Yellow Powder: Let’s solve unsolved alchemy

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Sometimes I worry that if I upload only once every few months, then each video will have too many ideas and distractions in them. But luckily I think I managed to avoid all tangents in this video and stay on topic the whole time! Anyway, uhh, you can buy a shirt if you want to i guess: explosionsandfire.shop/

[@Tungsten_10]

Good to see you

[@Rhodanide]

How long we’ve waited

[@Ignis_1]

I love everything about your videos, including the tangents.

[@nocturnhabeo]

Did you put the NBN shirt on your site?

[@nocturnhabeo]

Also you are just avoiding us all holding you to your promises like getting calcium out of bones…

[@styropyro]

that 2006 yellow powder recipe came to me in a dream. i'm surprised to see it still works over such a variety of ratios!

[@Pyroteknikid]

Our guest of honour has arrived!

[@Dan-bq3rd]

What an explosive idea.

[@LyzergideDaydreaming]

All good recipes (especially with explosives) are best when interpreted through cryptic dreams

[@wobblyboost]

Reminded me of my first 70's childhood 'experiments' (and punishments), with Pottasium Permagenate and glycerin, there wasn't really any correct ratio. Both banned/restricted now ofc.

[@putteslaintxtbks5166]

Great take down. I'm giving it a ten! The only way it could have been better is if there were big sparks too.

[@Emu0181]

StyroPyro casually throwing Dr. &Fire with a huge grin on his face was pure magic. Thanks to both of you

[@DanielCook-h6r]

All the testosterone makes him aggressive

[@ryanatkinson2978]

"Dr. &Fire" lol

[@danielkidder1313]

I don’t feel safe with them in a room together.

[@ryanatkinson2978]

@@danielkidder1313 the only one missing is Mr. Red, the pre-eminent piss chemist

[@Morethanlikelyaperson]

I prefer Dr. &Ire. But I enjoy them both. Very Esteemed scholars.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

That last shot was a cinematic masterpiece. If I could meet the camera operator I would buy him a large burrito.

[@chillaxter13]

I absolutely love seeing you on each of these videos as you are a legend yourself!

[@Nargleberry]

With extra onion

[@thefrozenflames1658]

I just got back into watching KZbin by watching the PCM video and now I see you watching another channel I like wtf

[@YerpyMoose]

I did think that was your laugh!

[@michaelwagner6877]

Ayo! What up Nighthawkinlight! Fancy meeting you here! Ok byeeeee!

[@Petrolpark]

The guy at 0:28 is my lecturer and he does this in one of his lectures. He also starts heating a spoon of black powder, then continues with the lecture allowing the gun powder to randomly go off five minutes later and giving everyone anxiety

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

That’s awesome honestly

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Chemistry is all about anxiety, isn't it?

[@Flodhesten]

Sounds like my college teacher.

[@b82mo]

Peter Wothers. What a guy

[@tommymaddox6785]

Teaches you not to leave your reactions going unattended lol

[@NoriMori1992]

18:53 "2006 was like 23 years ago." Explosions&Fire has time travelled to us from the year 2029 to bless us with advanced chemistry knowledge 🙌🏽

[@obtuse186]

I'm very upset to be realising that 23 years after 2006 is not some ridiculously long time away. We're only 7 years out from 2006 being a quarter century in the past.

[@skipper.buchanan]

I reckon it explodes because when it melts the non-sulfur compounds realize they've become yellow and blow themselves up out of shame.

[@n00bist723]

Nah it's the other way around when it melts it stops being yellow and the compounds get excited that they're no longer dregs of chemistry, that excitement of particles results in a cook off.

[@PetraKann]

Definitely scared

[@tommytheshimigami]

It explodes from internal combustion.

[@PetraKann]

@@tommytheshimigami if it’s a combustion reaction can you list the chemical reactions involved?

[@tommytheshimigami]

@@PetraKann potassium nitrate binds with potassium carbonate and uses sulfer as a base to allow the mixture to combust.

[@Azimuth-l8n]

17:25 "What if we just edged this guy." ~ Tom "Explosions & Fire" July 5th 2024.

[@hardwareful]

"Published in 1648" Elsevier: that'll be $35!

[@monika7063]

sci-hub

[@JohnGardnerAlhadis]

Elsevier really are the EA of academia.

[@rhubarbman2425]

I hate them so much

[@DerHenker_]

oh my god everytime i get a paper published in elsevir I know it won't work there is so much unreliable crap published with data the 'scientists' just pull out their backside. It's unreal

[@magnusbruce4051]

@@monika7063 Also "#icanhazpdf". Although since twitter turned into a cesspit I don't know how useful it would be any more. I'm not sure how much of a crossover there is between academics with really good access to journals from their institutions and 2024 twitter users.

