Hi! I'm a year 10 chemistry student in Hong Kong, and you're my favourite chemistry UA-camr! You don't really help me improve my grades since your experiments aren't in the usual secondary school syllabus, but you always remind me about what's so fun about chemistry! I forget that sometimes when I'm stuck in the boring hell-hole of homework. I'm totally not praising you so that I can get that molecular modelling kit... although that would really help me with my studies
Tetrahydrolinalool, a saturated branched tertiary aliphatic alcohol, is available for $14.50/100g from The Good Scents Company, among others. It's used in perfumery.
Knowing the thought process behing these sodium experiments makes it sooo much more engaging and interesting. I honestly can't wait for the next vlog and how purified tea tree oil will influence the reaction.
Have you never seen superhero movies ? That's how bad things are created. Do you want a massive drunk flying ball of Sodium with super powers roaming the Streets?
I've been following this series on the Sodium recovery for so long... man, this has been a long trip! Watching the discoveries, the failures, the successes, the breakthroughs... thinking that you've got so far with your research is so...refreshing. keep up this work man, I want to see the good end of it! Also, those molecular models.... they are cool!
The primary component of tea tree oil is 4-terpineol, which I assume is the tertiary alcohol you're after. The primary component of pine oil is alpha-terpineol, an isomer of 4-terpineol. Would it be worthwhile to try that as well or would you expect the two to have similar properties?
Probably nice idea would be to check other terpenoids with are tertiary alcohols. There is some that should be quite easy to obtain. There is Linalool, and definetly others.
I absolutely love this series, you're part of the reason I've realized I love chemistry, and projects like this are so rewarding to me to watch. Very insightful, and not terribly difficult to follow. Great stuff!
What came to mind: since the amateur chemist for whom this scenario is supposed to work should have access to magnesium and presumably acetone: do you think using pinacol as a tertiary alcohol is worth a try? Anyway, great vid, loved seeing the progress!
As promised in the previous lab notes video, I'm still working on making pinacol and testing it out in this reaction. So far what I've learned is that dry acetone and mg shavings do indeed react at room temp to produced pinacol, but the amount produced is presumably very low due to slow reaction. I've added heat as well as an Iodine crystal to try to speed things up, and the reaction is progressing albeit still slowly. At the end of 3 days of heating at 50°C I will stop the process and quench the mg pinacolate with water and see what the yields are. I've also gone ahead and purchased mg shavings from a different seller because I have a feeling that the ones I'm using now aren't pure magnesium as promised but rather some low-quality alloy. So will try this process again when the 95% mg comes in. I'm also working on making pinacol from lithium and acetone, and that reaction actually proceeds quite readily at room temp with heat generation. However, my reaction mix has turned gunky yellow so I'm thinking impurities in my old acetone are polymerizing, so will be buying a fresh bottle of acetone and go from there. Wish me luck!
You can tell when you're right into something. You're usually hesitant to waste time and chemicals for forgone conclusions, for this series you're trying all the angles! Keep up the great work!
Just wanted to say that I failed chemistry 3 times and I dont understand most of what you talk about...but man on man do I love all your videos. I cant stop watching them. It might as well be magic to me
I don't want the kit, just want to thank you for your lab notes, they are super cool. Showing not only the bright side of your experiments, but also mistakes and failures was the best decision. Chemistry was my thing in high school, then programming completely took over my brain, so I gradually lost much of interest in and knowledge of the former. But even being a layman now, I still enjoy learning things here and there about chemistry, especially about the experimental side of it. Knowing the equations can only get you so far, making reactions work is not as easy as it looks, as it turns out. Your videos show that perfectly, that's why I love them.
The lab notes format is awesome! Not only does it illustrate and document your process, it really shows how much time, and effort goes into developing a process like this!
Great vid, channel and series. As a chemistry labs teacher I love how clearly you explain the reasoning behind all of the steps and that you try to optimize every part of the reaction.
I really enjoy the Lab Notes Series. They keep everyone updated on the big picture, otherwise there would be fairly long periods between videos. There is also a lot to learn when things don't go exactly as planned, like the need for paper towel to keep out suicidal flies.
The worst part of giveaways like these is that people comment just for the items in question, diluting real discussion. That being said, this is a UA-cam comments section, so there isn't much discussion to be had here anyway.
