conclusion

So finally my lame polling about which is your most hated lab chemical is over. And I was rather surprised with the result.

Nitric acid: 0

Sodium hydroxide: 0

Aqueous ammonia: 5

Potassium manganate (VII): 1

Potassium dichromate (VI): 0

Silver nitrate: 4

You know I was expecting silver nitrate to win a landslide or something, but in the end it actually got pwned by aqueous ammonia. Ok, let me first explain why I chose these few chemicals.

Firstly, all the above chemicals are very common in a chem lab, especially during QA test.

Nitric acid: oxidising agent, and corrosive. Although most of the time the concentration is dilute so there won't be any immediate effect but still..

Sodium hydroxide: the main problem is with it's soapy feeling, which (in my opinion) is so disgusting. I seriously' don't like the slimy feeling that simply refuses to be washed off. Every time when I got sodium hydroxide on my hand I don't bother to wash it with plain water anymore, simply taking the nearest bottle of acid on the bench and pour. I would rather burn then slime and corrode.

Aqueous ammonia: seriously I don't get why so many people voted for that. It is slimy, yes, but not as slimy as sodium hydroxide and possibly only half as dangerous based on toxicity and corrosion ability. Maybe it's the smell. I know ammonia smells horrible, but then you don't have to stuff your nose into the bottle u noe...

Potassium manganate (VII): when I put down it's name I know that most likely no one will vote for it. Yes, it's a strong oxidising agent, but it's not corrosive, it's not slimy, it's not smelly. The most it can do is to make a temporary brown stain on ur finger that lasts at most a few days. I also dunno what's with the brown stain..Alternatively, it can cause a rather permanent stain on your clothes, and spontaneously burst into flames when glycerol is added to it. Apart from that, nothing interesting.

Potassium dichromate (VI): Ok I don't really hate this chemical, because it's colourful. But I will definitely not get too close to it than I can achieve. Because it contains chromium (VI) ions that are CARCINOGENIC. The last thing I want to bring away from a chem lab is skin cancer or something stupid.

Silver nitrate: The ultimate horror of all chem labs. Due to its original appearance that looks like water, nobody will suspect a colourless puddle on the work bench to be silver nitrate...and thus they will not spam wash their hands after the experiment. And then the ions start working...silver ions combine with oxygen to form oxides of silver, thus the metallic purple stain starts to show up little by little...until 2 hours to 1 day after the incident, the stain is in full bloom. The worst part of it is that there's no way to remove it, except to wait for weeks or even months for it to wear off naturally. If it gets onto your clothes, unless you don't mind that purple stain you can kiss your clothes goodbye (beware further contamination) It is known that even the lab staff in the SRC is afraid of silver nitrate and at least one classmate has developed paranoid of silver nitrate. And I hate it as well.