[@Peter-iq9yy]

heroin-core is now permanently in my lexicon, right alongside the phrase 'the atmosphere is nature's bin'

[@harryw.174]

Heroincore/heroinchic has been a thing since the early 90s.

[@jole5468]

Canberra having its own type of ket is the most interresting fun fact i have heard

[@mopippenger7373]

yellow powder works because potassium carbonate is too similar to baking soda and the universe hates baking

[@interstellarsurfer]

This is the best theory we have so far. 🤷‍♂️

[@Mis.tresss]

Yellow powder works because it’s yellow and thus filled with so much rage against the universe that it explodes

[@liam3284]

It looks closer to washing soda to me. But the same reason can apply.

[@ortholux2343]

Will it work with baking soda NaHCO3 ?

[@testbenchdude]

Interesting take. Also pretty funny since I am currently proofing some bread to bake later on today.

[@UCgBe3]

This video has it all: ✅ Pink T-Shirt about a mismanaged fiber transition ✅ Obscure Ketamine only available in one Australian city ✅ Science based on a forum post from 2006 Thanks Tom.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Tbf, CanKet could be available everywhere in Australia, and we'd never know because it's only safe to get it tested in Canberra...

[@domvasta]

I can tell you all about CanKet, it's one of series of designer drugs, made in China usually, a bunch of would be drug dealers figure out how our drug detection technology works, in ketamine's case they're looking for an arylcyclohexamine with a secondary amine ending in a methyl group and a chloride on the 2 position, of the aromatic ring, CanKet swaps this for a fluorine and switches the methyl for an ethyl group, this makes it more able to penetrate the blood brain barrier, but it also makes it less potent at blocking the pores of the NMDA receptor. The changes mean that all the sophisticated machinery designed to detect ketamine coming into the country doesn't give a positive result, so they let the package through. The original highly popular ketamine analogue was methoxetamine, but that actually showed up on most reagent tests as codeine or hydrocodone.

[@666lianne666]

Forum based science is the best kind of science.

[@SA12String]

"Some random amount of time" is really a scary concept when working with pyrotechnics. It's really strange that no one has figured out how yellow powder works.

[@seivernoname-tz9uh]

The randomness is probably why. If there's a practical use for this stuff, I cant think of one, so there's really no incentive for already underpaid scientists to waste their time on it

[@SolidIncMedia]

My mate, an "expert" at doing dangerous fire-and-explosions based shit with no real care, would refer to that time by it's correct name, "[shoulder shrug] I dunno, whenever", as he's lighting a sparkler that is attached with masking tape to a almost entirely sealed metal tube full of gunpowder.

[@TheLtVoss]

​@@SolidIncMedia could be me in my Teens 😅

[@biscuit715]

As a geologist I get unreasonably excited when a ternary diagram comes out

[@plasmasupremacy9321]

Loam fans assemble

[@MatBaconMC]

"Science just takes... science just takes, you know what I mean?" (de Prinse, 2024) [t. 18:34]

[@PanophobicCuber]

I love the fact that the source at 7:18 is a young styropyro.

[@alekkowabunga3294]

its crazy how small the internet is sometimes

[@Gameboygenius]

Pretty cool riiight?

[@fanzaii]

that's awesome

[@FyreDrac]

Same

[@nevezetesazonossag]

man was a terrorist in 2006 already, still going strong, godbless!

[@danielwgk]

"this guy" being StyroPyro is absolutely hilarious.

[@pirobot668beta]

'Priming powder' from a French book on Black Powder variations...sodium nitrate and sodium carbonate melted together, cooled and ground to powder. Sulfur added, mixture slowly heated just until the sulfur melts. If it explodes, you went too far. Remove from heat, allow to cool. Apprentice carefully grinds fused mass into powder...explosion is likely, so don't have anyone you care about do this bit. Friction and impact sensitive, it was used in 'pull-string' igniters, needle-guns and flint-locks. It's main advantage in guns was it's nearly instant ignition...no 'hesitation' as was common with guns of the era. Chief disadvantage was the collateral damage likely with every batch produced! Shaking a jar of the stuff has been know to cause explosion. It's 'dry nitroglycerine' in terms of handling safety. Chemically speaking? I have no clue, but I did read a paper speculating on sodium fulminate.

[@strategicbacon7349]

sounds very similar, interesting. is there an english translation?