Solution: after randomly picking a winner, review all his comments to see if they're really into the discussion, not just leaving random comments. If no, pick another one until you got the real one.
I love these lab notes videos as they show how many wasted attempts and failures a scientist must endure to refine a process and take it to production from concept. We remember the breakthroughs but scientific progress is often incremental in nature and requires a lot of iterations; and your videos highlight that beautifully.
Love your channel! I started off wanting to be a chem engineer, but a string of horrible professors turned my interests to mech engineering.. your channel and humor is reigniting my love for chem! And im sure im not the only one! Keep it up
It's nice to finally know the real purpose of those molecular model kits. Best of luck refining that tea tree oil, and ramping the overall yield percentage back up into the 90s.
I have never heard about somebody spending so much time and money on doing research, without any university being involved. I really like this project!
Really liking these semi regular lab notes. I'm not likely to use the final procedures anytime soon, but I do enjoy watching the experimentation and learning some things on the side.
Oh man that molecular model kit is pretty sweet. My mates and I have been following your quest for amateur sodium production closely, as I suspect we are the target audience - high school chemists who don't have access to refined reagents, but do have high aspirations and are setting up our own mini lab
This series exemplifies one of my favorite things about chemistry: you can do all the math you like and work the stoich until your eyes bleed but sometimes you need to just mix stuff together and see what happens. And even then as long as you document your results it's not "messing around" it's science.
This is easily the most sciencey youtube channel I'm currently subscribed to. The only one that regularly does systematic research anyway. One day I hope to be able to perform useful amateur chemistry research myself.
Although the longer, full-process videos are really interesting, I think that this Lab-Note videos are one of the things that currently makes this channel stand out from the rest of chemistry/science channels... I love this format!
This is series is probably some of my favorite videos of yours. Watching the actual experimental process is, in my opinion, much more interesting than the short videos strictly about the perfected chemistry (not that I dislike those). I hope you keep these lab note videos going after wrapping up the sodium process.
You know it’s gonna be a great day when you start it with a Nurdrage video (though this is sometimes canceled out by lack of sleep due to a chemistry lab report of all things)
I remember one of your blogs that you told about failed experiments being boring etc, but I think this Lab Notes format, with failures, small successes is really great. Now we are getting real insight of how does chemical research look like in VERY practical manner, with failures, tries, messing with parameters and checking with extremes if it even has a chance of working. Not sure, but I might like more those "in progress" vedoes than ready to use recipe video.
Thank you very much for all your videos. They are both immensely entertaining and actually rather helpful for me, as I have just started studying chemistry more seriously.
Those are some cool kits, I think that it is really neat that you are putting in so much time to help solve this difficult problem of sodium production; on a home brew level
I must say some of the favorite content I see from you are these big projects. The synthesis of pyrimethamine was great to follow and I'm enjoying this project too.
That’s awesome the way that those models work. As both someone who’s fascinated with chemistry and a student of engineering, they seem like quite an interesting thing to study. Regardless it’s an ingenious design. Good luck on improving yields with Tea Tree Oil. Just remember how far you’ve come in a comparatively short about of time after so much experimentation on wether this reaction was even possible.
love you work. Ran into an issue with UA-cam again not putting your videos in my subscription page but I always check your page directly to get around this. Anyhow, keep up the amazing work. Always a pleasure to see another fellow research chemist at work.
I'm commenting for the molecular model kit give-away. I love all your videos but this whole series is some of the most interesting content you've produced. Good luck on the next step!
This has been a great video series. I always look forward to seeing your next video. Watching your channel got me interested in learning more about chemistry. Thanks!
I really enjoy the Lab notes series. I'm learning general chemistry at the moment and can't wait to start organic chemistry and learning about synthesis
It's always fun watching your videos while waiting for a sample to finish running on the GC. Beats watching the readout on the Agilent counting down the seconds.
Always enjoying your videos and the information provided in them. I make a point to have a hard copy back up just in case. Thank you for the work that you do.
Ooh. I definitely want to get one of those kits. With my son in middle school this could be a great way to discuss chemistry as he moves through middle and high school. I’ve been a loyal follower for years. LOVE your videos and approach!
