Aluminum Amalgam

In my experience yes, I started using it when iodine failed. Iodine activation is less reliable. If you don't want to use mercury salts, 1,2-diiodoethane works pretty reliably too and had the benefit of seeing acetylene evolving.

Bdnugget

Sorry, how to do what?

Nile Red

Interesting. Does it work a lot better than iodine?

Nile Red

For now, I dont really need any cinnabar, but Ill let you know if i do

Nile Red

Quick question for you: would Sulfuric Acid work at breaking up the Aluminum Oxide layer as well as (or at all) for this?

Roger Lee

Wasn't sure if my comment went through but I happen to live near several locations that contain an abundance of cinnabar so if you ever need more, I would be happy to send some to you. I haven't processed any of the several pounds of cinnabar I already scavenged but I will soon.

My favourite way of activating Grignards is with a small pinch of mercuric chloride. It was very frowned upon at my university but I'm glad I work in the industry now where I can just do it and save me a lot of annoyance. Very awesome video and timelapse btw, and definitely worth paying for.

Bdnugget

One very visually pleasant reaction that I did in my youth, and which I did not see anyone replicate on youtube, was the burning of metallic tin. While burning, it blooms like a flower. However tin is quite difficult to ignite, even in pure oxygen. I believe that it needs a catalyst, as the only way I was successful burning it was when I suspended a small piece of tin in a cage made of copper wire - and then, it only worked if the cage itself had been pre-fired (i.e. heated to glowing red then allowed to cool). I think the copper oxide that formed on the wire acted as a catalyst for the burning of the tin. Works better if you suspend it in a tube where oxygen is generated - IIRC I used a small amount of H2O2 with a few grains of manganese dioxide added.

Silviu T

I always enjoyed Mercury amalgam type experiments. One I'd enjoy seeing a video on is Mercury and iodine. It made some orange-red outer layer which I believed to be Mercury iodide or something to that nature

I’ve only ever seen the reaction of aluminum and mercury (II) chloride (which is a cool reaction on its own, one time I let it go too long and I had a hot jet of steam and hydrogen blasting out of the top of my flask. I was scared that it would get hot enough to ignite the hydrogen or at least crack the flask, that’s how out of control it got before I could stop the reaction heh). I’m surprised at how hard it is to cause any damage of the aluminum with metallic mercury. Gallium will really fuck up even thick pieces of aluminum.

I was looking in pihkal to see how to do it. it looks difficult.

Lindy

As someone who has put mercury (and mercury chloride) on aluminum before, I did expect something similar to happen but perhaps not quite of that altitude. :)

Silviu T

Oh wow, I was not expecting those reactions to be so visual! Top notch timelapse material.

Im glad you liked it!

Nile Red

Wow. Those time lapses are about the craziest damn thing I've ever seen. Rivals the pharaoh's serpent! Definitely make this a for-real charged video. That was neat!

jason black

Honestly, my short answer is that no, I dont know the mechanism for sure. What seems to happen in most though, is that either water or methanol (or another suitable solvent) is the electron acceptor. With water, it makes H2 gas and methanol produces aluminum methoxide (which is a reducing agent). From there, I cant find any concrete info on exactly how it works.

Nile Red

Amalgams are pretty interesting, I knew that Al/Hg is being used in MDMA production, but how exactly does it work? That may be a dumb question, but is there a specific mechanism behind it? As far as I know it's being used to reduce NO2 to NH2, but I can't wrap my head around it (I guess I'm too rusty at the moment, ha)

Thanks for the input! I really like doing it too. There are so many "simple" things that can be so cool and interesting.

Nile Red

damn the 80s and the lack of technology

Nile Red

That is what I wondered too. It only occurred me while editing though.

Nile Red

I like the exploratory videos. It is always fun proving that some combinations of metals are not as detrimental as they are said to be. As for other experiments, as I learn more about Chemistry, I am fascinated at how elements react, combine, or repel each other. I think you do a great job not just showing cool things but how you explain why things happen or relate something not normally seen. I would like seeing more videos exploratory or experimental in nature. Keep up the good work!

One other thing I've always wondered is just how much mercury ends up in the aluminum oxide. It would be nice if you had saved it and could determine that.

Silviu T

Very nice. I did it before but not on this large scale... Didn't do a time lapse because I didn't have the equipment for it back in the 1980s. :)

Silviu T