[@LRK-GT]

I was gonna say... This 'Yellow Powder' seems like a good candidate for development into a priming compound. Clearly, I'm far from the only one w/ that in mind, between 1648 and today. Makes me wonder if there's any similarity/application to/for electronic primers?

[@TBButtSmoothy]

@@LRK-GT laser plasma and a new Electric SolidRocket Fuel stuff

[@samuelmellars7855]

Ooooh!

[@rtqii]

I have done this, you cannot grind the cold material, it will explode nearly every time, even with a wooden mortar and pestle. Once you get it heated properly the material becomes plastic. Immediately remove it from the heat, and transfer it to a preheated iron plate that is lower in temperature than your heating plate. Once it begins to cool but it is still hot, you can break the material up into crumbs with a wooden roller. If you want finer powder, which I think is not necessary, transfer the material a second time to a preheated iron plate that is warmer than the plate it was removed from, and rework it with a wooden dowel or rolling pin to powder it. But it must be done when the material is hot, coming off the melting plate. As it cools it becomes crumbly. (Edited to add: as it cools it goes through a crumbly phase, once it cools past this phase the material becomes very hard)

[@MIKAEL212345]

I saw the forum post image was authored by "...opyro" and thought to myself "wow, that is really similar to styropyro, but there is no way it is him. That would be a crazy coincidence." and it actually was

[@RensStoryteller]

In alchemy, the terminology of what the process is would likely be written out as something akin to "Two elementally hot substances imbuing an elementally cold substance with their heat and amplifying their now unified heat as the torches come together to become a pyre." Or something to a similar notation.

[@EwariDiaz]

I read the research paper you wrote, and the line sentence in the conclusion "It is the author's firm belief that the last 400 years of chemistry research has led us to this; a moment in whitch we as a society can finally break free of the yellow powder chains that have held us down for so long and step into a golden age of advancement"

[@Vistico93]

He should strive for a silver age of advancement. Gold is just too yellow

[@zacharywolter]

@@Vistico93I was thinking platinum age as it is not yellow and can act as a catalyst and not consumed

[@welporajackwelp4899]

Why not an iodine age of advancement?

[@Just_Lars]

I mean, if thats not Ig-Nobel worthy, idk what is honestly

[@gobbel2000]

The paper describing your experiments is pretty great, I can't see why everyone wouldn't want to publish it. These are some of my favorite quotes from it: "These rudimentary shed observations are conducted in the hope that it will shed some light on the underlying chemical mechanism." "Modern science is widely believed to have progressed since the 17th century, however, the continued inability of science to conclusively address the significant alchemist mystery of yellow powder brings this belief into question." "Surely that is worth the paperwork to bring some explosives into your analytical chemistry laboratory and load it into the most expensive equipment you’re allowed to use and just see how it goes?"

[@SpAm-AcCoUnT]

Academia-type-economist here: we have the privilege of access to oh so many good ‘perspectives’ journals in which to publish our most unhinged pet theories. NBER is in no small part a repository of late-middle aged dudes’ winging on about fuck all. I feel for other disciplines who have to do, like, fuckin’ real science or whatever to get published. Gonna turn to the dark side and start a new rogue publishing house for researchers ketted-out ramblings. Break out the smoking jackets again, kids; we are so back.

[@camillovidani2586]

@@SpAm-AcCoUnT In Europe, and especially in Germany, the tradition is to wait for one of your professor friends to retire or have a big anniversary, on which occasion he'll throw a party where his friends are expected to bring the spiciest papers they couldn't get published to be bound in a book

[@SpAm-AcCoUnT]

@@camillovidani2586 You’re describing paradise

[@madarah8533]

​@@SpAm-AcCoUnTi think germany is paradise if you're a chemist 😂 remember klapötke is german too

[@Oosh21]

Acknowledgements I’d especially like to thank everyone.

[@Samonie67]

this channel is doing actual science, i thought we were just messing around in the shed not actually doing nerd shit

[@cornonjacob]

I know, right? Like actually collecting data and trying to figure stuff out instead of just following other procedures in the jankest way possible

[@nocturnhabeo]

He's shedding light on the situation.

[@bastianthewatermelonwatile5469]

It isn't already nerd shit?

[@markfergerson2145]

Something something writing it down something something screwing around.

[@RiehlScience]

The difference between screwing around and doing science is writing stuff down

[@veneroso3337]

Tom, I hope that when you were digging around for that shirt that you found the hearing protection also.

[@ethyl-bromide]

I love your paper. "It is the author’s firm belief that the last 400 years of chemistry research have led us to this; a moment in which we as a society can finally break free of the yellow powder chains that have held us down for so long and step into a golden age of advancement" Beautiful.

