I Tried to do Chemistry with LEGO Bricks

Legos have always fascinated me, these prismatic building blocks were the gateway to expressing my creativity and most likely yours too, over a trillion of these blocks have been made over the the past 60 years. People not only play with these blocks, but the blocks play an important role in shaping interest, such as mine, they had a part in me becoming a chemist. Legos have a lot in common with chemistry, you can build with molecules in the same way you can with blocks and create new things, just as blocks can connect in specific ways and not others, so can molecules. Besides these similarities legos are a marvel of not only engineering but chemistry.
Legos are made from plastic, specifically ABS. This plastic is a polymer composed of three distinct monomers: acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene. These chemicals combine to create a robust material with excellent resistance, durability, and machining properties, making ABS ideal for manufacturing precise and colorful Lego bricks.
The intriguing challenge arises when we attempt to revert this plastic back to its original chemical components. Most recycling processes are mechanical, where the plastic is shredded and reformed into new products. However, chemical recycling is a far more complex endeavor. Ideally, we would like to break down the polymer back into its monomers, essentially reversing the chemical bonds that formed the ABS.
The problem is the very properties that make plastic so useful-its stability and durability-also make this process incredibly challenging. ABS is a very stable polymer, resistant to breaking down under normal conditions. However, we can overcome this stability through a process known as thermal depolymerization. By applying significant heat, we can break the chemical bonds within the polymer, effectively decomposing it into its constituent monomers.
Lets see if we can break down ABS into its components, mainly I want to focus on getting styrene out, due to its use in other chemical synthesis.
Links:
SUBSCRIBE ► ua-cam.com/users/WheelerScie...
Patreon ► patreon.com/user?u=86389980
Discord ► / discord
Instagram ► / wheelerscientific
eBay ► www.ebay.com/usr/wheelerscien...
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:07 Chemistry
04:52 Washing
05:38 Distillation
08:00 Analysis
Thanks for watching!

[@tracybowling1156]

I definitely learned a lot from watching this video. Melting Lego and getting distillates is just another example of chemistry being the real magic. It might seem commonplace to some. But not to me!

[@aldoalexisorozcomendoza435]

I am a novice chemist, I´ve watched all of your videos, the processes in all of them are very well structured and explained; it motivates me to continue experimenting. Keep going like that, bro. :)

[@placeholerwav]

The styrene can be oxidised into benzaldehyde, seems like something nilered would do "turning lego bricks into cherry soda"

[@senssens5794]

the building blocks of chemistry

[@chemicalmaster3267]

@Wheeler Scientific One interesting way to chemically recycle plastics that produce styrene by thermal decomposition is to convert the purified styrene into benzoic acid or benzoates, which are way more harmless to the environment.

[@jonmarquez128]

This is why stepping on Legos hurt! 😆 🤣 😂

[@dreamer_sim]

0.o ive always wanted sum acryle nitrile thx

[@samuelbright8713]

I like dragons.

[@WheelerScientific]

Dragons are fun.

[@stasi0238]

​@@WheelerScientific Dragon chemistry next?

[@samuelbright8713]

@@WheelerScientific yes dragon chemistry

[@UncJupiter1]

I really regret eating Legos now

[@markedis5902]

Assuming that the extremely expensive mass spec is at college / university???

[@WheelerScientific]

Yes, I wish I could afford one. lol

[@multiarray2320]

​@@WheelerScientific back in the days i built one on my own. took some days but was incredible cheap and more than good enough for what i did.

[@mgritsch]

Very interesting and highly professionally done and well explained! Btw: why do you first dissolve the liquid samples in ether just to drive it off again before running the GC?

[@WheelerScientific]

Thanks! it serves two purposes: 1. It dilutes the sample, it only takes a very small amount of sample to analyze. If too much was to be put in the detector could become damaged. 2. It carries it through the instrument to the Gas-Chromatography column where the separation occurs. lmk if you have any other questions!

[@mgritsch]

Thanks for explaining. Why did you choose a copolymer instead of pure polystyrene? There are plenty of examples about cracking PS to the monomer, would be interesting to know how pure the resulting product is. Maybe also highly contaminated with toluene, ethylbenzene etc? Or is this specific to ABS?

[@WheelerScientific]

I have done styrene from styrofoam, a few videos ago, about the same results.

[@Salt_and_Peroxide]

ah yes proffesional

[@WheelerScientific]

styrene makes my tummy hurt