Distilling Highly Reactive Potassium for a Dangerous and Unique Gift
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- In today's video I will try to distil the alkali metal potassium to make a large vial of the highly reactive metal. I have distilled rubidium and cesium before, but never potassium. I made an apparatus out of glass to distil the metal under vacuum.
If you don't want to miss Elias' video on potassium production, subscribe to his channel: / @eliasexperiments
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Music: 'Artemis' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
11:35 The condensation and the change of soundtrack are magical
Thank you!
@@AdvancedTinkeringI like the mucky jars @ 1:36 😆
And I believe you just sold me on an old passion of mine... 😍
PS What is that metal preserved in, in those jars?
Oil? Which oil?
Ok, so, kerosene😁
Somehow, I can't comment outside answers, on my own...
2:28 That DOES look like a piece of rather old and unwholesome goat cheese...
7:49
"Das muss irgendwas anderes... AH!"
The moment of realisation is glorious
Jawohl!
I really didn't expect that to be so beautiful. Thanks for making this. Fascinating.
Can you imagine being on a planet that has liquid Potassium condensing into a metallic rain?
The drops would fall from the sky like soft puffy bullets. Oxygen would not be anyone's friend in such a place.
The sight of those vapours condensing in the glassware is the sort of thing that drew me to Chemistry in the first place.
I've thought about such things. I like your thinking.
Those shots with the potassium condensing on the glass with the light box behind it were 👌
Thanks! It's actually just the bright sky I the background.
@@AdvancedTinkeringthe biggest lightbox of them all
Really is a beautiful thing.
It's called German forecast 😂
At 0:09 it says "Glass Cocks"😊
I once visited an old decommissioned highschool chemistry lab (and when I say decommissioned, I mean they left all the chemicals and decommissioning didn't happen at all), and they still had a massive jar with more potassium than I have seen in my entire life - they had an ampule of mercury roughly the same size as the one you made in this video, but the mercury had mercury salt crystals floating in it 🙃
not to mention multiple kilos of different mesh size lead powder
Don’t be a pussy. I dare you to lick it.
Fun fun. om nom nom all the shinnies lol
That's just a shopping trip with extra steps?
Correct 😳😈
Distilling a metal has to be one of the coolest things ever!
Technically one of the hottest, since to distill it you have to heat it HEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEU
Not to mention one of the most dangerous things as well! If you are doing something like this and aren't sweating a pool out of your crotch, you probably aren't aware of what you're doing!
I'm surprised he isn't doing this in a hood. Mistakes happen. No one wants hot liquid metal on skin.
The music during the shots of the potassium condensing was great. Great taste!
I have a horrible attention span and watched every second of this, thank you for the treat.
I’ve worked with potassium before and nearly all of that video had me sitting on the edge of my seat biting my nails. I admire your nerve.
Yeah, that was quite a generous sized chunk of k!
The metal-on-metal scraping of the mixed oxides would have had me retreating to a distance of 20m or so, and that assuming I had the PPE the presenter did, otherwise 100m :D
I would do the scraping in a hood. Peroxides can be nasty.
I had a rush of excitement when I saw that apparatus!
I had so much fun doing this with you! It is such a cool project! And I am very impressed how quickly you edited the video ;-)
Same! The weekend was, as always, a lot of fun! Can't wait for your video :)
I'm not a chemist but totally appreciate the knowledge and skill that goes into it. Just making the glassware yourself and then the huge block of potassium as big as a house brick made me subscribe. I have never seen such a large piece.
That distillation montage was absolutely mesmerizing. It's also amazing to see potassium in such a pure state.
Quick tip on scraping those per/superoxides… find yourself a bronze alloy knife. CS Unitec makes some beryllium bronze knives that are fairly hard, intrinsically safe and mostly non-magnetic. You never can tell how deep those oxide layers are. As a hazmat chemist, I’ve encountered a few “dry” pockets on the surfaces of alkali’s, and trust me, you do not want to experience that chain reaction occurring with a 500g chunk of alkali metal in your hand.