[@KevinWood-vq4tg]

The fact E&F is wearing the NBN shirt in the last shot is pure gold. and "its always important to remember that in about 25% of data points god comes in and interferes just to keep us humble" had me in stitches.

[@sakomeow]

They should call it Toaster Powder because it goes off at a hot but inconsistent temperature and the pop surprises you every time.

[@kleetus92]

Yellow Toaster Pow!der

[@adaroben1104]

Spread yellow powder on some bread and toast it yes

[@Dismem]

Did you know the dial on toasters is a timer and not heat setting

[@adaroben1104]

@@Dismem Depends, some toasters have a heating element setting along with the timer.

[@brettc5386]

@@Dismem actually it just represents the shades on toast, it can be time based, heat based, or both, and the numbers on the dial don't really correlate to a time unit.

[@hmmmmmm3076]

Jokes on you I’ve already been drinking all day

[@CMBag]

Alcoholism 😎

[@custos3249]

Bad call. Everyone knows you dilute day before binge drunking

[@Electronichub_05]

Give this man some car keys

[@jbone877]

​@@custos3249 "day before" implies an existing period of sobriety

[@ajaxrosso1]

Hero

[@nexaentertainment2764]

I knew I recognized that post! Styro is all over some early internet science forums. I ran into his posts more than a few times while looking up laser stuff in the 00s.

[@dontquestionjustbelieve5757]

I love how at 10:34 the map of Australia doesn't have North or south Australia

[@AndrewGillard]

I'm kinda fascinated by that map tbh. What's the story there? Is it like how I consider most of the UK to be *"The NORTH"* because I've only ever lived in the southernmost 50-ish miles of England & Wales (i.e. south of London), so anywhere north of Birmingham is basically "here be dragons" on my mental map? 😅

[@Flesh_Wizard]

there's like 5 and a half people there it'll be fine

[@dontquestionjustbelieve5757]

@@Flesh_Wizard HAa well in that case why is westen there

[@lessefrost]

Formulation scientist here and you did more mapping of exactly where the line on each ratio is than anyone else was willing to do so props!

[@WeebRemover4500]

what % of scientists are gay these days

[@DatSun.]

@@WeebRemover4500 wait until you find out about programmers

[@Casa-de-hongos]

​Same as all people. Probably arounf 5-10% depending on the excat definition.

[@odenetheus]

I'd be really interested to know what happens if the heating is done in a vacuum chamber, honestly. In some of the shots you can see that it catches fire (with a purely blue flame) at first riiight before the explosion happens. Since I'm not a chemist and I don't have the desire to look the reactions up, do you think it's possible that during the melting process, oxygen is incorporated, and that if you keep the temperature too low (or high) either not enough oxygen or too much oxygen is introduced and the explosion thus becomes impossible? Additionally, since it seems to burn first, is it possible that it needs one temperature to meld together, and another (higher) spot temperature to start a chain reaaction leading to the explosion?

[@alexrogers777]

You have a furry pfp so I'm inclined to believe that you really are a formulation scientist

[@JDLupus]

"It's always important to remember that in about 25% of data points, god just comes in and interferes just to keep us humble." I laughed so, so much at this.

[@nocturnhabeo]

After years of cleaning data that has just the most fucked outliers, this is truth.

[@nocturnhabeo]

A quote: "THIS TOOL DOESN'T HAVE A KEYBOARD WHY AM I GETTING STRINGS OF LETTERS IN MY DATA?"

[@JDLupus]

@@nocturnhabeo Amazing! 😂

[@SocialDownclimber]

This is in fact the fundamental principle of all chemistry research.

[@129140163]

12:00

[@CMDonovann]

genuinely love your style of editing. you obviously put a lot of effort into making it look bad and stupid, and it pays off, cuz its funny as hell. this shit is ART. great job man

[@monty9373]

"How much of this triangle explodes?" This is the kind of question I like to see answered.

[@TheRealLAC]

"It's only through hate, that one stays human" - Explosions & Fire, 2024.

[@TheBackyardChemist]

The Sith is strong in this one

[@Thetracker69]

Or a line straight from the Imperium of Man from Warhammer.

[@UnsoberIdiot]

He's not wrong.

[@semi-useful5178]

Hate is born from deep familiarity.

[@phillipmele8533]

Didn’t know Dr. &Fire’s real name was Hama Druz.

