Dangerous Hydrogen Storage chemicals: Boranes.

With hydrogen, boron forms a series of dangerous and highly reactive compounds that can explode when reacting with other chemicals.
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0:00 Decaborane, Borazabe and o-Carborane presentation.
0:14 Ammonia borane intro
1:28 Ammonia borane combustion in liquid oxygen
2:17 Ammonia borane as hydrogen storage
2:33 Catalytic decomposition of ammonia borane with platinum
3:36 Borazane and osmium tetroxide
4:23 Explosive reaction between ammonia borane and fuming nitric acid
5:16 ortho-Carborane presentation
5:34 o-Carborane combustion
7:18 o-Carborane and fuming nitric acid
8:04 Decaborane presentation
8:25 Decaborane combustion in liquid oxygen
8:49 Solid-solid reaction! Decaborane and Potassium superoxide
9:56 Detonating reaction between Decaborane and Osmium tetroxide
10:30 The most beautiful chemical reaction in slow-mo 😄
13:16 Extremely dangerous reaction with detonation between Decaborane and HNO3 100%
15:49 Patrons ❤️
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[@spiderdude2099]

“Melting osmium tetroxide” Is a phrase I never thought I’d hear from a person who didn’t immediately die afterwards XD

[@sealpiercing8476]

It's a gold-plated and lively way to distribute a test tube around its immediate environs, that's for sure. Sorry, osmium-plated, which is worse :P

[@aethrya]

Ha!

[@noahwhelpley2926]

That decaborane and nitric acid explosion was nuts

[@brett8674]

fucking jump scared me

[@spiderdude2099]

I’ve hardly EVER seen that ridiculous of an amount of destruction from such a small amount of reagent. And the long delay is so sinister and dangerous, might lull you into a false sense of security and suddenly it detonates

[@sealpiercing8476]

@Milan Velky Nah it seems like a pretty useless binary. Both components are a pain, the delay is long enough that you can't mix it ahead of time but short enough that it probably doesn't work well at much larger scale than this. There's better stuff out there for... um, interested parties.

[@costa_marco]

Was it a detonation?

[@keithjurena9319]

@@costa_marco If not, it is right on the edge of deflagration to detonation transition.

[@ihbarddx]

From 1970-1972, I, as an undergrad chem major, had a job in a spectroscopy lab. They studied boranes among other things. One of my jobs was to seal gaseous boranes in glass through... glass blowing. I din't like that particular task, since the stuff had a habit of exploding in my face. (I had face protection, but still...) It also stinks. The green flames still frighten me! That's why I got into computers!

[@oitthegroit1297]

What did the boranes smell like?

[@ihbarddx]

@@oitthegroit1297 There was some variety. From sickeningly sweet to sulfurous, IIRC.

[@oitthegroit1297]

@@ihbarddx Weird how they'd smell like that.

[@savagesarethebest7251]

Not to say that I would be any better at that job, but I would just be rolling around on the floor and laughing if something exploded in my face. That is my knee-jerk reaction to all dangerous situations

[@p1ai162]

😅 comps are much healthier

[@bytesandbikes]

those unconstrained detonations punching holes in steel. Wow.

[@cezarcatalin1406]

Love it when that happens *intentionally

[@user-mx4qo6pq1m]

13:17 Just like a high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) weapon. 🤣

[@azureprophet]

I really appreciate how you properly expose for the highlights in your slow motion. So many people allow the bright parts of reactions to get completely blown out to white. Only one or two of these out of 20 or so did. Cinematography is important, nicely done.

[@ChemicalForce]

Thank you! 🤗

[@TheMrFrukt]

Awesome fires with those "black snakes" appearing out of thin air.

[@spiderdude2099]

Reacting even in the solid phase is truly impressive. Decaborane doesn’t play around 0.o

[@NebulonRanger]

Yeah boranes are terrifying.

[@debrainwasher]

@@NebulonRanger Yeah, but boranes can and will be very useful in about 400 years, we our planet has run out of gas, oil, coal and uranium. The (useful) electrical (!) energy content of 10 grams B₁₀H₁₄ corresponds to about 100'000 litres of Diesel fuel (Read my post above). The only waste is ordinary helium gas. Mr. Jamal Kashoggi was poised to inform the world about these things in the New York Times - but he didn't survive his attempt.

