Distilling Highly Reactive Potassium for a Dangerous and Unique Gift

[@That_Chemist]

I once visited an old decommissioned highschool chemistry lab (and when I say decommissioned, I mean they left all the chemicals and decommissioning didn't happen at all), and they still had a massive jar with more potassium than I have seen in my entire life - they had an ampule of mercury roughly the same size as the one you made in this video, but the mercury had mercury salt crystals floating in it 🙃

[@That_Chemist]

not to mention multiple kilos of different mesh size lead powder

[@michaelhicks8603]

Don’t be a pussy. I dare you to lick it.

[@loganosmolinski4446]

Fun fun. om nom nom all the shinnies lol

[@RobinTheBot]

That's just a shopping trip with extra steps?

[@guerrillaradio9953]

Correct 😳😈

[@addfuture]

Those shots with the potassium condensing on the glass with the light box behind it were 👌

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks! It's actually just the bright sky I the background.

[@ChriFux]

​@@AdvancedTinkeringthe biggest lightbox of them all

[@rosco4659]

Really is a beautiful thing.

[@2076649]

It's called German forecast 😂

[@maecroscope7258]

7:49 "Das muss irgendwas anderes... AH!" The moment of realisation is glorious

[@neilclay5835]

I really didn't expect that to be so beautiful. Thanks for making this. Fascinating.

[@MicraHakkinen]

Distilling a metal has to be one of the coolest things ever!

[@RussellTeapot]

Technically one of the hottest, since to distill it you have to heat it HEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEU

[@josephastier7421]

11:35 The condensation and the change of soundtrack are magical

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you!

[@B.Ies_T.Nduhey]

​​​​@@AdvancedTinkeringI like the mucky jars @ 1:36 😆 And I believe you just sold me on an old passion of mine... 😍 PS What is that metal preserved in, in those jars? Oil? Which oil? Ok, so, kerosene😁

[@B.Ies_T.Nduhey]

Somehow, I can't comment outside answers, on my own... 2:28 That DOES look like a piece of rather old and unwholesome goat cheese...

[@leukota]

I have a horrible attention span and watched every second of this, thank you for the treat.

[@DanielOzark]

I had a rush of excitement when I saw that apparatus!

[@lanebasher9101]

I’ve worked with potassium before and nearly all of that video had me sitting on the edge of my seat biting my nails. I admire your nerve.

[@keithcarpenter5254]

Yeah, that was quite a generous sized chunk of k!

[@BryceSchroeder]

The metal-on-metal scraping of the mixed oxides would have had me retreating to a distance of 20m or so, and that assuming I had the PPE the presenter did, otherwise 100m :D

[@sgtbrown4273]

One of the most amazing distillation I have ever seen! Be safe and cheers from McMurdo Station Antarctica.

[@unbuggable5943]

Make sure you keep the snowmobiles gassed up. The alien always disables the chopper.

[@sgtbrown4273]

@unbuggable5943 lol, that's actually what I work on down here. I always keep a backup fueled and ready to roll just in case of an alien attack !!!! 🤣

[@Jefferson-ly5qe]

What are you doing down there?

[@jewtubesucks666]

I just watched the Herzog documentary Encounters at the End of the World which features McMurdo Station, thank you for your service. P.S.: yall got wifi in Antarctica? 🇦🇶

[@sgtbrown4273]

@@Jefferson-ly5qe home now , just a mechanic 😊

[@EliasExperiments]

I had so much fun doing this with you! It is such a cool project! And I am very impressed how quickly you edited the video ;-)

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Same! The weekend was, as always, a lot of fun! Can't wait for your video :)

[@warw]

The music during the shots of the potassium condensing was great. Great taste!

[@PopLadd]

That distillation montage was absolutely mesmerizing. It's also amazing to see potassium in such a pure state.

[@elitearbor]

What a fascinating video of such a basic process. I doubt I've ever seen, in person, that much potassium in one place.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you!