[@figboot]

There were 49.5 explosions in this video. - 0:04 x1 - 0:06-0:10 x13.5? (one happens during the fadeout) - 0:39 x1 - 1:01 x1 - 1:30-1:35 x3 - 3:30 x1 - 7:40 x1 (there's also a slow-mo replay of the same explosion here) - 7:58 x1 - 8:07 x1 - 11:11 x1 - 11:21 x1 (probably a replay of the same explosion - skip this one if you want) - 11:53 x1 - 11:59 x1 - 12:07 x1 - 12:14 x1 - 12:36 x1 (this explosion and the next two were replayed in slow-mo without sound) - 12:38 x1 - 12:59 x1 - 14:45 x1 - 14:47 x1 - 14:48 x1 - 14:56 x1 - 14:59 x1 - 15:01 x1 - 15:04 x1 - 15:05 x1 - 15:07 x1 - 15:09 x1 - 15:12 x1 - 15:13 x1 - 15:17 x1 - 15:22 x1 - 15:23.24 x1 - 15:23.67 x1 - 15:48 x0 (e&f does not consider this an "explosion" per se) - 15:58 x1 - 17:47 x0 (not an explosion but makes a "poof" sound)

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

It’s a tough drinking game but I like to set a high standard

[@whatbroicanhave50character35]

Lol, a hair over 2L of vodka if you go by US standard drinks. That's gonna be a yikes from me. By the end of the video a 155lb males theoretical BAC would be 1.5%. I've heard of people surviving .4% or .5% but never much higher.

[@leholen381]

A shot is 1.5 ounces so 1.5 x 49.5 = 74.25. 74.25 ounces is 0.58 gallons or 2.2 liters.

[@adamengelhart5159]

Shirt: Want answers on the NBN? Just ask a local. Person who wants answers: So, what's the deal with this NBN thing? The locals: Oh, the NBN? It's bollocks. Person who wanted answers: Got it. Thanks.

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

“When is my house actually getting connected” “Oh mate no idea at all” “cool thanks” Every time

[@TheCovenantKiller]

@@ExplosionsAndFire "you might already be connected, you probably wouldn't be able to tell anyway"

[@fishrsa9046]

I just want to say I love that you use a handheld mic, because it makes your videos just a tad more unhinged (which is a good thing to me and I'm sure others as well)

[@jorgetlw12]

i have enjoyed watching you for a few years now, and some how this is one of the best episodes you've ever made..... could also be the drinking game, im calling it shot per pop

[@chivethelizard]

Can't wait for the follow up white powder episode

[@ridderjaim3]

"We're gonna be so cooked" - Tom (2024)

[@DruggiePlays]

Blows the nose this one 😂

[@UnsoberIdiot]

With the conclusion that white pow...der is far better than yellows? :)

[@patavinity1262]

I hope this is a reference to 'The Novel of the White Powder' by Arthur Machen, but I'm sure it's not.

[@nixel1324]

yay for more metal-spoon-over-flame science.

[@196cupcake]

6:49 In US criminal law there is a rule called "the rule." So, "yellow powder" could be a lot worse.

[@calyodelphi124]

So I have some observations based on that beautiful triangle diagram of yours: 1. Too much carbonate bums the reaction out. It looks like if the carbonate composition is above 55% then the reaction won't cook off. But the one test point at 0/50/50 confirms that the reaction requires _at least some_ carbonate to successfully cook off, so let's say more than 5%. 2. Nitrate DEFINITELY contributes significantly to the reaction, but not if there's too much so it definitely needs something else to react with it. Not enough nitrate (below 20%) or too much (above 60%) can cause the mix to not cook off at all, it seems. 3. The reaction definitely requires some sulfur. More than 10% but maybe less than 70%. The ideal mixing ratio doesn't seem to be the one cited in the 2006 forum post, but rather somewhat closer to 30%-40% carbonate, 30%-50% nitrate, and 20%-30% sulfur. Taking the averages of these ranges comes out to 35/40/25 carbonate/nitrate/sulfur, which is exactly where the purplest dot indicating the fastest cookoff time sits. But as long as the mixing ratio is somewhere in the ranges of (5,55)/(20,60)/(10,70) then it'll _eventually_ cook off with enough heat (at least 325°C but no testing at higher temperatures appears to have been done so we don't know if there is an upper limit to this).

[@mckseal]

The plot shows time til detonation, not detonation strength. It could be that the forum post's source was optimizing a different metric.

[@LRK-GT]

I wonder how resistive the mixes are? Small enough amount, contained, electrically resistively heated... could get it pretty predictable and 'configurable'.

[@altejoh]

So that would give a nitrate:carbonate:sulfur stoichiometry of about 3:2:6 I wonder what reaction that might correlate to!