[@RryhhbfrHhgdHhgd356]

As soon as he said it was “stable,” I was like, “Yeah… those double hydrogen bonds are *sure* known for that…”

[@ZivTheWyrd]

o-carborane and nitromethane not that impressive? Feliks, c'mon man that looked awesome.

[@BradSchmor]

While my career as a chemist was spent focused mostly on making things NOT to explode, I greatly appreciate you doing so many of the things I never got to try, for a number of reasons. Primarily, blowing things up in a lab that isn't mine while on the clock is frowned upon in industrial chemistry settings. Beautiful video work.

[@garycard1456]

I suppose there are those Energetic Materials Chemists whose (admittedly exciting and interesting) job role is to design novel compounds and compositions that go 'bang' for military and civillian applications alike (DSTL is one such example). And there's the academics and lecturers such as Andrew Szydlo, Chris Bishop and Peter Wothers, who perform chemistry demos (including demos of 'energetic' chemical reactions) in front of a public audience, with the hope of inspiring new generations of scientists.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I have the wonderful “The Chemical Elements and Their Compounds” by Sidgewick it has a section on perchloric esters where they wore iron masks to protect themselves.

[@metalblack4697]

Whaaaaaat!? Decaborane + fuming HNO3 = such enormous explosion??!! WTF?? Amazing! ! !

[@ephjaymusic]

get E&F in here!

[@evilotis01]

@@ephjaymusic yessssss

[@Calilasseia]

That combination has been tried experimentally as a rocket propellant. Cue rapid unscheduled disassembly. Find out about more hideously dangerous rocket propellant experiments by grabbing a copy of John D. Clark's "Ignition!". PDF versions are available.

[@Si74l0rd]

Absolutely incredible, and a little awe inspiring to be honest. The slo mo and cinematography in general is so good and the reactions were beautiful to watch.

[@madmattdigs9518]

I’m so glad I wasn’t able to get ahold of these chemicals when I was a teenager. I did enough damage with black powder and flash powder. I almost lost a hand…

[@A_Z_404]

Me too mine was tatp but hand still attached so no problemo

[@bopakboom2819]

im happy u didnt lose ur hand

[@aidenthehuman5921]

This is incredible! The green flames really make everything even cooler. The cinematography is also amazing, I absolutely love it.

[@eier5472]

If you just want to make green flames, mix boric acid with a bunch of methanol, add some drops of acid and set it on fire. Unless you're in the EU, then you're screwed because boric acid is too toxic for mouthbreathers like us.

[@KazzArie]

Green flames >>> yellow chemistry

[@DanielGBenesScienceShows]

This video easily contains some of the most wildly beautiful reactions I’ve ever seen. I now know that what we thought were interstellar Nebulas were actually photos taken through the window of your lab.

[@RryhhbfrHhgdHhgd356]

What really makes the decaborance fuming nitric acid reaction so scary to me is that, for a few moments, it seems entirely innocent. It just sits there and fumes. Then, without any warning or notice, it explodes forcefully enough to punch through thin layers of steel. Crazy.

[@helldad4689]

a) Osmium tetroxide? Absolute lad. This is literally my first time ever seeing OsO4, even in a video. b) I'm starting to see why the US Department of Defense abandoned boron additives in favor of JP7 when looking at fuels for the SR-71. Watching the carborane soot makes me think "fouling problems" was a bit of an understatement.

[@drflash36]

Triethyl borane (TEB) was used to light the JP-7 fuel for the SR-71 engines, due to its high pyrophoric activity in air! See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane for details.

[@richardpurves]

@@drflash36 That's true but they did investigate "zip" fuels ... basically lots of boron compounds added to give extra oomph. There was also the rocket fuel attempts: seems rocket engines don't like their injectors being filled solid with green glassy deposits. Led to some interesting chemistry but not for fuels ;) John D Clark's book Ignition! has a whole chapter on it.

[@syntactyx]

another absolute masterpiece. Felix, every video of yours is truly a treat and they're only getting better and better. The editing, the exotic reactions and reagents, the dense scientific content... just exceptional. Absolutely exceptional.

[@Gremriel]

Now I'm craving popcorn.