I just want to say, that even though I don't always understand whats going on (it's often like "blah blah blah sodium metal. blah tertiary alcohol blah blah") I love watching your videos.
I've been watching your videos for a couple months but I had never subscribed. I realized this at the beginning of the video and am now a new subscriber.
The fact that the tea tree oil works at all would let you start with a small reaction to get some starting sodium to run the procedure you found that requires sodium, so you have succeeded in finding a path for amateurs to follow. Congrats.
Hi I'm a grade 12 student from planet earth studying the natural sciences. I've always had trouble understanding organic chemistry by myself and UA-camrs like you and NileRed have really helped me out in understanding organic chemistry. I would love to have the molecular modelling kit so I can understand organic chemistry much better. I understand stuff visually far better than I do verbally but I can't buy this kit for myself because I don't have the money for it. If you send this kit to me then I will surely write you a thank you letter and make a UA-cam video making various interesting molecules with it. Thank you
I hate flies.
Why does the fly force a restart?
Everyone hates them, they are annoying.
nurdmage
come to Australia in the middle of summer, we have no flies here **snickers**, well actually, if you hate flies, come in the Winter :)
Musquitos are worse lets be honest
Love the lab notes series. It feels much closer to actual science than other similar content out there. Can’t wait to see the next one.
You should check out NileRed then, he is even more professional and you would probably like him if you like lab notes
Hi! I'm a year 10 chemistry student in Hong Kong, and you're my favourite chemistry UA-camr! You don't really help me improve my grades since your experiments aren't in the usual secondary school syllabus, but you always remind me about what's so fun about chemistry! I forget that sometimes when I'm stuck in the boring hell-hole of homework.
I'm totally not praising you so that I can get that molecular modelling kit... although that would really help me with my studies
Tetrahydrolinalool, a saturated branched tertiary aliphatic alcohol, is available for $14.50/100g from The Good Scents Company, among others. It's used in perfumery.
Knowing the thought process behing these sodium experiments makes it sooo much more engaging and interesting. I honestly can't wait for the next vlog and how purified tea tree oil will influence the reaction.
"Flies ruin science" should be a t-shirt. If you ever make merch.
Or a t-shirt with a picture of a flask halfway full of liquid and a dead fly at the bottom with the words "Well f... you too."
Picture of Jeff Goldblum on it. 😎
@@Dawnlit Genius 😎
Unless it's biology, in which case, they're important, especially in genetics.
This channel is on my list of recommended viewing for my IGCSE chemistry class :)
I don't get why the fly made you restart the experiment..
Contamination
Have you never seen superhero movies ? That's how bad things are created. Do you want a massive drunk flying ball of Sodium with super powers roaming the Streets?
oh i definitely would want to see something like that, but from quite far or as you said in a movie :>
in nurdrage russia fly swats you
it's aesthethicly displeasing
One of the best videos so far; I like the way the experimental 'thought' is explained. The best chemistry on UA-cam.
I've been following this series on the Sodium recovery for so long... man, this has been a long trip! Watching the discoveries, the failures, the successes, the breakthroughs... thinking that you've got so far with your research is so...refreshing. keep up this work man, I want to see the good end of it! Also, those molecular models.... they are cool!
The primary component of tea tree oil is 4-terpineol, which I assume is the tertiary alcohol you're after. The primary component of pine oil is alpha-terpineol, an isomer of 4-terpineol. Would it be worthwhile to try that as well or would you expect the two to have similar properties?
Probably nice idea would be to check other terpenoids with are tertiary alcohols. There is some that should be quite easy to obtain. There is Linalool, and definetly others.
I absolutely love this series, you're part of the reason I've realized I love chemistry, and projects like this are so rewarding to me to watch. Very insightful, and not terribly difficult to follow. Great stuff!
So what are the upper and lower limits on the amount of the Tertiary alcohol catalyst needed for the process?
As a theoretical chemist, I can only marvel at your experimental expertise. Keep up the great work.
What came to mind: since the amateur chemist for whom this scenario is supposed to work should have access to magnesium and presumably acetone: do you think using pinacol as a tertiary alcohol is worth a try?
Anyway, great vid, loved seeing the progress!
According to Wiki, HgCl2 is required in the coupling from acetone? Any better and safer substitute?