[@benjaminplotke4716]

I think the order was K nitrate / Sulfur/ K carbonate, making your ratio 40/25/35, which is not as far from 55/27/18. 27 is a good % for sulfur, but 18% K carbonate is definitely on the low end for a good mix.

This was the most impressive video from this channel I've seen yet. You made a genuine contribution to chemistry. I'm now intrigued into the mechanistic possibilities of carbonate and sulfur at high temperatures. In my mind if carbonate can cleave the long sulfur chains, creating some sort of polysulfide carbonates which can get oxidized by KNO3 to the SO2 that would give extremely reactive functional groups that, once enough of them have "built up" detonate.

[@nullpsyche]

I dont know shit about chemistry, but at 17:45 when you light the "cooked" powder it starts to darken (perhaps it's simply burning, or rather starting to melt and turning black from carbon being burnt), and then seems to vaporize more than explode, what if the "explosion" is actually the powder becoming molten (It definitely starts to bubble right before detonation) and then either undergoes sublimation, or fully liquifies and violently vaporizes into a somewhat flammable gas, I feel the slightly flammable gas idea could be valid since at 13:02, that particular detonation clearly shows some gas burning up while the ploom rises up from underneath it, so either they are different gasses or it "cools down" rapidly enough to cease being combustible. Maybe try the experiment in a vacuum, at the very least you'll find out if the reaction requires oxygen or not, and that sounds like good data!

[@Icecreamman571]

We are so fucking back

[@andersjjensen]

See you again next year?

[@Icecreamman571]

@@andersjjensen I will be there no matter what

[@invalide]

We never left

[@Kinetic.44]

Who's back

[@alexrogers777]

@@Kinetic.44 We are

[@knpark2025]

Ex&F: All yellow chemistry is TRASH also Ex&F: I wrote a research manuscript about a yellow chemical and my work is available on Zenodo *_You have become the very thing you swore to destroy_*

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

gotta know ya enemy

[@tialac506]

He bore yellow's sins so we don't have to

[@jbone877]

​@@tialac506 yellow jesus

[@RepChris]

@@jbone877 yellsus

[@Emu0181]

Hey, that's DOCTOR Ex&F, show some respect. Lol

[@isaacdalziel5772]

Oh no. The yellow. It's here.

[@chrisharvie-smith486]

It's called a moustache ! 🤣

[@UnsoberIdiot]

Quite a lot, actually. Some would say "too much".

[@g.waughan]

Petah, the yellow is heah

[@Flesh_Wizard]

It's coming to ruin your mixtures. Be very afraid

[@tovrobi5097]

Also tar.

[@Mad_Bioengineer]

For Infrared spectroscopy, we sometimes use polished metal plates or metallic films as IR reflective substrates. Its cool to see it be picked up with an IR camera.

[@QuartzChrysalis]

Intentionally making yellow. How Dr. &Fire has evolved as a person. Oh he already did it 10 years ago, how my world has shattered, I know nothing about this man and feel compelled to apologize for how presumptuous I have been.

[@hallucinogender]

I enjoy the fact that Canberra has its own version of ketamine and it's considered "slightly worse" than normal K. That might be the single most Canberra fact I have ever heard. Also, I've seen those "secret third axis" diagrams before, but exclusively in the context of people meming on the soil composition diagram because for some reason people on tumblr find loam hilarious. It absolutely is, but I could not tell you why. And congrats on Actual Data by the way!

[@gluesniffingdude]

tag urself i'm sandy clay loam

[@hammerth1421]

Ternary diagrams are cool. Not for plotting data that is supposed to be read off from the graph again, but for visually communicating the properties of ternary mix which is exactly what Tom used it for.

[@lazydictionary]

It's used with some regularity in material science as well. Don't let those geologist dorks think they're the only ones using it.

[@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220]

It also has its own version of ketamine called "special K" that is sold online by a guy in a horse mask, it lasts nearly 8 hours and is about 3x more potent, who knows wtf it is though Edit: am canberran, partied a lot a few years ago

[@liam3284]

I used to see those diagrams in refrence to colour space. Oh the days of every display having weird colour casts.

[@yorkshirechemist]

nice work! having done quite a bit of work in the past with molten nitrate salts (trying to reduce them to nitrite, with very mixed success), I had to point out that the melting point of potassium nitrate is around 330 °C, i.e. just above the temperature where detonation occurs - I strongly suspect that whatever reaction is taking place involves nitrate in its molten state

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

That’s a great point!