Nicely done. Back when I was doing this sort of stuff in grad school, we routinely washed our glassware with acetone to remove bulk organics, distilled water to remove the acetone, an overnight soak in chromic acid (~ 90 g of Na2Cr2O7 in a liter of concentrated sulfuric acid) followed by 3X rinses with tap water, concentrated ammonia, tap water again and then distilled water followed by drying at 200C under high vacuum (~ 10-4 mbar). The folks in the lab next door (Klaus Theopold's group) used piranha solution (50/50 mix of concentrated sulfuric acid and 30% H2O2), instead of chromic acid until a post doc nearly killed herself when she dumped a batch of fresh (hot) piranha into a flask of acetone by mistake (we felt the floor jump next door and were deaf for a while). If Germany has a problem with nitric acid I imagine it won't be happy with either of these methods. The main point is to oxidize any residual organics or metals (which can then be washed out). Another method, which I used in an industrial setting, was to run the container (either glass or stainless steel) through an annealing oven at about 550C, which would burn off any organics (usually polymers in my case) followed by a blast of compressed air to remove any ash.
In professional settings and universities nitric and sulfuric acid are commonly used, but they are banned from free market sale to unlicensed individuals in all of europe due to anti terrorism laws, just as finely powdered aluminum
Since the still was annealed at around 550 °C all the organics are probably gone. But maybe some inorganic impuritys were still left inside the ampoule.
Dear God. Help us.
The safer alternative to chromic acid cleaning is ammonium persulfate in sulfuric acid, sold as "Alnochromix."
An alternative method is to use ozone as the oxidation agent. Perhaps use N2 from a dewar for less contamination instead of compressed air.
Nitric and sulfuric acid are such basic core chemicals that laws banning their use are foolish. If someone is serious, they can easily make it.
That distillation was remarkably beautiful. I loved the look of the potassium in the ampoule before you remelted it. The voids made it more beautiful somehow.
Thank you! Yes, remelting it was a mistake. It looked a lot better before. Won't do that next time.
What a fascinating video of such a basic process. I doubt I've ever seen, in person, that much potassium in one place.
Thank you!
Very impressed about your glass work.
And very surprised that it’s not allowed in Germany for a private person to own nitric acid.
I’m surprised too, in the ‘70s in Australia, it was possible to buy conc sulphuric acid and nitric acid. The drug labs and the ban on precursor chemicals have spoilt it for everyone.
Only the ban spoiled it. I don't mind that some people enjoy drugs
A common reason for people to contemplate prescription and banned pharmaceuticals is when they want to self medicate due to failure of the medical system to address their PTSD, pain, depression, fear and all those other things that the system provides. Alcohol has so many negative side effects that if is not a innocent alternative. I believe everyone should have the right to make AND prescribe for themselves ANY compound if it does not endanger others training on safe procedure and therapy to understand the potential addiction, child welfare and antisocial costs they may cause and agree to accept in advance. I do not support sale of drugs without someone taking responsibility and I think the medical industry has dropped the ball on many occasions.
The second class of chemicals that I feel have been targeted mostly unfairly are those that enable the citizen rabble to rise up against corrupt and totalitarian governments. I long for the day that governments have a a primary goal the general wellbeing of every citizen and not industry lobby groups. This near total failure in the social contract drives people to desperation because they no longer (if the ever did) have a voice. Even in multiparty states the financial interests usually cross all party lines and any change is always to the detriment of the common citizen and for the benefit of the billionaire class. There is a strong correlation between disarming a population or a segment of the population and a subsequent genocide, strong enough for an honest politician to PROMOTE a well armed militia but usually any means of opposition is rather removed and means to exert force are only held by the police.
Germany is in the process of stupidity on a massive scale, by shutting down all their nuclear reactors! So all of Germany's citizens pay out of their ass for electricity!!!!😅😂
Same in France, for the better.
„cooking with friends“…
happy to see you too up to it ☺️
Beautiful. The colours and the fluidity is really engaging. Thanks for sharing :)
Love to see it! And love the application of what you've learned over the years and changed in your video style to topics you'd visited in the past. Great video :)
Thanks! I appreciate it!
One of the coolest distillations I've ever seen, thanks for sharing!
Absolutly impressive. i'm in awe of the scope of this channel.
Thanks! I appreciate it!
The first time is ALWAYS a learning experience. Great job
Very nice! And it looks so clean
Purifying potassium seems like a rather complicated way to simulate lava tubes, but it's very pretty.
This video gets a solid 11/10 from me. Unreal!!!
Thank you! :)
Yeah, watching that scene with the condensing potassium felt like watching a movie scene where some chemist is making some life altering discovery.
