Applied Science - 2011-11-13
I followed instructions in the silica TMOS recipe from http://www.aerogel.org and successfully produced some small pieces of aerogel in my home shop. The two main difficulties are: 1. Getting TMOS or TEOS (the key chemical ingredient), and 2. Building a supercritical drying chamber. The components for the chamber can be bought from http://www.mcmaster.com or another source of industrial pipe fittings. You'll also need a supply of liquid carbon dioxide. I used a 20-lbs cylinder, which I bought from a local welding store. Most of the cost is in the cylinder itself, since a refill costs only $20 to $30. You may find a welding supply shop that will rent the cylinder. Getting the TMOS is difficult since chemical suppliers are generally unwilling to sell to individuals. The process to make aerogel is: 1. Mix TMOS, methanol, and ammonium hydroxide. Pour this mixture into molds, and wait for a gel to form. 2. Submerge the gel in methanol, and wait a day for the remaining water in the gel to diffuse into the methanol. 3. Discard the methanol, and replace with fresh methanol. Wait a day, and repeat. Repeat this process a few times over three days. 4. Transfer the gel into the supercritical drying chamber, and fill the chamber with methanol. 5. Add liquid CO2, then open the chamber's bottom valve to remove the methanol. Make sure the gels are always covered with liquid CO2. 6. Wait a day for methanol to diffuse into the liquid CO2. 7. Open the bottom valve and remove more methanol. 8. Repeat the methanol draining procedure while making sure the gels stay submerged in liquid CO2. Repeat the CO2 draining/exchange a couple times over 2-3 days. 9. Raise the chamber temperature to cause the CO2 to become supercritical. Slowly vent the chamber while applying heat to ensure the CO2 moves from the supercritical phase to the gas phase. Continue venting the chamber slowly, then remove the finished aerogels.
Even though this guy does not taste his chemicals as often as Cody does, he's still pretty interesting to watch.
XD
My home doesn't look like that at all.
yesterman You are not sciencing hard enough then.
+yesterman I imagine Ben's mom walking around in his shop and uttering "this is why we can't have nice things".
"get out of my room, I'm playing minecraft"
What did you think it would look like ITS a scientist house lol
Me too
i think your definition of "at home" is slightly skewed
He's at home?
Dont confuse "at home " with simple... these isnt a hot pocket hes cooking up here
he is at home, but happens to be that he has an independent home base lab and workshop, so its accurate.
😂
@@lmeza1983 it would be more accurate if he had named the video, "How I made aerogel at my home"...
Not sure if you're still checking comments on this video, but there's actually a semi-OTC method to make tetraethyl orthosilicate at home, which should substitute well for the tetramethyl used here. To do this, first prepare silicon tetrachloride by passing dry chlorine gas past some silicon in a heated tube. This reaction is extremely dangerous due to the large amounts of toxic corrosive chlorine required, but there are videos of the synthesis in youtube. One the silicon tetrachloride is made, purify it by passing it through a cotton filter and add it to excess anhydrous ethanol SLOWLY. The reaction is extremely violent due to flash boiling of the solvent. Once all the silicon tetrachloride is added, distill off the residual ethanol and what remains is tetraethyl orthosilicate, pure enough for aerogel.
Bill Smathers if you survive...lolz
"By passing dry chlorine gas over silicon in a heated tube" that sounds like hell to get set up.
Jordan Schlansky would be proud of your comment
i think nileRed or someone made a vid on something like that(making sillicon tetrachloride)
Surprised someone hasn't deleted your post with a copyright notice. Corporations hate technology being taught freely.
>making silica aerogel at home
>you need tetramethyl orthosilicate and a super critical drying champer
Pick one
Well he picked both.
>trying to greentext on youtube
What are you, 14?
Casper Fogh Larsen this isnt 4chan so that you can just use greentext like it's the colonial times lmmfaoo
What, you don't have obscure chemicals and technical apparatus at home?
will Amazon ship combustium trioxide to my abandoned funfair on coney island?