[@hammerth1421]

So liquid nitrate + goopy liquid-ish polysulfides = boom?

[@yorkshirechemist]

@@hammerth1421 liquid nitrate and polysulphide-contaminated sulphide on its own is quite a violent and very exothermic reaction with gas ejected at high speeds, even under an inert atmosphere it's quite plausible that it could potentially become explosive under the right conditions

[@hanelyp1]

The addition of carbonate may produce a mixed salt with a slightly lower melting point. Possible tests on that point, then using the mixed salt with sulfur. Other oxidizer mixed salts with a low melting point may exhibit similar behavior.

[@T3sl4]

​@@hanelyp1 Also a good point. Hmm, looks like KNO3-K2CO3 system has a eutectic, not much below KNO3, on the KNO3 side, like 3%at CO3. Oh, NaNO3-KNO3 has a pretty deep eutectic at ~50%, that should be easy to test, and may be promising.

[@hammerth1421]

To quote a certain math video: "Let's see the R^2!. Let's not see the R^2..."

[@tolkienfan1972]

I just watched that!

[@Ioun267]

What video? Sounds fun.

[@bob2859]

@@Ioun267 Stand Up Maths "UK Election charts are a nightmare"

[@Phroggster]

That video has had an ∞% increase in views since 1066. Truly inspiring content, and an exquisite example of statistical soundness.

[@terribleterrier1685]

To be fair, Matt's r was over 0.5 and I think this was around 0.45? Good enough for the shed LOL

[@jackmio]

0:39 "I've spoken to- OH-"

[@TATPMuncher]

Lol

[@TATPMuncher]

Oh I'm back here again so Lol

[@toast156able]

Love the interactive nature of your content! It's like every time I forget about you because you got banned again then one day I'm doom scrolling on the toilet for 90 minutes and boom "I'm science" man from make believe kangaroo land is back with another banger!

[@vk2zay]

I did a bunch of experiments on fulminating yellow powder in my pyrotechnics obsession phase (many years ago). It is evil shit, I'd rather make chlorate cap compositions than wait for it to cook off randomly... That said. I could reliably prepare the polysulfide separately then mix it with the nitre and have it detonate at the melting point of the potassium nitrate. I could use the same polysulfide preparation that I used for senko hanabi experiments. I strongly suspect the liquid phase transition of the potassium nitrate is important. I also have a weaker suspicion that atmospheric oxygen dissolving into the polysulfide melt may be important too, probably accumulating sulfate like a glitter or senko hanabi, but I never tried melting it in nitrogen or argon to test this idea. Probably something someone should try... It definitely doesn't seem to work using sodium or barium salts, not sure why?

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Hmmm, it seems odd that the sodium salts don't work, as that ingredient substitution is used for making a fairly volatile primer that was used for flintlocks. Maybe there's an issue with the melting point or something?

[@-r-495]

Please publish that paper, it is relevant. Science isn’t gray, it is yellow.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Interesting...it only explodes after you heat it enough to melt it and get rid of the yellow color. From now on, to correct the terrible naming, this explosive shall exclusively be known as reddish goo. Also, I wonder if this would work with different ingredients (sodium nitrate/carbonate, maybe other chalcogens like selenium instead of sulfur, etc). Might also be cool to test the nitrite hypothesis with actual nitrite and polysulfide!

[@phoenixmercurous884]

Selenium is rather unhealthy and you don't want to be making smoke or vapor containing it, which is hard to avoid when making an explosive.

[@nosidenoside2458]

​@@phoenixmercurous884considerate the following: metal box + fume hood

[@eaglgenes101]

​@@phoenixmercurous884Nothing a gas mask and bailing at the first sign of stink (selenium compounds are even stinkier than sulfur compounds) can't mitigate

[@phoenixmercurous884]

@@eaglgenes101 After some googling, it looks like elemental selenium isn't as bad as I thought, but the oxide's MSDS is no joke. It stresses not letting it into the environment allowing dust formation, contact with air, or contact with water. I have lab experience, so my safety instincts really don't like the idea of putting a compound with a 4 mg/kg dermal LD50 out into the environment where it could injure someone else.