[@rosco4659]

I'm not a chemist but totally appreciate the knowledge and skill that goes into it. Just making the glassware yourself and then the huge block of potassium as big as a house brick made me subscribe. I have never seen such a large piece.

[@dianeramakers3368]

Very impressed about your glass work. And very surprised that it’s not allowed in Germany for a private person to own nitric acid.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I’m surprised too, in the ‘70s in Australia, it was possible to buy conc sulphuric acid and nitric acid. The drug labs and the ban on precursor chemicals have spoilt it for everyone.

[@kapytanhook]

Only the ban spoiled it. I don't mind that some people enjoy drugs

[@KallePihlajasaari]

A common reason for people to contemplate prescription and banned pharmaceuticals is when they want to self medicate due to failure of the medical system to address their PTSD, pain, depression, fear and all those other things that the system provides. Alcohol has so many negative side effects that if is not a innocent alternative. I believe everyone should have the right to make AND prescribe for themselves ANY compound if it does not endanger others training on safe procedure and therapy to understand the potential addiction, child welfare and antisocial costs they may cause and agree to accept in advance. I do not support sale of drugs without someone taking responsibility and I think the medical industry has dropped the ball on many occasions. The second class of chemicals that I feel have been targeted mostly unfairly are those that enable the citizen rabble to rise up against corrupt and totalitarian governments. I long for the day that governments have a a primary goal the general wellbeing of every citizen and not industry lobby groups. This near total failure in the social contract drives people to desperation because they no longer (if the ever did) have a voice. Even in multiparty states the financial interests usually cross all party lines and any change is always to the detriment of the common citizen and for the benefit of the billionaire class. There is a strong correlation between disarming a population or a segment of the population and a subsequent genocide, strong enough for an honest politician to PROMOTE a well armed militia but usually any means of opposition is rather removed and means to exert force are only held by the police.

[@MichaelLapore-lk9jz]

Germany is in the process of stupidity on a massive scale, by shutting down all their nuclear reactors! So all of Germany's citizens pay out of their ass for electricity!!!!😅😂

[@davidfranco7480]

Same in France, for the better.

[@-r-495]

„cooking with friends“… happy to see you too up to it ☺️

[@robertlapointe4093]

Nicely done. Back when I was doing this sort of stuff in grad school, we routinely washed our glassware with acetone to remove bulk organics, distilled water to remove the acetone, an overnight soak in chromic acid (~ 90 g of Na2Cr2O7 in a liter of concentrated sulfuric acid) followed by 3X rinses with tap water, concentrated ammonia, tap water again and then distilled water followed by drying at 200C under high vacuum (~ 10-4 mbar). The folks in the lab next door (Klaus Theopold's group) used piranha solution (50/50 mix of concentrated sulfuric acid and 30% H2O2), instead of chromic acid until a post doc nearly killed herself when she dumped a batch of fresh (hot) piranha into a flask of acetone by mistake (we felt the floor jump next door and were deaf for a while). If Germany has a problem with nitric acid I imagine it won't be happy with either of these methods. The main point is to oxidize any residual organics or metals (which can then be washed out). Another method, which I used in an industrial setting, was to run the container (either glass or stainless steel) through an annealing oven at about 550C, which would burn off any organics (usually polymers in my case) followed by a blast of compressed air to remove any ash.

[@felixr1785]

In professional settings and universities nitric and sulfuric acid are commonly used, but they are banned from free market sale to unlicensed individuals in all of europe due to anti terrorism laws, just as finely powdered aluminum

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Since the still was annealed at around 550 °C all the organics are probably gone. But maybe some inorganic impuritys were still left inside the ampoule.

[@Palmit_]

Beautiful. The colours and the fluidity is really engaging. Thanks for sharing :)

[@pelegsap]

It was just a question of time until a chemistry youtuber would set up a Schlenk system... pretty awesome, and you definitely deserve it. You can't imagine how envy I am 🙂 (Außerdem, wenn ich das englische Wort "gift" im Rahmen von Chemie sehe, ich lache immer... 😛)

[@Conservative_Indiana]

The first time is ALWAYS a learning experience. Great job

[@jbone877]

Dope! Good work!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks!