It was just a question of time until a chemistry youtuber would set up a Schlenk system... pretty awesome, and you definitely deserve it. You can't imagine how envy I am 🙂
(Außerdem, wenn ich das englische Wort "gift" im Rahmen von Chemie sehe, ich lache immer... 😛)
Fun fact: Das deutsche Wort hat denselben Ursprung. Gift im Sinne von "giftig" stammt von der Verwendung dieses Wortes als Euphemismus, ähnlich wie man heute "he was dosed" sagt. Es bedeutet im Kern "etwas, das gegeben wird". In diesem Sinne bedeute das Wort auch im Skandinavien zusätzlich "geheiratet", im Sinne von "zur Ehe gegeben".
Ich erinnere mich noch an den Aha-Moment als Kind, als ich diese Entdeckung machte.
Man. To have a cameraman must be legendary
The way the metal flows upwards in rivulets from the distillation flask is really uncanny, I thought the footage was reversed at first.
It does look unreal. So far I have only seen this with cesium and potassium.
I'm inclined to think it doesn't flow so much as it evaporates and immediately condenses slightly higher up.
@@bladdnun3016constant phase change
I think it is driven up with the flow of vapour that condenses further along. Same way that a diffusion pump will give up momentum to the gas against a pressure gradient here the potassium vapour diffusion pump is trying to move the condensed potassium against gravity.
cutest kalium that I have ever seen
18:52 it is so rediculus... all these governmental restrictions... on the other hand, can you get some license to operate with the restricted chemicals? if yes it could be a valid solution process-wise. Anyway thanks for quite an educative piece of content! Great video!
from one chemist to another, god damn was that beautiful. Well done!!! Awesome video, instant sub.
Thank you! I appreciate it!
15:08 that flash of darkening when it condenses gives me chills
What an awesome video! I have only once cut a piece of 100g of potassium with such an horribly thick layer of oxides and after a few sparks and flames I decided to remove the layer chemically, because it was to scary. Beautiful distillation setup and nice shots!
Thank you! Yes chemically removing the oxide layer is the safer way.
That is one of the most beautiful and amazing processes that I have ever seen. Thank you for sharing it with us! Wow!
Thank you a lot!
Why do I love these videos. I read several chemistry books in prison and I think it's fascinating. It's how we have everything in our modern society, from being curious and mixing different things together and adding and subtracting ect. It's simple but so hard.
Just laughung my ass off thinking about potassium can get "mouldy" like cheese, and the fact that he cut around it like I would do to my forgotten chunk of gouda in my fridge XD
Great video! As I noticed many people like to watch alkali metals being cut. I think a video called “I cut potassium for an hour” will get a lot of views. 😄
Now I'm trying to make a video about the Soviet alloy (potassium cesium and sodium alloy - the most fusible alloy in the world), and I mixed liquid potassium and liquid cesium, but it's a pity I don't currently have access to suitable equipment to do this in an inert atmosphere, and not under a layer of mineral oil or kerosene 🥲🥲🥲
I like watching the alkali metals below sodium being melted under an inert atmosphere as they all look absolutely gorgeous especially cesium!
Thank you very much! I think cutting potassium metal in a glovebox so that the surface stays shiny would be a very nice video :D
Elias and I actually made the CsNaK alloy in an older video. But only under mineral oil. I also thought about making an ampoule of CsNaK by distilling all three metals into one ampoule but haven't had time yet. And apart from the low melting point, the alloy doesn't have any interesting properties, does it?
@@AdvancedTinkering It must be an honor to have Chemical Force comment on one of your videos considering that like you he also puts out some pretty great content, I envy you!
The most fascinating video about potassium I have ever seen. Also, I have never seen before so much potassium metal on one place and Elias` comment at 5:21 min is telling: "Absolutely safe". You can be proud of the great work. Fingers crossed that the parcel with arrive at its destination in one piece.
Thank you! I appreciate it! :)
Whenever I see potassium being cut, I have to imagine spreading it on a slice of bread.
Ah wooshhhhh 😅
Reminds me of slicing cheese.😂
That ampoule looks gorgeous. As much as I really want one, I think I'm fine with my 10g ampoule since I don't really fancy living with such an explosion hazard 😂
Dude, this rocked 😁 i appreciate you making these videos my guy. You’re an inspiration for sure.