I had my doubts when you first talked about doing this, but wow it's amazing what an individual can pull off. I've only seen areogel once, at an art exhibit, it was a nice big chunk of it too. It really does look exactly like smoke.
I never fully understood the production of aerogel until this video. Thank you for explaining this in a way I could grasp fully.
one thing that may help against cracking. I believe you were right about the large almost instantaneous change in temperature being the cause for cracking. that being said, as opposed to wrapping the aerogel in foil, which will still allow the fluid to come in direct contact with a warmer body. I was thinking if you slowly cooled the gel prior to putting it in the chamber by putting the methanol bath in either a ice bath, or even just putting it in the freezer for a day prior to the supercritical phase. i belive this should help prevent cracking more so than just putting some foil around it.
Great video, I've fancied having a go at making areogel for a while. I don't want to sound like a health and safety freak but a gas mask doesn't offer sufficient protection. Moisture in the air and your breath will rapidly deactivate the filter rendering it useless at stopping chemicals. Why don't you build yourself a fumehood and vent it out one of the windows? A sheet of perspex a a couple of sheets of ply is all you'd need.
Hello , do you know how to make a mass products of aerogel ?
this guy reminds me a smarter more sane version of codys lab
exactly
I think he looks a lot like Cody, just older.
i think cody's lab is also smart and sane. they are both awesome channels
John P I said a smarter and saner version. Cody is very smart, but, AS seems much more intelligent. And Cody seems a bit off, like he lost a couple marbles.
Props for your username Cuntington
I don't think it's worth judging them against each other. Cody shows how it's possible to do things with a bare minimum of equipment, and I feel like people come to AS to see how to do things the way lab professionals would do it.
Hey man, I´m just preparing a short scientific lecture about aero gels and your video gave an nice look about howto produce them without industrial ressources. Thanks for it.
Wow, I hadn't realized how involved it is to make aerogel. It looks like my dreams of insulating my bus conversion with are dashed LOL!
Why are there so many comments from people who think the title implies that you can make this at YOUR home. This is HIS home. The title isn't "how to make aerogel at any home" it's "making aerogel at home." He very clearly did exactly what the title said. Also, he clearly explained the challenges with finding one of the chemicals AND he has another video explaining how to make the supercritical drying chamber. For fuckssake, most of y'all complaining probably can't even distill some water if you had to.
you are the ultimate DIY guru, respect.
By the way I just played subnautica and thought aerogel and magnetite were completely fictional hahaha ( in game to produce it you need Hydrofluoric acid + gold).
I'm usually meandering around youtube looking at the woodworking and other DIY channels and randomly came across this video. This video was great, well produced and informative, even if I never make aerogel.
I "liked" the video and, though I have no idea what the other videos on this channel are like, I have subscribed.
I happy to see intelligent, and informative 'science' videos that not are not not aimed at the 18-25 year old males (think loud, 'hey watch this' types) but towards a broader audience. This country has plenty of sports related opportunities for children (of all ages) that may grow up dreaming of being a hoop star but end up working at Mc D's, there should be more community based opportunities (in and out of a school environment) for kids of all ages to do more science. The Maker Movement may be a start.
Thanks for this video and now off to view the rest of this channel and hope my expectations are not dashed.
I was thinking about making some at my home to help insulate my sun room (it gets cold in the winter and wreaks havoc on the electric bill) but now I see it would be cheaper just to buy a door because I don't have the equipment, chemicals, money, or know-how to make it. Cool video though.
good luck buying enough to insulate a room it will cost millions
triple glazing instead?
@IgnemFeram Thicker jacket and a furry hat!
ya, the good ole days of giving technology to the people are over. to do anything now, you will be heavily controlled in your potential. the american way is gone.
@@johnwortherly4592 what are you even talking about?
To think we can freeze dry some solution at home and make a flexible aerogel at home without fuss these days so fast and easily...