[@manatoa1]

That distillation was remarkably beautiful. I loved the look of the potassium in the ampoule before you remelted it. The voids made it more beautiful somehow.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! Yes, remelting it was a mistake. It looked a lot better before. Won't do that next time.

[@johnazaz]

Absolutly impressive. i'm in awe of the scope of this channel.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks! I appreciate it!

[@nomcopterlabs]

Love to see it! And love the application of what you've learned over the years and changed in your video style to topics you'd visited in the past. Great video :)

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks! I appreciate it!

[@The_Man_In_Red]

One of the coolest distillations I've ever seen, thanks for sharing!

[@THYZOID]

Very nice! And it looks so clean

[@michaelhicks8603]

This video gets a solid 11/10 from me. Unreal!!!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! :)

[@treelineresearch3387]

The way the metal flows upwards in rivulets from the distillation flask is really uncanny, I thought the footage was reversed at first.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

It does look unreal. So far I have only seen this with cesium and potassium.

[@bladdnun3016]

I'm inclined to think it doesn't flow so much as it evaporates and immediately condenses slightly higher up.

[@BESHYSBEES]

@@bladdnun3016constant phase change

[@KallePihlajasaari]

I think it is driven up with the flow of vapour that condenses further along. Same way that a diffusion pump will give up momentum to the gas against a pressure gradient here the potassium vapour diffusion pump is trying to move the condensed potassium against gravity.

[@iseriver3982]

Purifying potassium seems like a rather complicated way to simulate lava tubes, but it's very pretty.

[@ChemicalForce]

Great video! As I noticed many people like to watch alkali metals being cut. I think a video called “I cut potassium for an hour” will get a lot of views. 😄 Now I'm trying to make a video about the Soviet alloy (potassium cesium and sodium alloy - the most fusible alloy in the world), and I mixed liquid potassium and liquid cesium, but it's a pity I don't currently have access to suitable equipment to do this in an inert atmosphere, and not under a layer of mineral oil or kerosene 🥲🥲🥲

[@brfisher1123]

I like watching the alkali metals below sodium being melted under an inert atmosphere as they all look absolutely gorgeous especially cesium!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you very much! I think cutting potassium metal in a glovebox so that the surface stays shiny would be a very nice video :D Elias and I actually made the CsNaK alloy in an older video. But only under mineral oil. I also thought about making an ampoule of CsNaK by distilling all three metals into one ampoule but haven't had time yet. And apart from the low melting point, the alloy doesn't have any interesting properties, does it?

[@brfisher1123]

​@@AdvancedTinkering It must be an honor to have Chemical Force comment on one of your videos considering that like you he also puts out some pretty great content, I envy you!

[@VendettaProspecting]

Man. To have a cameraman must be legendary

[@brfisher1123]

I'd imagine that the potassium would've came out much better if you would've gone for another distillation round and BTW potassium is by far one of my favorite alkali metals along with rubidium and cesium due to its gorgeous shiny appearance and its low melting point like the other two plus it's a common source of radioactivity! 👍👍 I'd love to see if you can make a potassium sample so pure that it doesn't stick to the glass at all just like you did with the cesium sample a while back!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

You can believe me when I tell you that I will definitely make a second attempt at making a perfect ampoule ;)

[@seanb3516]

Can you imagine being on a planet that has liquid Potassium condensing into a metallic rain? The drops would fall from the sky like soft puffy bullets. Oxygen would not be anyone's friend in such a place. The sight of those vapours condensing in the glassware is the sort of thing that drew me to Chemistry in the first place.

[@allanh5618]

Gorgeous!

[@tracybowling1156]

That is one of the most beautiful and amazing processes that I have ever seen. Thank you for sharing it with us! Wow!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you a lot!