2:55 Forbidden cheese rind
super video. I had too much respect for the peroxide layer years ago, so that I neutralized the whole thing with water. that was very entertaining. thank you!
Dope! Good work!
Thanks!
As a borosilicate tinkerer myself, I highly respect this man's welds.
Do you have any interest in the wasserhammer physics demonstration novelty? It is a simple glass tube partially filled with water, evacuated, and sealed off at the top. When shaken gently a slug of water forms a cavitation bubble at the bottom, and when the movement is halted or the direction of shaking is reversed the bubble collapses symmetrically producing a tremendous energy focusing factor and producing a loud ping or crack noise. Some channels on here such a Lutz Neumann have made them but they remain a rare oddity. There are several papers showing ~10^9 high energy (blue-UV) photons are emitted per bubble collapse event and I've long wondered if for instance adding fluorescein to the water would allow one to visualize the flashes more easily.
If I find the time, I'll be happy to try it out. I have actually observed the water hammer effect in my caesium ampoule. If you tilt it too quickly while the metal is liquid, you hear a pinging sound. Very worrying and a reason why I now only move the ampoule very carefully.
@@AdvancedTinkering indeed the video sequence of you slowly tilting the potassium ampoule is exactly what made me think of it!
This sounds amazing! I would love to see a video on this topic!
That was facinating and beautiful. One perk of being from South Africa is that our regulations do allow some interesting home chemistry, problem is more obtaining materials and equipment than what you do with it. Would like to do something like this in the future.
Die verrückten Chemiker mal wieder
Gorgeous!
Fascinating-mesmerizing-beautiful.
I think what would be a cool series for a Chemtuber to do would be a series of synthesizing "Obscure Explosives" like potassium superoxides and then igniting/blowing them up
This is insanely beautiful
That is so beautiful!
I'd imagine that the potassium would've came out much better if you would've gone for another distillation round and BTW potassium is by far one of my favorite alkali metals along with rubidium and cesium due to its gorgeous shiny appearance and its low melting point like the other two plus it's a common source of radioactivity! 👍👍
I'd love to see if you can make a potassium sample so pure that it doesn't stick to the glass at all just like you did with the cesium sample a while back!
You can believe me when I tell you that I will definitely make a second attempt at making a perfect ampoule ;)
Why am I only now just discovering this amazing channel? I started watching NileRed when he had 18k subs so I feel I've missed this train lol
Soft metals are very interesting. What a cool process
Newbie question - if the system is closed and you are pulling a vacuum, how does the gas flow from one vial to the next ? Unless there is some argon or other flow happening. IN the 70s I was able to play some with both sodium and potassium metal. i consider myself lucky to have all my digits and no burns. Be safe
Diffusion
I was a little surprised to hear that a private citizen in Germany isn't allowed to own nitric acid. It seems vital that a private citizen would have access to various nitrates, so how could anyone be prevented from synthesizing their own?
Phenomenal footage. A joy to see.
Such beautiful photography
12:04 wow that's spectacular man
That is some seriously crazy tinkering. So much potassium and just a blow torch to coax it around.
Great Video! :D
14:54 Wow, that looked really cool
hey, if you cant use nitric acid, you can do a plasma treatment 2 minutes of the glass, if possible under vaccum, it makes the glass unsticky exept to gallium for around 5 minutes before air untreat it. On other way is to heat the glass at 500 °C. Dusts also can do problems, they generally come from cloths and hair.
That was so neat. Some of the glass looked kile a mirror when condensing.
Great video!
The way to clean up that oxidized potassium is to put it into the oil like the other piece. Heat until all is melted. Add small quantities of alcohol to the oil. You did this. Just put the dirty potassium in. The crud can be removed & the potassium put in clean oil & repeated until it is clean.
Does molten potassium dissolve copper?
Very interesting video! I love how pretty it looks :)
I noticed you used a regular borosilicate flask to boil the potassium in, so I assume the vacuum lowers the boiling point significantly. Do you know around what temperature that might be? I'm thinking of making some alkali metals myself by distilling Sodium Metal instead of the often used lithium with the target alkali chloride salts to get them coming over metallic. I'd like it to be in glass so it's visible. You think this could work?