CdCl2
As promised in the previous lab notes video, I'm still working on making pinacol and testing it out in this reaction. So far what I've learned is that dry acetone and mg shavings do indeed react at room temp to produced pinacol, but the amount produced is presumably very low due to slow reaction. I've added heat as well as an Iodine crystal to try to speed things up, and the reaction is progressing albeit still slowly. At the end of 3 days of heating at 50°C I will stop the process and quench the mg pinacolate with water and see what the yields are.
I've also gone ahead and purchased mg shavings from a different seller because I have a feeling that the ones I'm using now aren't pure magnesium as promised but rather some low-quality alloy. So will try this process again when the 95% mg comes in. I'm also working on making pinacol from lithium and acetone, and that reaction actually proceeds quite readily at room temp with heat generation. However, my reaction mix has turned gunky yellow so I'm thinking impurities in my old acetone are polymerizing, so will be buying a fresh bottle of acetone and go from there. Wish me luck!
@@snowdaysrule nice, keep us updated :D
@@snowdaysrule Good Luck sir.
You can tell when you're right into something. You're usually hesitant to waste time and chemicals for forgone conclusions, for this series you're trying all the angles! Keep up the great work!
When are you going to do some experiments with fly catalysts?
Really nice model kit. Love the multi bond feature in the atoms.
that is a really cool molecular model kit!
Just wanted to say that I failed chemistry 3 times and I dont understand most of what you talk about...but man on man do I love all your videos. I cant stop watching them. It might as well be magic to me
If you like NurdRage, you will also like Doug's Lab (unfortunately he stopped posting videos some time ago, but existing content is excellent)
Did YΘu Anger The Fly KingdΘm Θr SΘmething? This Is Getting RidiculΘus!
Greenlightning what’s with the thetas?
@@SpycyzygyI Think They're Real Neat.
I don't want the kit, just want to thank you for your lab notes, they are super cool. Showing not only the bright side of your experiments, but also mistakes and failures was the best decision.
Chemistry was my thing in high school, then programming completely took over my brain, so I gradually lost much of interest in and knowledge of the former. But even being a layman now, I still enjoy learning things here and there about chemistry, especially about the experimental side of it. Knowing the equations can only get you so far, making reactions work is not as easy as it looks, as it turns out. Your videos show that perfectly, that's why I love them.
That fly just wanted a molecule kit.
The lab notes format is awesome! Not only does it illustrate and document your process, it really shows how much time, and effort goes into developing a process like this!
you should really put up some fly paper, theres been too many suicidal flies attacking your experiments
also
gimmie kit
ramirez223 Wild sergal spotted
I never took chem in school, but I always had the curiosity. Watching the content on this channel for years has been fulfilling for me
Wow. Not only am i early, the time is early. It’s *checks time* 3 in the morning. Science>sleep huh?
For sure
What is this magical thing you call s-l-e-e-p? Care to elaborate?
Always :)
No sleep when there is science to do!
Great vid, channel and series. As a chemistry labs teacher I love how clearly you explain the reasoning behind all of the steps and that you try to optimize every part of the reaction.
Comment in the Description...
Shameless grab for the prizes! 👍🏼
I really enjoy the Lab Notes Series. They keep everyone updated on the big picture, otherwise there would be fairly long periods between videos. There is also a lot to learn when things don't go exactly as planned, like the need for paper towel to keep out suicidal flies.
The worst part of giveaways like these is that people comment just for the items in question, diluting real discussion.
That being said, this is a UA-cam comments section, so there isn't much discussion to be had here anyway.
I disagree. Some of the best, most civilized, and thought-provoking discussion occurs here in these UA-cam comments.
Seconded.
I've had some good discussions with commenters too.
Including people admitting they were wrong.
True story.
Solution: after randomly picking a winner, review all his comments to see if they're really into the discussion, not just leaving random comments. If no, pick another one until you got the real one.
I love these lab notes videos as they show how many wasted attempts and failures a scientist must endure to refine a process and take it to production from concept. We remember the breakthroughs but scientific progress is often incremental in nature and requires a lot of iterations; and your videos highlight that beautifully.
If you give me the molecular model kit, I promise I will not swallow them
Shitting them out would be like anal beads 😂
The joy of eating magnets.
