocaine. Not the kind of quantity you read about in the newspaper, but it was uncut.

GFC - I was hoping / assuming that was the case with you given your past occupation. I was curious about CJS, though.

Coming from a Chemical Engineering background, sticking a torch to any unknown is not what i'd call a proper scientific approach. If that powdery material happened to be something like Magnesium, you'd have an issue on your hands pretty quick. Not to mention flaming a powder can be explosive or result in oxidation of said substance which could result in toxic gas release. Is there a college around with a chem department??

wouldn't it be safer from a toxidity perspective if the powder was doused in kerosene before torching it?

absolutely kidding here, folks. don't try that at home (or anywhere else for that matter).

"Really Officer, it's not coke, it's Boron Nitride!"

To test the stuff with a torch, you'd only need a very teensy tiny bit. Like, draw a dot with a pencil---a pile that big is oodles to test to see if it'll melt or vaporize.

Well, it melted.

Bruce, I work for a consulting firm that reverse-engineers products, mostly foods. Sometimes we get a referral from outside the food industry. A client asked us to review an existing product to see if it would be feasible to offer something competitive at a lower price. I just have to tell him what I think it is, and he does the rest.

Sure its not malamine?

interesting job. do your business cards read from right to left?

Yep, but they don't make any sense!

Ahhh, Bluce, you velly funny guy.

or maybe it looks like this:

detaroprocni gnireenigne esrever