I've svetty palms just vaching you perform zis delicate opurazon😂
Jokes aside, very clever manipulation of the contents and equipment❤❤
zenk juh! ;)
Our family originated from Altenbourg....
That's where the Kühn in Willacy-kuhn comes from...
My father studied electrical engineering and metallurgy...
Family moved to UK then to New Zealand where I now live with my son and grandson,
You have one of the best videos on utube in my opinion...
Thank you very much! I'm glad to hear that you like the videos!
Aqua regia: you could use "poor man's aqua regia" (HCl + any nitrate salt).
Doesn't molten alkali metal attack glass? What type of glass are you using? Is it borosilicate?
Yes, I think I will test this method next time.
The still is made of borosilicate glass. At higher temperatures, potassium also slowly attacks the glass. The slight brown-golden discoloration in the glass comes from ion exchange, if I remember correctly.
But it is no comparison to lithium, which completely destroys the glass and is almost like a thermite reaction. I have also made a short video about this.
I wish I was smart enough to do stuff like this. I love chemistry but math is a foreign language for which I can not translate. Awesome job this was a great video!!
Bravo! 👏🏻
Chemistry seems super fun but sadly at the high school and early college level they don’t let you do anything cool cause they are afraid of idiots
...cant own nitric, but totally cool to ship 200g of K in the mail. lol. amazing.
Nitric acid is only used in making gun cotton and pycric acid, aka battleship propellants and and occasional torpedo explosive
I wanna be your friend, that would have been the best gift I ever received! Soooo cool!
Wonderful work!!
In European Union Nitric acid is forbidden for private use - such big is the fear of politicians from its own citisens making explosives. Even communist governments in eastern Europe were not so scared. I remember experimenting with HNO3 as a kid.
Yeah, etching, ammo, bottle rockets, metal plating, cleaning... it's too useful to ban. I couldn't believe it when I tried to source some for etching. Nanny state stuff and only getting worse
They know they are unwanted. But "citizens" resorting to explosives instead of firearms is not that uncommon here.
Well, that doesn't seem to have made any kind of difference for the criminals. Stuff blow up at least once a week here in Sweden 🙄
Communist governments weren’t afraid of anything because they actually cared for their people because they didn’t subject them to wage slavery. They saved Eastern Europe from its current fate of being a bunch of poor, deindustrialized puppet states of NATO or Russia for a few decades
Cleaning the Vial I would suggest 3.5 micron Cesium Oxide with 100% IPA to lubricate.
Use a bottle brush or a drill to spin a buffing cloth and paste inside the Vial.
Be aware that 3.5 micron is the target size for lung carcinogenicity, so use a HEPA Respirator.
thats one cool looking bong 👌🏾
Fascinating ❤❤❤
great video
That glass ball after the oxidizing process is awesome. Y'all should melt it into a ball and give it away,
Wow, potassium makes one hell of a good mirror
Thanks a lot for this usefull video.
Very nice and I really love your presentation. Professional, precise, and your knowledge of chemistry is pretty awesome. Distilling a metal is a very cool preocedure. And I thought potassium was even more reactive? Handling it and exposing it to air and all that. But you showed that it it can be worked with easily. Great video!
Het mooiste wat ik ooit gezien heb.. Woah..
Thanks!
es ist zu interessant, dir dabei zuzusehen
Potassium the gift that keeps on giving...3rd degree burns.
So satisfying watching Potassium Metal being sliced! Worthy of a sub and a Thumbs Up too! haha
I think you have impurities in the final product because you have basically done a single "pot" distillation. Could you set up a reflux column to get an even higher level of purity?
Yes, distilling it twice in the same glass apparatus (like I did with the cesium distillation) would have been best. A column, like you suggested, would also be possible.
Nice looking bong.
Beautiful!!
I want a bite of the forbidden cheese 🤤🤤
i find it crazy how fast it oxidizes
Thanks, very cool video.
I had no idea metal evaporated like that. I love seeing weird properties like that. I remember watching a sodium/water video in slow mo and for just a frame, the initial reaction took on the shape of an electrical arc rather than the standard flame we come to expect. Perhaps worth some investigation. Makes me wonder about the nature of chemical reactions as a whole. Also, odd question. I always see people just casually cutting sodium and potassium with a knife. Do the alkali metals react with the steel at all? I can't imagine that there's no chemical interaction whatsoever between the alkali and the blade