[@ahuman2533]

Luckily i always have some

[@chandrajitkarmakar2333]

Fascinating channel. Greetings from India.

[@Frogmobile52]

Stunning! I absolutely love all of it but the last "pop" with decaborane and Nitric is just madness... Thank you!

[@petermines3575]

Amazing fluid dynamics of combustion.

[@jasonpatterson8091]

Did you accidentally get some Explosions and Fire footage there at the end? Holy bananas that was a serious reaction. Glad you didn't get hurt from the first attempt, before you knew what it was going to do.

[@urbannanni5864]

The reactions are spectacular! I don't really understand chemistry, even though I took it 3 times in college. I wanted that nursing degree, and on the first day of my third try, the professor asked if I was going to be there for the rest of his life. I told him no, just until I pass with a C. I got my C, it was a pity grade, I don't care. Chemistry is cool, but I can't grasp it.

[@jesseparrish1993]

If you go out of your way for videos like this, you've grasped it better than a lot of the kids who made an A.

[@aethrya]

I bet you're a great nurse :)

[@slurpyboi3965]

It's so cool how fast things go even when 40x slower!

[@huhdidwhat]

A brave man is one who plays with OSO4 🙏

[@theGoogol]

Very nice! Tip : Film some of the nicest reactions top down (camera over the experiment, protected by glass), on a vantablack background and use black spoons or matches, film with a wide angle so nothing moves out of frame. Sell the footage 😁 I'm sure it would make for amazing source material in video editing for space themed videos.

[@spiderdude2099]

Wow, o-carborane is such a beautiful compound. That lilac color is amazing

[@ephjaymusic]

This channel keeps on getting better and better! Those slow motion shots were just breathtaking!

[@zeratulrus142]

The sooty, incomplete combustion with solid flakes of carbon/solid oxides/whatever is left unburnt flying upwards are always incredibly beautiful, especially in slowmo. Also probably unbelievably cancerous.

[@nollie_ollie8358]

well in california we have worse things to worry about… like trees 😂 prop65 labels are so ubiquitous that if there actually was a good reason to have a label on something nobody would even bother reading it anymore and assume its bs. they have them on literally everything now, so im starting to think living in california causes cancer 🤔

[@samblackstone3400]

Yeah probably lots of exotic "tar" organics in there.

[@lefthandedspanner]

very cool video! something that may be of interest is that decaborane was the starting material for the synthesis of the most "gentle" superacid known to date; it takes a crystalline form and can easily be stored, but it's such a powerful acid it can protonate benzene, most likely because the electron-poor borane cluster is exceptionally good at stabilising negative charges

[@ohbeardedone9253]

This channel should have 10 million subscribers. This is the ONLY channel on KZbin I would consider becoming a patreon of. You truly do the most extreme reactions!

[@twitchlazy]

incredible work! The score as always ties in and those are some beautiful shots. I don't know why the slomo guys haven't come to your subterranean compound with their phantom 4k yet.

[@ChemicalForce]

I think I can afford this camera when I hit a million subscribers 😏

[@evilotis01]

@@ChemicalForce you should do a collaboration with them! (obv after you make them sign NDAs so they can't reveal your location :) )

[@igotes]

@@ChemicalForce Subbed!

[@86chemist1]

Замедленная съёмка завораживает!

[@DeathEyedGrin]

Dude... holy fuck. Been a long time fan of watching chem experiments on youtube and I've never seen anything like this. Those last two reactions were nuts. Didn't expect it to blast a hole in those containers. Was that steel or aluminum? I'm presuming the second one was steel, as it looked like it had rust on it. Definitely earned my sub, haha.

[@michaelathens953]

Yeah I'm used to being impressed by this channel, but some of those especially decaborane and nitromethane made me go "DAAAAAAMN!"

[@phimuskapsi]

At points in the slo-mo with the "soot" looks like liquid flame turning solid. Very cool effect.

[@matthiascarroll1924]

As a youngster burning trimethyl borane was one of the reactions that made me interested in chemistry, I love the green color. I appreciate the soundtracks you choose for the slow-motion footage, really adds to the suspense.

