> chemistry > métaux-alcalins > nurd-rage-lab-notes-making-sodium-metal > lab-notes-off-the-shelf-catalyst-testing-nurdrage

Lab Notes - Off the Shelf Catalyst Testing - Nov 11th 2018

NurdRage - 2018-11-11

We continue testing more catalysts for the sodium production reaction from magnesium and sodium hydroxide.



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#sodium

waterlubber - 2018-11-11

Maybe livestreams instead of premieres. If people can watch Fish Plays Pokemon I'm sure they'd be someone watching tea tree oil distill over.

TheDoctor - 2018-11-11

While anxiously waiting for Gerry the bug to commit suicide.

KatouMegumi_osu - 2018-11-11

Yeah, give the guy his vst to change pitch on his microphone

Dumb Videos - 2018-11-11

Being able to witness your journey to produce easily obtainable sodium metal has been pretty incredible!

NurdRage - 2018-11-11

Why thank you!

Alex Potts - 2018-11-11

11:06 honestly when I heard the phrase "and everything went perfectly" I was so happy. How long have you been working on this project now? Best part of a year?

NurdRage - 2018-11-11

Trying out this newfangled Youtube Premiere thing. Let's see if it works out or not. EDIT: looks like its "or not." okay, i'll stop doing them.

CrashTestCoder - 2018-11-13

One thing about the premier is that it sort of hides the video, i usually stumble onto your videos pretty quickly after you upload, but this one took me a day and a half...

Ankit Nandi - 2018-11-13

I found that Sigma-Aldrich sells a kilogram of >_97% Tetrahydrolinalool for very cheap.

Jay Rite - 2018-11-17

@NurdRage
I have access to tetrahydrolinalool. It comes in 80ml bottles. It's not terribly expensive and easy to find with a broad search on google.

Shona O'Neill - 2018-12-01

Awesome video series, thank you for saving me a shit load of cash, much appreciated.

LK FNDR - 2018-12-06

Try Cedrol Oil

piranha031091 - 2018-11-11

Racemic Patchoulol apparently has a melting point of 56 °C, is soluble in ethanol, and insoluble in water. Instead of distilling it, maybe you could try recrystallizing it out of a water/ethanol mixture?

(like, mix patchouli oil with ethanol (not sure about the ratios, maybe 25/75?), heat up to 50°C, add water dropwise till stuff starts crashing out, then just enough ethanol to make everything clear again, and let it slowly cool down to room temp, then in the freezer for a couple days or so?)

I'd try it myself, but I have no mean of getting my hands on essential oils now.

Professor Trog - 2019-02-06

Also, most of the other stuff in the mixture could be boiled off first.

DesignWorksDW - 2018-11-11

I have really enjoyed your lab note videos, being able to witness the process of solving problems has been very entertaining.

DarthRevan - 2018-11-11

Ikr 😎😎😎😎

bormisha - 2018-11-11

Yeah, in a sense it has even more value than the correct solution itself. Seeing people confront problems teaches you the ways to solve problems yourself.

dustin fisher - 2018-11-11

Patchouli oil...gross. Dirty hippies messing up your reactions

Wayne Moore - 2018-11-12

I know. I'd rather work with thiols than have my lab smell like the aftermath of Woodstock!

AguaFluorida - 2018-11-12

@Wayne Moore I'm eagerly awaitnig reports of your attempt to crack tris(thioacetone)... :D

SigEpBlue - 2018-11-15

@Wayne Moore Thiols...hey, thanks for reminding me! I have a few stink-bombs to make before Thanksgiving! Or as I like to call them, the Anti In-Law Devices. :D

kf6eml - 2018-11-15

@AguaFluorida the only way I would go near thioacetone is...
Well, actually, I wouldn't go near it. I wouldn't touch it with YOUR hands.

Humbulla93 - 2020-03-05

@Wayne Moore id rather work with patchouli than pyrdine, this was the worst smelling chemical i have dealt with

Safety Lucas - 2018-11-13

Guess who just ordered 80mL of tetrahydrolinalool!

Mike Sienicki - 2018-11-11

Congratulations on the 95% yield!

Gadgetboy - 2018-11-11

Butylated Hydroxytolulene's molecule looks cool. Also, my spellcheck hates it.

ProPyroPower - 2018-11-11

lots of work in this one, interresting point of view to see how you do what you do.

shawn mikeska - 2018-11-12

I love the lab note style videos recently and am learning more than ever. I have been watching these videos since I was a kid an am now halfway through a chemical engineering degree and I must say these practical chemistry videos have helped me more than some of my college classes. These videos are a great life's work and I hope they live on forever.