[@Xiaotian_Guan]

That ampoule looks gorgeous. As much as I really want one, I think I'm fine with my 10g ampoule since I don't really fancy living with such an explosion hazard 😂

[@RaExpIn]

What an awesome video! I have only once cut a piece of 100g of potassium with such an horribly thick layer of oxides and after a few sparks and flames I decided to remove the layer chemically, because it was to scary. Beautiful distillation setup and nice shots!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! Yes chemically removing the oxide layer is the safer way.

[@Xanrax]

Why do I love these videos. I read several chemistry books in prison and I think it's fascinating. It's how we have everything in our modern society, from being curious and mixing different things together and adding and subtracting ect. It's simple but so hard.

[@cr0ncher800]

This is insanely beautiful

[@boiwithskillz]

Dude, this rocked 😁 i appreciate you making these videos my guy. You’re an inspiration for sure.

[@frankhaese_DrHaeseGroup]

The most fascinating video about potassium I have ever seen. Also, I have never seen before so much potassium metal on one place and Elias` comment at 5:21 min is telling: "Absolutely safe". You can be proud of the great work. Fingers crossed that the parcel with arrive at its destination in one piece.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! I appreciate it! :)

[@Muonium1]

Do you have any interest in the wasserhammer physics demonstration novelty? It is a simple glass tube partially filled with water, evacuated, and sealed off at the top. When shaken gently a slug of water forms a cavitation bubble at the bottom, and when the movement is halted or the direction of shaking is reversed the bubble collapses symmetrically producing a tremendous energy focusing factor and producing a loud ping or crack noise. Some channels on here such a Lutz Neumann have made them but they remain a rare oddity. There are several papers showing ~10^9 high energy (blue-UV) photons are emitted per bubble collapse event and I've long wondered if for instance adding fluorescein to the water would allow one to visualize the flashes more easily.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

If I find the time, I'll be happy to try it out. I have actually observed the water hammer effect in my caesium ampoule. If you tilt it too quickly while the metal is liquid, you hear a pinging sound. Very worrying and a reason why I now only move the ampoule very carefully.

[@Muonium1]

@@AdvancedTinkering indeed the video sequence of you slowly tilting the potassium ampoule is exactly what made me think of it!

[@pantheis]

This sounds amazing! I would love to see a video on this topic!

[@jesuslovesyoujohn314-21]

That is so beautiful!

[@chicoroth8679]

super video. I had too much respect for the peroxide layer years ago, so that I neutralized the whole thing with water. that was very entertaining. thank you!

[@jayrowberry1530]

Soft metals are very interesting. What a cool process

[@ZebbMassiv]

As a borosilicate tinkerer myself, I highly respect this man's welds.

[@Whytho2000]

Yeah, watching that scene with the condensing potassium felt like watching a movie scene where some chemist is making some life altering discovery.

[@jannooosthuizen6588]

That was facinating and beautiful. One perk of being from South Africa is that our regulations do allow some interesting home chemistry, problem is more obtaining materials and equipment than what you do with it. Would like to do something like this in the future.

[@MikeyMobes]

from one chemist to another, god damn was that beautiful. Well done!!! Awesome video, instant sub.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! I appreciate it!

[@JacobCanote]

Phenomenal footage. A joy to see.

[@zachreyhelmberger894]

Wonderful work!!

[@JustPyroYT]

Great Video! :D 14:54 Wow, that looked really cool

[@wombatillo]

That is some seriously crazy tinkering. So much potassium and just a blow torch to coax it around.

[@Psychx_]

Whenever I see potassium being cut, I have to imagine spreading it on a slice of bread.

[@prapanthebachelorette6803]

Ah wooshhhhh 😅

[@ataberk9331]

Great video!

[@crabcrab2024]

Bravo! 👏🏻

[@chir0pter]

I think what would be a cool series for a Chemtuber to do would be a series of synthesizing "Obscure Explosives" like potassium superoxides and then igniting/blowing them up

[@CharsimaHD]

Quick tip on scraping those per/superoxides… find yourself a bronze alloy knife. CS Unitec makes some beryllium bronze knives that are fairly hard, intrinsically safe and mostly non-magnetic. You never can tell how deep those oxide layers are. As a hazmat chemist, I’ve encountered a few “dry” pockets on the surfaces of alkali’s, and trust me, you do not want to experience that chain reaction occurring with a 500g chunk of alkali metal in your hand.