[@tonythomas951]

I had forgotten what you said about suggesting we watch them all many times until I was here again in less than 24hrs. Those reactions are really beautiful. Thanks for sharing that

[@Rckageek]

8:51 that little droplet coming out on the left of the bowl 👌

[@juliusbernotas]

I like how this channel, unlike many other chemists on KZbin, is playing with some extremely noxious materials. We probably won't see osmium tetroxide and boranes on Cody's Lab any time soon.

[@iBlue0riginal]

1:06 Forbidden Popcorn

[@namibjDerEchte]

You mean extra crunchy popcorn.

[@OmicronCoder]

WHY WOULD YOU EXPLODE OSMIUM TETROXIDE OH MY GOD

[@yasserotb1454]

Just for fun maybe

[@trongdung1306]

His labs are single-use only

[@aSCrouton]

Osmium tetroxide with the music at 10:23 was just awesome. No idea why but all I could think was "why is this such a vibe?!"

[@hendrikboser8238]

This is one of your highlights, thank you and take care.

[@pertechnetyl]

Extremely fascinating to watch! This is how chemistry should be taught.

[@jdurg]

Simply amazing. I haven't been in a lab in 20 years since graduating college with my degree, but have always been drawn to chemistry. These videos you produce help keep me informed and also show off exactly why I loved chemistry so much in my youth. (And honestly still love it here as an older gentleman myself). Thanks again!

[@maringantikrishnamohan6975]

No words,only widened eyes and involuntarily opened mouth!

[@belacickekl7579]

Holy smokes, that last niteric acid reaction was crazy! I wonder if there wasn't some obscure highly nitrated compound forming and concentrating during all that fuming, and then, once it reached a threshold, it just let go.

[@oitthegroit1297]

I wonder if such a compound could be formed and be (relatively) at low temperatures?

[@jpolowin0]

It could be a matter of the reaction warming up slowly until some threshold is reached. Or that it's catalyzed by a product of the reaction between the fuming nitric acid and the metal. Clearly the experiments must be performed many times to test! :-)

[@GovertNieuwland]

Awesome footage (again)! Thanks for creating and sharing.

[@Bloated_Tony_Danza]

I read somewhere that boranes were being considered as fossil fuel replacements back in the 70’s. The idea was that the hydroboron bond is even more energy dense than the hydrocarbon bond, and it doesn’t emit CO2 into the atmosphere. As nice as it may have sounded, for obvious reasons this never caught on

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Mostly for jet and rocket fuel for the military. The biggest issue was the boron oxides forming deposits and ruining machinery I think.

[@fredkow553]

Chemical Art! Love it!

[@mandarpawar7015]

Spectacular Explosions. 🙂🙏

[@alexhatfield2987]

I love your combination of visually stunning multi-chromatic reactions, flames with an ethereal sinister green hue, or seemingly "solid" flames, all coupled with explanations of the reactions and their products. I wish my wife would let me repeat these experiments in the kitchen, but she won't let me...........

[@lashlarue7924]

Felix you are an absolute LEGEND. 😝🤘Thank you for making this!!! Honestly it's about as close as I care to get to this stuff! 😨

[@jimcoppa6946]

Those Flames are beautiful in slow motion very cool

[@redmadness265]

FINALLY, someone documents carborane!

[@lockdown727]

Incredible video, the way those fuming nitric acid drops turned green through the higher was amazing

[@DFPercush]

I love that green flame you get with boron, such a cool effect. The decaborane with nitromethane was so beautiful, especially the little streamers that went spiraling out from it. That's so unusual to get particles with visible rotation and tails like that, like little fireworks. But that last one, dude, I audibly screamed "holy s***" when that went off, was not expecting something so violent. It's interesting how the acid soaks through the whole pile and turns it yellow first, like it's getting all the oxygen spread evenly throughout, and only then, boom. Incredible video.

[@Anar10n]

Spectacular!

[@reneceulemans]

By far, by far the best chemical takes. Pure beauty!

[@matthaydon5228]

I absolutely love your productions !! someone else commented that you'd introduced a new art form combining the reactions with synced music and pro quality photography. Simply amazing!!!!

[@alphanaut14]

Wow. The photography of these reactions is top notch. This is artwork on it's own and I could easily see the clips behind intro movie credits or something.