Am I the only one who really enjoys these lab notes!?
Love your videos, I've been watching for maaaaany years!
You will get 10kg of Na at the end...
He can throw a sodium party!
Yes the final video on this channel will be Nurdrage throwing his 10m ball of sodium into a lake and ending all life on the continent
The #1 all time best chemist on youtube. A real tribute and role model to the sciences.
I wish that fly was me
It wouldn't be Nurdrage without the files! Absolutely in love with you, incredible work!
this is a comment
*this is a reply*
This is a chicken wing
Love your channel! I started off wanting to be a chem engineer, but a string of horrible professors turned my interests to mech engineering.. your channel and humor is reigniting my love for chem! And im sure im not the only one! Keep it up
It's nice to finally know the real purpose of those molecular model kits. Best of luck refining that tea tree oil, and ramping the overall yield percentage back up into the 90s.
As always, incredible work NurdRage!
I have never heard about somebody spending so much time and money on doing research, without any university being involved. I really like this project!
Really liking these semi regular lab notes. I'm not likely to use the final procedures anytime soon, but I do enjoy watching the experimentation and learning some things on the side.
Oh man that molecular model kit is pretty sweet. My mates and I have been following your quest for amateur sodium production closely, as I suspect we are the target audience - high school chemists who don't have access to refined reagents, but do have high aspirations and are setting up our own mini lab
Bless you for taking the time to do this. The molecular model kits are pretty awesome.
It is really nice seeing the different approaches to the problem.
I admit i haven't been keeping up with your series as much as i would like but i love the chanel. You are an inspiration to chemists.
This series exemplifies one of my favorite things about chemistry: you can do all the math you like and work the stoich until your eyes bleed but sometimes you need to just mix stuff together and see what happens. And even then as long as you document your results it's not "messing around" it's science.
I love watching these videos cause they always make me look into new types of reactions so I don't get rusty on my chem
This is easily the most sciencey youtube channel I'm currently subscribed to. The only one that regularly does systematic research anyway. One day I hope to be able to perform useful amateur chemistry research myself.
Thanks for bringing us all into your lab, and letting us be a part of this chemical detective story - you're making great science, and great videos.
I like these lab notes, you take us all through the whole research process and teach us all valuable things
I've enjoyed watching this series play out in real time and seeing the progress of elimination used to learn things in chemistry
Although the longer, full-process videos are really interesting, I think that this Lab-Note videos are one of the things that currently makes this channel stand out from the rest of chemistry/science channels... I love this format!
I love the lab note series! Being able to see all the avenues explored is invaluable!
Been loving seeing this whole process unfold. It’s been a fun a very educational ride. Can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
Those kits are pretty cool! Atoms are also held together by charges and stuff, so I really like it’s idea!
This is series is probably some of my favorite videos of yours. Watching the actual experimental process is, in my opinion, much more interesting than the short videos strictly about the perfected chemistry (not that I dislike those).
I hope you keep these lab note videos going after wrapping up the sodium process.
Thanks for posting these labnote vid's. Research is a time-consuming, humbling and sometimes fly infested practice. Keep up the good work!
One of the best channels on UA-cam
Your reaction to the fly was possibly one of the funniest "chemistry" things I've ever seen. Keep up the awesome vids man, they're top notch!
You know it’s gonna be a great day when you start it with a Nurdrage video (though this is sometimes canceled out by lack of sleep due to a chemistry lab report of all things)
I remember one of your blogs that you told about failed experiments being boring etc, but I think this Lab Notes format, with failures, small successes is really great. Now we are getting real insight of how does chemical research look like in VERY practical manner, with failures, tries, messing with parameters and checking with extremes if it even has a chance of working. Not sure, but I might like more those "in progress" vedoes than ready to use recipe video.
I am so glad I caught up on the lab notes. your potassium video was one of my favourites, and this has been an awesome journey to watch
We feel totally honored to be mentioned on NUDRAGE!! Cheers, Ulrich Fekl, realatoms.com
Nearly everything I know about chemistry I have learned by watching this channel. Thanks!
Everytime I see a new video I get so excited to see what more you've discovered!