[@MrKevb1540]

That was so neat. Some of the glass looked kile a mirror when condensing.

[@AppliedCryogenics]

I was a little surprised to hear that a private citizen in Germany isn't allowed to own nitric acid. It seems vital that a private citizen would have access to various nitrates, so how could anyone be prevented from synthesizing their own?

[@topherteardowns4679]

...cant own nitric, but totally cool to ship 200g of K in the mail. lol. amazing.

[@mrgreenguy]

Very interesting video! I love how pretty it looks :) I noticed you used a regular borosilicate flask to boil the potassium in, so I assume the vacuum lowers the boiling point significantly. Do you know around what temperature that might be? I'm thinking of making some alkali metals myself by distilling Sodium Metal instead of the often used lithium with the target alkali chloride salts to get them coming over metallic. I'd like it to be in glass so it's visible. You think this could work?

[@chir0pter]

2:55 Forbidden cheese rind

[@AndrewP1024]

Why am I only now just discovering this amazing channel? I started watching NileRed when he had 18k subs so I feel I've missed this train lol

[@luciteria]

Beautiful!!

[@laurahaaima1436]

Het mooiste wat ik ooit gezien heb.. Woah..

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks!

[@AriLab]

Muito lindo 🤩

[@Gonny1994]

Absolutly amazing. Mach weiter so =)

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked the video!

[@oriongurtner7293]

Wow, potassium makes one hell of a good mirror

[@konstantinjirecek970]

In European Union Nitric acid is forbidden for private use - such big is the fear of politicians from its own citisens making explosives. Even communist governments in eastern Europe were not so scared. I remember experimenting with HNO3 as a kid.

[@kapytanhook]

Yeah, etching, ammo, bottle rockets, metal plating, cleaning... it's too useful to ban. I couldn't believe it when I tried to source some for etching. Nanny state stuff and only getting worse

[@ChrisWijtmans]

They know they are unwanted. But "citizens" resorting to explosives instead of firearms is not that uncommon here.

[@savagesarethebest7251]

Well, that doesn't seem to have made any kind of difference for the criminals. Stuff blow up at least once a week here in Sweden 🙄

[@daewonsong3668]

great video

[@yvc9]

Fascinating ❤❤❤

[@duotronic6451]

Fascinating

[@nab-v1w]

hey, if you cant use nitric acid, you can do a plasma treatment 2 minutes of the glass, if possible under vaccum, it makes the glass unsticky exept to gallium for around 5 minutes before air untreat it. On other way is to heat the glass at 500 °C. Dusts also can do problems, they generally come from cloths and hair.

[@thevieadanac6115]

I wish I was smart enough to do stuff like this. I love chemistry but math is a foreign language for which I can not translate. Awesome job this was a great video!!

[@lndeo]

cutest kalium that I have ever seen

[@RobertCraft-re5sf]

Cool potassium vapor and potassium "steam"

[@NotoriousPyro]

Nice looking bong.

[@purdunetae2995]

Thanks, very cool video.

[@gfygdvy5698]

thats one cool looking bong 👌🏾

[@bpark10001]

Aqua regia: you could use "poor man's aqua regia" (HCl + any nitrate salt). Doesn't molten alkali metal attack glass? What type of glass are you using? Is it borosilicate?

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Yes, I think I will test this method next time. The still is made of borosilicate glass. At higher temperatures, potassium also slowly attacks the glass. The slight brown-golden discoloration in the glass comes from ion exchange, if I remember correctly. But it is no comparison to lithium, which completely destroys the glass and is almost like a thermite reaction. I have also made a short video about this.

[@kallekula84]

I wanna be your friend, that would have been the best gift I ever received! Soooo cool!