JamesG - 2018-11-11

Wonderful work! No way to thank you quite ENOUGH, so I'll just say thanks yet again, and repeat it now and then.

I'm looking forward to that final treatment, and still farther forward to what's next!

Matthew Fyson - 2018-11-12

I fell alseep with my headphones on and this started playing, made me jump lol

Niklas Landgård - 2018-11-11

Doh, not too fond of these premiers . You think there's a video but then you have to wait. :(

NurdRage - 2018-11-11

Alright bye, take care.

Niklas Landgård - 2018-11-11

@NurdRage by the way, love the channel. To be honest, I don't think the premiere is a big problem but i have heard that many creators miss or lose a lot of views when using this new funktion.

Peter S - 2018-11-11

If you use your brain, you can decode the time of the premier and then understand that coming early to a scheduled event will result in you waiting, just like it does in the real physical world. If it says premier and it's not time yet, you have advance word and you're going to wait. Is that REALLY so hard to understand?

Keanu Gump - 2018-11-11

That's not as bad as thinking there's no video for weeks, when in fact there was, but you didn't know about it because premiere doesn't work with notifications properly.

DesignWorksDW - 2018-11-11

I think it is a good thing in the area in instant satisfaction.

dontlikemath -.- - 2018-11-11

Have you considered trying the same process with rubidium?

Mr Slinky dragon - 2018-11-13

@Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface you know if you could obtain enough to cast it wouldnt be more reactive than caesium... caesium is the most reactive metal!

Cadwaladr - 2018-11-13

@Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface If you had an amount of francium that you could see with your eyes, it would be so radioactive that it would vaporise itself instantly.

Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface - 2018-11-13

@Cadwaladr not true at all. 21-22 minutes half-life, there's plenty of time. You kind of remind me of a friend I once had, who tried to tell me that one drop of HCl "the most powerful acid on earth" can dissolve a cubic foot of asphalt. I knew he was very wrong, in so many ways, but we were just kids.

Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface - 2018-11-13

@Mr Slinky dragon I wouldn't cast either. Swaged bullets, it's a verb, look it up. And no, Francium is a more reactive alkali metal than caesium. Especially since its radioactive decay would add heat to the reaction.

Mr Slinky dragon - 2018-11-13

@Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface

https://youtu.be/TLOFaWdPxB0

Watch this. Im not devolving to petty arguing.

Nicola Toma - 2018-11-11

Thank you so much for the acknowledgement, you made my day! If you can't distill patchoulol, maybe you could crystallize it by refrigerating the oil? It has quite a high m.p.

Mothman - 2018-11-12

I misread "tetrahydrolinool" as "tetrahydrocannabinol." I got really excited.

QbMaster2003 - 2019-01-06

Wow, didn't expect to see my name credited in your video. Really made my day :) I'm really glad that I was able to point you in the direction of a viable catalyst!

mark wellman - 2018-11-11

Absolutely awesome!!! Thanks bud, I really appreciate all the work you have done and have contributed to science. I would love to do experiments just like this.

Kerstin - 2018-11-11

I'm hyped for the final video but I could watch a thousand more videos of you preparing for it :D

Kevin Byrne - 2018-11-12

95% yield?! Congratulations ! Persistence pays.
I've been in awe of this project from the start. It seems incredible that someone can produce sodium metal without resort to the electrolysis of molten salts.

Felixkeeg - 2018-11-11

It's been a journey. I'm excited for future projects!

Yiṣḥāq David - 2018-12-06

Wow, I totally forgot about this channel, My brother used to watch 7 years ago, then he died from an overdose and I forgot about your channel. I was still subscribed nut since the bell was not hit I never got any videos in 7 years lol. I was watching a Thunderf00ts video and your video was on the recommended. Anyway so im back now lol

Don't Question Just Believe - 2018-11-12

It is so amazing that nobody on earth knew about The thing that he discovered

user21XXL - 2018-11-11

carboxylic acids decompose with bases at high temps. R-COOH --> R-H + CO2^

Pietro Tettamanti - 2018-11-11

Much higher temperatures. That reaction is usually done by dry distilling the carboxylate/base dry mixture, I'd say that the temperatures are around 500°C.
I could be wrong though.

gaylord - 2018-11-11

You’d see CO2 bubbling if this was the case.

Pietro Tettamanti - 2018-11-11

@gaylord
CO2 would be absorbed and turned to carbonate in such extremely basic conditions

user21XXL - 2018-11-11

@Pietro Tettamanti *basic

Pietro Tettamanti - 2018-11-11

Thanks for the correction, I was thinking of other stuff while typing the comment so I messed up😂

Yextus - 2018-11-12

Instantly buys 80-ml of Tetrahydro linalool

عبدالله الصالح - 2018-11-11

Amazing reaction

Jackson Porter - 2018-11-12

This is super cool! I’ve been following this for a while and would like to try these things but alas I do not have a condenser. Do you think using a metal tube wrapped with Teflon tape stuck into an Erlenmeyer flask would work?