Really interesting to see the whole experimental process over these past few months
While not a chemist, I find listening to your videos make me feel smarter.
Big fan of your work, it is always very inspiring. I'm a 4th year Chemistry Major in the US
Thank you very much for all your videos. They are both immensely entertaining and actually rather helpful for me, as I have just started studying chemistry more seriously.
The Lab notes series is great. I like that it lets me see more of the experimental chemistry process and allows you to publish content more regularly.
Congrats, you've been randomly selected to receive a model kit. Email me your address at nurdragebusiness@gmail.com and i'll have one delivered.
@@NurdRage AD73546
Those are some cool kits, I think that it is really neat that you are putting in so much time to help solve this difficult problem of sodium production; on a home brew level
I love the lab notes series. I feel it goes more in depth about some of the problems had during reactions.
Wow that molecular kit looks really nice. Just started my college chemistry class and all this is actually starting to finally making sense to me.
I must say some of the favorite content I see from you are these big projects. The synthesis of pyrimethamine was great to follow and I'm enjoying this project too.
That’s awesome the way that those models work. As both someone who’s fascinated with chemistry and a student of engineering, they seem like quite an interesting thing to study. Regardless it’s an ingenious design. Good luck on improving yields with Tea Tree Oil. Just remember how far you’ve come in a comparatively short about of time after so much experimentation on wether this reaction was even possible.
Those are some neat molecular models. I've used the stick-ball kind before, and these seem so much easier to deal with...
You have definitely made Na production achievable by the amateur. Thank you for all your efforts.
Glad to see the experiment progressing, its been quite interesting to keep up with it! Hope to do this on my own in a few weeks.
love you work. Ran into an issue with UA-cam again not putting your videos in my subscription page but I always check your page directly to get around this.
Anyhow, keep up the amazing work. Always a pleasure to see another fellow research chemist at work.
wow even though most of your go way above my knolidge i love to learn and try and untherstand more.
great molecule kit. good luck all
I'm commenting for the molecular model kit give-away. I love all your videos but this whole series is some of the most interesting content you've produced. Good luck on the next step!
You're always great fun to watch and listen to since my health keeps me from attempting to get a science degree of my own.
This has been a great video series. I always look forward to seeing your next video. Watching your channel got me interested in learning more about chemistry. Thanks!
I really enjoy the Lab notes series. I'm learning general chemistry at the moment and can't wait to start organic chemistry and learning about synthesis
Much enjoyment from this research series. Thanks for all the hard work and most of all sharing with us!
It's always fun watching your videos while waiting for a sample to finish running on the GC. Beats watching the readout on the Agilent counting down the seconds.
These lab notes are so interesting to follow, can't wait until the next one!
Always enjoying your videos and the information provided in them.
I make a point to have a hard copy back up just in case.
Thank you for the work that you do.
Ooh. I definitely want to get one of those kits. With my son in middle school this could be a great way to discuss chemistry as he moves through middle and high school.
I’ve been a loyal follower for years. LOVE your videos and approach!
I just want to say, that even though I don't always understand whats going on (it's often like "blah blah blah sodium metal. blah tertiary alcohol blah blah") I love watching your videos.
I've been watching your videos for a couple months but I had never subscribed. I realized this at the beginning of the video and am now a new subscriber.
awesome to see this project come together ! exited to try it myself some day
The fact that the tea tree oil works at all would let you start with a small reaction to get some starting sodium to run the procedure you found that requires sodium, so you have succeeded in finding a path for amateurs to follow. Congrats.
Hi I'm a grade 12 student from planet earth studying the natural sciences. I've always had trouble understanding organic chemistry by myself and UA-camrs like you and NileRed have really helped me out in understanding organic chemistry. I would love to have the molecular modelling kit so I can understand organic chemistry much better. I understand stuff visually far better than I do verbally but I can't buy this kit for myself because I don't have the money for it. If you send this kit to me then I will surely write you a thank you letter and make a UA-cam video making various interesting molecules with it.
Thank you
I have no idea what you're doing in any of these videos but I do like watching them :)
This was much more funny than I thought lab notes could be. Loved the video as always.
Also as a chem major those models would be quite helpful.
I've always loved these videos. I'm not much of a chemist (amateur or otherwise). But, I still enjoy seeing the outcome.