Making metal crystals from Pepto-Bismol

Im glad you liked it :)

Nile Red

Nile, you have such a great presentation, every turn is a new thing. Plus, it's the beauty of YouTube that we can pause, watch later, or even (God forbid!) jump fast forward.

Yay! Nilered is back. Lighting and backgrounds looks great! Editing is fantastic! I love how you take everyday items and pull out some "magical" element! I'm always left going, "Oh. That is so cool!" Thanks Nilered!

2:48 lmao caught me off guard (edit: glad to see you back!)

The Gayest Person on Patreon

It was definitely a struggle lol

Nile Red

Yup. That is very likely why!

Nile Red

Interesting video as usual. You probably couldn't get the bismuth out of the tube because it is one of the rare materials to expand while solidifying (like water).

interesting. i would have imagined that the air in the pores is the least troubling thing as it would probably be used up quite quickly, with the large contact area on the surface causing the majority of the oxidation.

Thorben Zethoff

Or just do it under vacuum.

Silviu T

Your videos are never too long. Nor are they too short. They are exactly the length they should be. /gandalf

Silviu T

About a year ago I bought 5 pounds of bismuth for less than half the cost of your pills. I get it that the point of the demonstration wasn't to be a cost effective way of making bismuth - but in this case "cost effective" is just a major overstatement. :)

Silviu T

The struggle! So worth it though, great video. This was true science

Nah they make ELISA kits for that.

Silviu T

Yes I know it can give false positives but I was able to detect Quinine and Nicotine at 0.29 and 0.22 ppm. A lot safer than Selenium acid and 98 percent sulfuric acid and if you have sugar impurities like tonic water the sulfuric acid will Interfere! Mass spec, etc if you can afford it can detect ng per L.

Daniel Blake Shoemaker

It's very non-specific though and will react with peptides, amines (esp tertiary) etc. Less specific than even phosphomolybdic acid.

Silviu T

At minute 12:30, why didn´ t you just check the pH for completion? Btw, today I received by coincidence, 100g Bismuth from China (that I bought 2 months ago)... perfect timing for your video! :D

Interesting. Never heard of that before

Nile Red

Well that cool u can also make dragendrof agent with bismuth salts. Thus you can detect alkaloids like Nicotine, etc.

Daniel Blake Shoemaker

I'm tempted to, but it's such a tricky little process. I feel like I'd rather focus on some other things that have been been shown in the internet before. I might try seeing what mercury does to bismuth crystals though. That might be interesting.

Nile Red

I forgot to mention that. The issue is getting the nitrogen all between the particles. It would require vacuuming out the air first I think and cycling it a few times. It would definitely work better, but I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

Nile Red

i was wondering: wouldn't it be possible to stop the oxidation by constantly having flow of some inert gas like nitrogen or argon through the tube? (or perhaps even CO2 which might be easier to get quickly)

Thorben Zethoff

Amazing Video! As Rebecca already metioned, you explain things very good. Is there a possibility of you making a long video of trying to make big bismuth crystals ? Also longer videos are better I'd say :D

I'm glad you liked the longer one. Every time it's this long, I worry that it's too long, lol

Nile Red

It's so good to see another video! I watch quite a few different chemistry-related videos now, but these are my favorite. You have a lovely way of explaining the ins and outs of your procedures, and I'm glad this video is long, I've missed them. <3

Yup, all CAD. I should definitely start mentioning that lol. I keep assuming that people know Im canadian, but that obviously isnt the case for my entire audience.

Nile Red

Those crystals at the end were beautiful. A little pricey, but beautiful. Speaking of pricey, it is a minor point, but it is safe to assume the dollar amounts you gave/showed were all in CAD? So that would be about 90USD? (Assuming pepto is priced similarly here, which it looks like it is)