NurdRage - 2018-11-12

You don't need a condenser if you're using a heavy alcohol. Tetrahydrolinalool and 4-terpineol are heavy enough that you can do this with just the flask and a bubbler.

Gabriel Gray - 2018-11-12

I was going to suggest salicyl alchohol but then "no aromatics" crushed my dreams

Eurisko - 2018-11-11

Excellent series on sodium metal production. I just ordered some tetrahydrolinalool, can't wait to try this!

2soldierman2 - 2018-11-13

I think they're a smallish company... They're probably gonna come in Tuesday and be like WTF are all these orders for tetrahydrolinalool about.

CrimFerret - 2018-11-12

It also sounds like hydroginating the distilled tea-tree oil might help it work even better. Regardless, I think you've given several paths for amateur chemists to produce Sodium metal.

Gpcas9 - 2018-11-12

hmm, 4k seems to get stuck all the time :-(

Gabriel Millee - 2018-11-13

When I'm able to I'm donating to you.

bormisha - 2018-11-11

Man, thank you very veru MUCH, it's such a wonderful work that you've done. And foremost, done professionally. It sparks some interest in building an amateur lab even in me who thought I've never have anything to do with chemistry! I wish you'd also do some professional teaching because you seem to have a talent for that.

Dark Sentinel - 2018-11-11

when is part 600 coming out?

XcaptainXobliviousX - 2018-11-12

SOON

markiangooley - 2018-11-12

Oh, the smells from those perfumer’s alcohols...

Dalitas D - 2018-11-19

How about Diacetone alcohol, its synthesis is easy and cheap, although i found some papers on its decomposition in alkali.
if its destroyed slow enough it should be viable (boils at about 160 though)

Ich Selber - 2018-11-17

I'm so excited =))))

rapidsynthetics - 2018-11-13

Yeah boii, he is back!

Marc Jungblut - 2018-12-04

When will you teach us how to make meth?

NurdRage - 2018-12-04

What do you mean "when"? i never promised anywhere that i would make it.

Logan Zaske - 2018-11-13

Just curious, how does tetrahydra linalool vary from the linalool found in cannabis? I ask because cannabis terpenes are readily available and fairly cheap as well...

NurdRage - 2018-11-13

not nearly as readily available. In some countries possession of cannabis related substances is punishable by death. I won't encourage my viewers to risk their lives for something as trivial as sodium.

William Pacheco - 2018-11-11

NurdRage, maybe the oxygen from the manganese hydroxide bonds to the primary and secondary alcohols leaving the hydrogen and sodium behind and backflow the operation, just maybe, try to collect the gas coming out of the bobbler and testing it out to see what type of gas it is, just a theory tho.

Zeb Henriksson - 2018-11-27

Hey I need some help I have been trying now for the past 7 months to make potassium chlorate whit no success I have not managed to produce 1 single crystal so far and honestly I’m really frustrated I have spent hundreds off hours and hundreds more research
In and trying everything I possibly can I’ve tried every single electrode I have ever heard mmo carbon and titanium and yet no success I have bought 8 different salts and re crystallized them and tried getting them as pure as I possibly can pls if any 1 has any tips or some thing to say I would love to hear it have a good day bye bye

Zeb Henriksson - 2018-12-03

Update I now have produced 3 grams off kcl03 I know it’s not a lot but I still did it I’m working on developing my methods the reason my healed was so small was based on the fact that I ran in to some production problems I toasted my dc power supply and made my entire house go black but anyways I’m so happy

Chris Storer - 2018-11-12

i will say that out of all the essential oils for catalyst, tea tree oil has got to smell the best :)

Donald Sayers - 2018-11-12

Polyvinyl Alcohol?

Keldor314 - 2018-11-12

Is is feasible to synthesize Tetrahydrolinalool from Linalool?

NurdRage - 2018-11-12

absolutely! But takes some work though.

ChaosPotato - 2018-11-11

Being a complete newb in chemistry, I wanna ask what the difference is between CH3 and H3C. The components are the same but not the result? Am I reading it wrong?

NurdRage - 2018-11-11

Its the same thing. They're just written like that to emphasize that the carbon is connected rather than the hydrogens

ChaosPotato - 2018-11-11

@NurdRage Oooooh okay :D Thanks!

Ryan Owens - 2018-11-12

I have loved following this series, the lab notes format is great.

GiggitySam Entz - 2018-11-11

Is this patentable ? XD