[@heisenbergstayouttamyterri1508]

Yes... Borane! Love them but best to stay away lol! Thanks, man for working with such dangerous reagents just to educate and entertain us! People like you is what chemistry is about, not only some formulas and reactions written on a book! Period.

[@user-hx6ey8rl3q]

It was brilliant, amazing, perfect and so on.

[@timmienorrie]

Simply stunning.

[@uploadsnstuff8902]

You should definitely put a watermark on those slowmos, the nitromethane with decaborane is truly beautiful.

[@Andrew_Fernie]

Stunning video.

[@AJ-qv9yo]

Turning chemistry into art. Love it.

[@PovlKvols]

Gorgeous fire and explosions!!

[@alphazuluz]

This is some of the coolest footage of anything I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t look real. You do an amazing job catching it with the right lighting and all. I would love to see it even slower

[@ChemicalForce]

Thanks 👍

[@sinpi314]

I love the high quality video footage that you shoot. Very interesting to see the reactions

[@eduardoGentile720]

This man had the courage to FUCKING MELT OsO4 IN FRONT OF HIM

[@OmicronCoder]

The last thing you see (literally)

[@spiderdude2099]

I’m pretty sure for stuff like that, not only are they doing it in a high efficiency fume hood, but he wears full hazmat gear, and a gas mask/respirator. So, yes, it’s incredibly dangerous, but I think he takes more than adequate safety considerations

[@empmachine]

I wish I had more thumbs to give!!! Fantastic work and what a neat mix of triggers (my fav was when you used warm water to melt the stuff.. Super!) and the slow motion parts really let you appreciate the complexity. I also really appreciate the synced music/cinema tics/presentation/etc, it brings the work from an A to A++ You could sell (or donate) content like this to schools, I bet you could excite a whole new generation of awesome-chemists

[@mikaljan]

There borane reactions are amazing, especially the slow motion footages!!

[@TheCaptainLulz]

7:00 - Could be wrong, but if theres sufficient heat for a reaction, could it not be amorphous boron carbide?

[@savagesarethebest7251]

Wow, I really love the explosion forming part at the end of the video

[@reaccionaexplota]

Love it

[@k.langieva]

boranes are awesome 😀 my fav min 10 decaborane this video is truly great!

[@matthewcomfort7719]

that was awesome

[@cryptomnesiac]

Beautiful shots as always!

[@kuzmichpyro]

Love it! Thanks 👍

[@dsrM]

I love the green flame of most boron compounds they look lovely

[@bigantplowright5711]

Awesome!!

[@tymonkalbarczyk1456]

These are best videos of an explosion in slow motion that I have ever seen.

[@LK-mb9hz]

Every your video is beautiful. But now it is awesome. Thank you.

[@MasterBlaster3545]

Beautiful absolutely beautiful

[@mireille.bouquet]

Hands down coolest compounds ever

[@spidalack]

Delayed and extremely explosive reaction. Sounds like the stuff nightmares are made of.

[@s1ngularityxd64]

stunning shots🙂

[@user-ft9ng4eu2m]

Я з України залюбки дивлюсь ваші професійно зняті відео. Дуже дуже гарні реакції.

[@tanujapant2494]

nyc video

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Astonishing footage of some amazing reactions that I'd never have done myself. I think, with nitric acid, there's often a gradual increase in reaction speed as temperature increases. But, with the decaborane, although you can see the gradual ramping-up of the reaction rate (as NO2 gets evolved faster and faster), the gradual increase is followed by an extremely rapid runaway!

[@clintongryke6887]

Particularly beautiful photography.

[@emanuelewert1850]

Incredible

[@bobsmith6079]

Thanks for another amazing video. Combine borane green flames with some burning strontium compounds for your Christmas special video.

[@quintonwilson8565]

bro these shots are insane!

[@davidmunuera9182]

So amazing, thanks

[@LogjammerDbaggagecling-qr5ds]

The physical structure of the decaborane molecule is really cool.

[@aethrya]

I love this guy and his channel. His vast knowledge, passion, intelligence, voice, editing skills, music choice, all of it...dope channel. I bet this dude could make you some good drugs.

[@CrazyLabs]

Your videos are amazing!!!!!

[@rachaelfleming7132]

Thanx cool experiments informitive and well presented