These videos make me happy to see how we have advanced by so much compared to the effort that had to be tackled back then.
How to make aerogel at home. Step one: Get a chemical that isn't sold to individuals.
Next video should be - how to get that chemical from accessible by individuals
Your videos are an education.Thank you so much for sharing your projects with us. You could avoid the multiple methanol changes by adding some anhydrous aluminum chloride granules to the Ethanol. These would lock up all the water that emerges from the gel. Best regards, David Kane.
Instead of drying the gel by replacing the methanol have you considered adding a drying agent to it such a silica gel or anhydrous magnesium sulfate to essentially trap the water as it diffuses out of the gel into the methanol, then instead of changing it every day or so just leave it in the 1 container for a few days in the same methanol + drying agent bath.
I was thinking the same thing, but with molecular sieves.
Dessicated molecular sieves would be an excellent drying solution at that stage, and the seives could be regenerated and reused. Would save methanol also.
I got to play with some aerogel in highschool back in 2003. A research physicist at OU brought it by. He also brought some metal wire that had true shape memory that could be reset by a quick dunk in room temp. distilled water.
TMOS is hard to get because it's very dangerous in untrained or malicious hands. Even a small amount of the vapor getting in your eye will cause blindness.
Drinking beer will cure the blinding effects of methanol poisoning.
@@bloodyricho1 Good luck with that 5% Ethanol that is in beer.
I'm Australian I'm sure that I can drink enough 😂
if vodka would cure the blinding effects, does that mean you could bomb russia (not that you would want to...) with that stuff and it would have no effect on the majority of population?
Dead Meme Well since their blood is 75% straight vodka, yes.
What did you expect? This guy did a freaking fantastic job explaining this. I know I don't have a lab at home, but this seems simple enough.
You're a very good teacher.
The stuff you do at HOME blows my mind
notes : METH 0:23
He did say he is working on getting his quality better! Freaking hizenburg!
jordan foster *Ahem!* Hisenberg
Волынщик*Ahem!* Heisenberg.
Alex Hudson Wow. I can't believe I actually spelled that wrong. That is... hilarious.
Methanol
To get around the cracking issue, it might make sense to insulate and refrigerate the chamber first. You could even do that with a dry ice and alcohol bath without too much trouble. Once the gel is cooled, it will no longer undergo any thermal expansion or contraction of a significant scale. Then the addition of liquid CO2 will very likely not cause the cracking to happen. Just a thought.
You're on a good way to making a spacecraft at home :)
During the water extraction phase perhaps you could use a desicant like CaO, CaO3, or silica gel to the dry gas instead of changing it out just sprinkle a little more in over time. The desicant can be regenerated with heat (lots for CaO, CaO3), silica jell can ge cooked out in an oven.
Why is TMOS so guarded? Does it have explosive capabilities or something?
What is TMOS?
Tetramethyl orthosilicate. Sometimes called TMOS.
It produces methanol which can cause lung lesions and blindness
Well, methanol can be extracted from wood aswell
@@matthewcorderou1674 yeah that stuff is dangerous aswell it is in smaller volumes though
Amazing stuff, you are a real life Gyro Gearloose, thanks for sharing.
lmfao dood the first five seconds of the video i thought "breaking bad" then i saw youre comment
Hey! I’m just wondering, we’re you verified when you made this comment, or were you just a normal user?
I love the fact that you felt the need to explain what baking paper is! :D
Step 3 seems to take quite a while. I would try using a soxhlet extractor during this step. That way you can "wash" the sample with fresh, almost pure methanol and it would basically be the same as dipping the thing and letting it sit over the course of a few days. Also, you won't need to constantly change the solvent, due to the working principle of the soxhlet extractor. Be sure to check it out. :)
That is actually not a bad idea because methanol and water don't form an azeotrope.
i just realized that when i saw your clip on supercritical co2 back '11 or '12 i never heard of the stuff so i searched on youtube for other videos on it and thats how i found periodic videos channel. youtube is great!
