Dangerous Hydrogen Storage chemicals: Boranes.

[@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

[@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!

[@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! 🤗

[@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.

[@bytesandbikes]

those unconstrained detonations punching holes in steel. Wow.

[@cezarcatalin1406]

Love it when that happens *intentionally

[@WhyOhX2]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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?!"

[@86chemist1]

Замедленная съёмка завораживает!

[@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.

[@chandrajitkarmakar2333]

Fascinating channel. Greetings from India.

[@petermines3575]

Amazing fluid dynamics of combustion.

[@TheMrFrukt]

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

[@slurpyboi3965]

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

[@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 :)

[@spiderdude2099]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@Frogmobile52]

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

[@ephjaymusic]

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

[@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!

[@TheCaptainLulz]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Oystercaulk]

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.

[@huhdidwhat]

A brave man is one who plays with OSO4 🙏

[@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

[@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!"

[@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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@pertechnetyl]

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

[@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.

[@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! :-)

[@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...........

[@maringantikrishnamohan6975]

No words,only widened eyes and involuntarily opened mouth!

[@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.

[@jimcoppa6946]

Those Flames are beautiful in slow motion very cool

[@redmadness265]

FINALLY, someone documents carborane!

[@konstantinkhlopenkov4492]

Thanks!

[@ChemicalForce]

Thank you! These dollars are as green as a boron flame 🤑

[@lockdown727]

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

When I saw the hole left in that metal bowl, I was blown away, just energy from just a few grams os power and nitric acid, but your all videos are incredible, but this takes the cake.

[@reneceulemans]

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

[@fredkow553]

Chemical Art! Love it!

[@spidalack]

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

[@Rckageek]

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

[@hendrikboser8238]

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

[@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!

[@АнатолійЛівий]

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

[@mandarpawar7015]

Spectacular Explosions. 🙂🙏

[@Gremriel]

Now I'm craving popcorn.

[@ahuman2533]

Luckily i always have some

[@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!!!!

[@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.

[@GovertNieuwland]

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

[@mikaljan]

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

[@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.

[@AJ-qv9yo]

Turning chemistry into art. Love it.

[@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! 😨

[@sinpi314]

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

[@МаксМорозов-щ1э]

It was brilliant, amazing, perfect and so on.

[@OmicronCoder]

WHY WOULD YOU EXPLODE OSMIUM TETROXIDE OH MY GOD

[@yasserotb1454]

Just for fun maybe

[@trongdung1306]

His labs are single-use only

[@dsrM]

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

[@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.

[@PovlKvols]

Gorgeous fire and explosions!!

[@savagesarethebest7251]

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

[@CrazyLabs]

Your videos are amazing!!!!!

[@bobsmith6079]

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

[@LogjammerDbaggagecling-qr5ds]

The physical structure of the decaborane molecule is really cool.

[@ikitclaw7146]

I really wish this channel could collaborate with Slow-Mo guys for those super high frame rate shots, our eyes miss so much detail in the moment of reaction, a flask of chemicals suddenly becomes empty space and a puff of smoke so fast in that moment.

[@k.langieva]

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

[@rachaelfleming7132]

Thanx cool experiments informitive and well presented

[@clintongryke6887]

Particularly beautiful photography.

[@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!

[@jesseparrish1993]

I developed an experimental catalytic heater igniter using sodium borohydride and acid solution. This produces a hydrogen stream that ignites at room temperature in the presence of dispersed platinum and palladium, while also having the advantage of limiting the amount of hydrogen that could be accidentally produced. Do not try at home. Apart from the hydrogen and acid handling, you could produce diborane, which is bad news. It will be produced if you use too strong of an acid. However, it does make pretty green flames when ignited like those in the video.

[@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

[@tanujapant2494]

nyc video

[@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 👍

[@Andrew_Fernie]

Stunning video.

[@timmienorrie]

Simply stunning.

[@among-us-99999]

can you cover silanes? Especially the ones barely big enough to not be pyrophoric

[@tonythomas951]

I have no idea how I got here but watching stuff like this shows me how little I actually know. It truley is a big world with lots to know.

[@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

[@mireille.bouquet]

Hands down coolest compounds ever

[@floorpizza8074]

Came for the chemistry, stayed for the *amazing* photography skills. Thumbs and subs.

[@ChemicalForce]

Welcome aboard 😏

[@iBlue0riginal]

1:06 Forbidden Popcorn

[@namibjDerEchte]

You mean extra crunchy popcorn.

[@Anar10n]

Spectacular!

[@apryason]

These are some of the most beautiful reactions you have captured on video. I couldn't help but think this kind of thing could be used for practical special effects in movies. The real thing is always so much better than what they can come up with using CGI, and your lighting and composition are spot-on.

[@ChemicalForce]

Thanks for the comment! Few people understand how difficult it is to set the correct exposure when shooting video, especially on a high-speed camera

[@billeethesciencegeek]

The o-Carborane combustion at 5:50 is one of my favorite reactions yet. It looks like a volcano in zero-G.

[@andyd8370]

@5:35 Mesmerizing and unsettling, great music.

[@matthewcomfort7719]

that was awesome