[@AKSnowbat907]

That glass ball after the oxidizing process is awesome. Y'all should melt it into a ball and give it away,

[@w__a__l__e]

awesome and dangerous

[@h7qvi]

Would be good idea to have a tray under the apparatus in case something breaks

[@kapytanhook]

A big bucket of water 😁 So it won't catch fire :p

[@funky555]

the idea is to NOT break something

[@jayc2469]

So satisfying watching Potassium Metal being sliced! Worthy of a sub and a Thumbs Up too! haha

[@seanb3516]

Cleaning the Vial I would suggest 3.5 micron Cesium Oxide with 100% IPA to lubricate. Use a bottle brush or a drill to spin a buffing cloth and paste inside the Vial. Be aware that 3.5 micron is the target size for lung carcinogenicity, so use a HEPA Respirator.

[@octavianova1300]

I want a bite of the forbidden cheese 🤤🤤

[@bpark10001]

The way to clean up that oxidized potassium is to put it into the oil like the other piece. Heat until all is melted. Add small quantities of alcohol to the oil. You did this. Just put the dirty potassium in. The crud can be removed & the potassium put in clean oil & repeated until it is clean. Does molten potassium dissolve copper?

[@duncanfox7871]

Very cool! Is the glassware cheap to replace? Looks like a destructive process!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks! The glassware is completely self made. So the "cost" is mostly time. The actual glass tubes and round bottom flask is probably around 20 €. You could probably reuse part of the still by attaching a new vial and a new side neck. But I wouldn't advise it. The integrity of the glass will suffer.

[@GinTheNinja10]

nice video

[@PotooBurd]

This is Amazing! INSTANT SUBSCRIBE🌻 keep it up!

[@maxwillacy-kuhn6396]

I've svetty palms just vaching you perform zis delicate opurazon😂 Jokes aside, very clever manipulation of the contents and equipment❤❤

[@AdvancedTinkering]

zenk juh! ;)

[@maxwillacy-kuhn6396]

Our family originated from Altenbourg.... That's where the Kühn in Willacy-kuhn comes from... My father studied electrical engineering and metallurgy... Family moved to UK then to New Zealand where I now live with my son and grandson, You have one of the best videos on utube in my opinion...

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you very much! I'm glad to hear that you like the videos!

[@Xsiondu]

That was cooler than polar bear toes!

[@kanyeweast3255]

I had no idea metal evaporated like that. I love seeing weird properties like that. I remember watching a sodium/water video in slow mo and for just a frame, the initial reaction took on the shape of an electrical arc rather than the standard flame we come to expect. Perhaps worth some investigation. Makes me wonder about the nature of chemical reactions as a whole. Also, odd question. I always see people just casually cutting sodium and potassium with a knife. Do the alkali metals react with the steel at all? I can't imagine that there's no chemical interaction whatsoever between the alkali and the blade

[@stevengill1736]

So awesome! Beautiful work. You mentioned that HNO3 is verboten? Could I guess it has something to do with terrorism? Thank you kindly for a beautiful video....alkalai metals are so cool....

[@kapytanhook]

Nah, just the fun police. It's incredibly useful. Used to be common in metal plating processes too.

[@tristenm7779]

this is like the discovery channel of chemistry, from those condensing shots

[@qazse4rwsxdr5t29]

Great video. Thanks a lot. Chemtube is really getting awesome :)

[@SGregW]

Fantastic demonstration! Beautiful brilliant shiny K! Nobody else is making detailed video demonstrating the Schlenk and “inorganic synthesis” techniques like you. Please keep your editing exactly as you have been, and don’t be tempted to parse them down for brevity for the impatient short attention span dilettantes . It’s important to show your mistakes and tricks for this art-like science. Also…don’t be embarrassed about your spoken English. Your are easier to understand than many native speakers. Hopefully you can do the preparation of the n-BuLi or t-BuLi in a video someday.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Yes, it is really hard to find a middle ground in terms of the length of the videos and explanations. But you're right, I won't make the videos any shorter. Thanks for the compliment on my English! In fact, I've already talked to Elias about doing a video on making t-BuLi. It might take a while, but there will be a video!