Great video! thanks for sharing!
This was very interesting. Being a simple crafter, I can only imagine all the uses this stuff could have. Thanks for sharing!
Very nice! Does it have heat insulation properties like commercial aerogel?
Here is the safety section on wiki about Tetramethyl orthosilicate: The hydrolysis of Si(OCH3)4 produces insoluble SiO2 and CH3OH (methanol). Even at low concentrations inhalation causes lung lesions, and at slightly higher concentrations eye contact with the vapor causes blindness. Worse, at low concentrations (200ppm/15min) the damage is often insidious, Contrary to several erroneous MSDS sheets, the methanol produced is relatively innocuous think about it !
One way you can make tetramethoxysilane at home is by reacting silicon tetrachloride with methanol.
Hello do you know how to make aerogel for cheap
That was pretty cool! I found that diesel truck brake line antifreeze contains 100% methanol with no additives, I tried by evaporating some on a mirror and nothing at all remained after evaporation. It's cheap too, about 20 dollars a gallon. I've used it in many extractions of volatile oils and never had a problem. As for the TMOS, we had some in college, I remember we had to be VERY careful with it because on contact with anything moist it hydrolyses, producing SiO2, like in eyes or lungs.
May I ask what are the most important uses of aerogel??
It's a great insulator and super light weight, I guess it's used a lot with NASA. Also great as filter media and absorbing chemicals.
Thank you very much for your prompt reply.
You are the legend ulta Pro Max
In making home made aerogel
what you think about to make a phosphorescent areogel powered by uv led?pretty the same idea as phospors COB LEDS
Make up a 5% solution of phosphoric acid and then very slowly drip sodium silicate that has been cut with 80% water with vigorous stirring until the whole thing turns into a very solid thick jelly. It's very brittle gel at this point so handle it with great care. Now place it in the vacuum jar which makes the water boil away at room temperature due to the high vacuum. The vacuum also keeps the structure from collapsing. This form of "poor-man's" aerogel may shrink a little and is not very transparent but it's a cheap way to make a lot of high temperature and lightweight flame retardant insulation or even a good stuffing for an Arctic jacket at a very low cost. Using this technique I can fill up about six or seven 5 gallon buckets full of lightweight aerogel per day for a cost under $9. I used to freeze dry fruits and vegetables and stumbled onto this technique kind of on accident. In fact the aerogel made with the vacuum drying process reminds me of a freeze-dried Apples in many ways. Very light but pretty tough, hard to snap. For those of you who do not know water boils at room temperature in the vacuum. The trick is to use only enough vacuum to get the water evaporating very quickly but not boiling or the bubbles will blow the gel apart
What about a partial vacuum for drying? Enough to counter the collapse into the xerogel.
Xerogel is correct, it's the collapsed more solid, less airy version.
Then the boiling action of the methanol would most likely break the gel. The supercritical step is to avoid those movements by rising the temperature in the sealed chamber until the meniscus vanishes then slowly drop the pressure while keeping the temperature above boiling point until 1 atm has been reached. A smooth transition from liquid to gas has been achieved without violent boiling or surface tension pulling.
Holy crap this guy is awesome. How on earth do you get so damn talented and smart.
That's your home shop??? That's not fair...
At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2 will sublimate from dry ice into CO2 gas. However, at higher pressures, the dry ice will melt into liquid CO2. Whether this process is sublime or not, is for you to judge.
@StevePelcz - 2015-06-03
Dude just invited half a million people to come over and make aerogel at his shop, what a baller.
@artonline01 - 2018-09-19
Wonder if he has any left?
@Bert0ld0 - 2018-12-09
yei! Let's do this
@li2323003 - 2018-12-22
@@artonline01 You kidding? He home built an SEM.
@artonline01 - 2018-12-22
bunsenburner I'm kidding
@li2323003 - 2018-12-22
@@artonline01 So was I :)