NurdRage - 2010-12-19
In this video we grow crystals of pure silver metal by electochemistry. The procedure is fairly simple. Just apply an electric current between a silver anode and an aluminum or silver metal cathode while they are immersed in silver nitrate solution. The silver ions from the anode will deposit on the cathode. The crystals are microscopic so to see them the solution is placed under a microscope. A glass slide may be placed over the solution to keep the surface flat so you can see it better. The crystals grow in different shapes depending on concentration and current applied.
As a Geologist, its great to see mineral growth in action, thanks so much for the demonstration.
lol would be nice if it was possible to do this on a larger scale to grow silver at home...haha
I love watching how the difference in current changes how the crystals grow. I would like to see this same experiment performed, but instead of a static resistor, placing a variable resistor or potentiometer into the chain, and then throttling the resistance to impede or accelerate the growth.
I'd really like to know how to do this on a larger scale. Amazingly beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Now I can tell my mother the silver DOES grow on trees! XD
Very awesome video, I think this is one of the few videos that really took my breath away as I watched the reactions. Love what you do, keep it up!
Awesome vid! I've never even thought about trying something like this even tho I have all the stuff to do it, I feel some experiments coming on! Keep up the good work, love the vids!
This is really amazing and beautiful. I have some silver plate pieces which need some plating in areas and I was thinking of making some silver to hopefully replate it myself.Do you have any recommendations as to how I can do this? I just subscribed to your channel too. Thanks for making this video.
Fantastic! I am SO impressed! Where chem and physics meet. I can't wait to try this for m class. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and making it quite clear (I think) on how to do this ourselves. cheers!
this reminds me of fractals, its beautiful !
Because it is a fractal..
Amazing video! Would love to see more like this.
Five plus minutes of my life, very well spent! Your video's are some of my most satisfying and enjoyable subscribed to content on YouTube and I can only have wished that you were the professor that had taught me 'O' chem back when I was still in school. Thank You again.
This was a fantastic vid. I love every one of these NurdRage videos and this one was top notch. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos and posting them here. Please don't ever stop rockin'!!
I have to sincerely thank you for making this video. That was very fascinating and one of the most amazing things I've seen in my lifetime.
With proper comtrol of this process you can make tiny pure-silver coral jewelery :D
Mr. NerdRage, This was one of your coolest videos! Thanks for teaching me all about chemistry!!
I'm speechless, this is really beautiful! Such a simple reaction too.
A+ as always thanks for taking the time to post and discuss the process as we observe it, also thanks for posting in HD the details are just awsome
Is this the same as colloidal silver? Thank you very much for your time in making these videos.
05:30 Reminds me of some plants in starbound found in volcanic planets with dangerously high temperature =p
Awesome video, I've seen pictures of this quality in my textbooks but never on video, whenever you do a crystallization from now on you gotta do this, it's so awesome!
Very unique !!! I'd say you did a great job capturing all this on film! Thank you....
Beautifully demonstrated. Thank you.
That's amazing! How large do these crystals get? I'd love to have some precipitated silver.
Could you please do a bigger one so we can see it with our bear eyes please ! :)
Crystal growing really fascinates me, thanks a lot for the video, i am studying chemical civil engineering and one of the reasons i am studying that is your awesome videos, thanks again
I love it when you can make unique art using science. :)
This is awesome. Weird too, to see something as lifeless as silver grow like an organic tree or something. Also, I want that microscope.
I may have missed this in the video, but what magnification were you using? Do you know roughly how many micro-meters across each crystal was?
I'm sure that these are the same things God says when he makes things. "Wow, look at that - isn't it amazing!"
Thank you for showing how incredible even very small things can be.
+Quality Silver Bullion god is the one who hid things like this from us you dumb fuck
+Zak K Eh. Only "faith" based "God". Krishna is called God by many and he encourages questioning and scientific study in the Gita. It's a form of yoga to study nature... supposed to help you connect to the divine.
+Zak K says the dumb
But humans are the ones who chose to cut off connection with God.
Zak K Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
It's like growing a bunch of silver trees! So breathtakingly beautiful. :')
Yes actually. this process is used to make extremely pure "electrolytic silver" for analytical chemistry applications.
Excellent, safe and easy to try. Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting videos, as always - keep'em coming. I don't understand a fraction of what's happening, but I'm always watching the whole vid when a new one comes out. Happy Holidays .-)
Is it possible to grow gold crystals??
Mexi Chemia holy crap dude haha. I dont have time for any of that. As much as I love chemistry, Im not a chemist. Im a fulltime bench jeweler with numbers I have to make. Ill make certain things, simple things. But making nitric acid and gold chloride from scratch, just for a cheap plating solution, is a waste of time. Im just gonna buy a liter of 14k yellow for 120 bucks. bahaha
Dylan Sewald you should really make it, I think they are ripping you off
maybe running electrolysis threw aqua regia???
the answer does seem to scream yes
don't it
Rory O if you dissolve gold in aqua regia and then run electricity. Yes it is possible
This was really beautiful, thank you.
I'm actually running a silver refining cell, using a the same method. I heard adding copper nitrate will make larger crystals grow. Seems to be true because as my solution gets more copper nitrate in it from the impure silver, the crystals seem to be growing larger and less spindley.
I was watching a nova video about fractals and when the current was used without the resister, you could totally see the crystals forming like fractals. I am sure that slowly grown silver was grown in fractals manner as well, but it is harder to see with larger structures.
That was beautiful !
Can this happen on a bigger scale without the microscope ?
*As crystals grow, T-1000 theme plays in head
sorta
kinda
Very cool, I remember separating hydrogen and oxygen with electrolysis when I was in HS.
Thanks for the video. Could someone please explain to me why the charge density is greater at the tips of the 'stems' of Silver, as explained at 4:30.
This was so well done. Thanks!
That'd be amazing to see a process like this on the larger scale, like a metal Tiberium.
Alchemy .-.
Rebornshadows false
I'm specialized in wet plate collodion photography process and this gives me an idea how to use this crystal growth as an aesthetic element. I wonder how big could it grow, does somebody know? Ideally I would need a crystal size between 10 and 30 mm.
I love this new video! Very relevant to my and my interest in photographic film chemistry :)
dude i take my hat off to you, i look through all these videos, and am am not only learning but you take it to the next level, by explaining the process in a well informed way. cheers from australia :)
Wow, that is just plain awesome. Thank you so much for showing me, I might have to try this myself....
Cobalt - 2014-08-29
This has got to be one of the most coolest things I've ever seen.