[@angusmatheson8906]

​@@phoenixmercurous884 FOUR MG/KG LD50?! Jfc. Yeah, no thanks

[@TheColorsInGreyLife]

It could be that it's creating a high enough electron flow effect that some small amounts of ground or connections are happening, as in the weirdly shaped chains are getting split after forming forcing some amount of them to hit each other and start a type of regular chemical reaction that just happens super quickly. Like electrons are forced out of orbit, they taken with them some small section of a compound that is not ionic in it's view then tries to balance it by heading that way with a neutral compound in-between, that cleaves it but also forces a different ionic state to form, the previous state hadn't neutralized and now has a lot of friction. From there it is already hot, so it breaks apart and smashes into others at an even greater negative ionic charge state. This starts pulling others around rapidly while then they cool off with standard exothermic reactions evening everything out. It's mostly because carbon forms a ground nano particle soup that has sulfur get creative with how it curls on to it. With the other compounds around it's a very tightly bound compound trying to balance out ionic states, like all chemistry seems like lol. But in this instance it can't form anything in it's most stable state, so entropy uses the potential here to it's advantage, once enough energy crosses the barrier, of meta stable (quantum vacuum decay lol. Not that but similar in the sense a lot of those words all describe something in a high state of potential but don't have the needed push, as per Newtown says, to get them to a more stable entropedically better, organized state, interesting study recently about water chilling faster if it's warmer, this keeps showing up even quantumly) structure and compound arrangement. A good test would be to see if you could get some electromagnetic field changes to occur with a setup around the explosion to know, that and a mass airflow sensor to measure the electrostatic changes before, during, and after. It's almost an explosive, weird electron hole redox flow battery effect. Detonation style!

[@MiishaKorvian]

Funnily enough, the fact that Tom is using some less than pure reagents is fitting for a freaking Yellow-Chem Bad Alchemy. XD

[@Gunbudder]

This reminds me of my great uncle who did essentially the same research but for rocket fuel back before rocket fuel existed. he made the first computer database (using COBOL) of all mixtures of rocket fuels and fuel tank materials. no one had even measured the vacuum of space directly yet and they had no idea which mixture would be best or what to even make the tank out of. some fuel mixtures were too corrosive and would eat through the tank and some mixtures were not corrosive but were too inefficient. After his research, he ended up with a large table of data (much like your triangle chart) all in COBOL and printed out on punch cards, and he wrote the original technical manual for ideal rocket fuel and fuel tank material. unfortunately, all PII was removed from the TM he wrote because it was classified at the time, so all he could do later in life was claim bragging rights that he wrote the book on rocket fuel. And i still have all the punch cards because he kept a copy in his attic lol. your triangle chart will be become the new reference that people use 20 years from now and wonder "who the hell was this random guy who posted this data online 20 years ago??? I'm definitely not going to credit him though lol"

[@electrowizard2000]

Post those punchcards on Github XD Kidding aside, it's a shame that stuff like this gets lost to history. Thanks for sharing the story.

[@SaphireLattice]

Honestly, these punch cards would be pretty cool to see

[@CarlVanWormerAE7GD]

We found this book (below) in the reference section of the library when I was in high school. We made (and used a lot of it), and learned how to anticipate the explosion when a spoon of a gram of this powder was held over an alcohol burner. As the melting and bubbling would turn to brown, the character of the boiling/bubbling would change in size of bubbles and darkness right before the bang. We even made little holders for our burners that would hold a half gram of the stuff above the flame, to be placed outside of somebody's home at night. The explosion sounded like a firecracker and would extinguish the flame so it would be "invisible" when somebody looked out the window. We (with our excellent high school knowledge of chemistry) guessed that while the Potassium Carbonate was being heated, it was giving off CO2, inhibiting the O2 and Sulphur from combining. When the CO2 ran out, the O2 and Sulphur would combine to make the explosion. This was probably wrong. Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes and Processes (Internet Archive) «Fulminating Powder.»-I.-Niter, 3 parts; carbonate of potash (dry), 2 parts; flowers of sulphur, 1 part; reduce them separately to fine powder, before mixing them. A little of this compound (20 to 30 grains), slowly heated on a shovel over the fire, first fuses and becomes brown, and then explodes with a deafening report. What a lot of fun! (and relative safety) Later, Carl

[@napalmholocaust9093]

I just recommended it to.

[@semihezen9541]

Finally, Yellow chem bad - The Episode

[@bradleymorgan8223]

Thank you for teaching us about the NBN! That's a fascinating piece of Australian history

[@crazyjoe1540]

I’ve said this on your last two vids but your timing is impeccable once again. Literally was just wondering when we were gonna get another ex+f vid. Great work keep it up.

[@apocryphalniche1736]

A few months ago I was working on a synthesis for a bright blue product started to look green because some of the starting materials were degrading and turning YELLOW. Since that discovery the whole project has not worked.... E&F is on to something...

[@empressassassin9975]

As a geologist who has somehow ended up studying cosmochemistry this summer, I'm with you on the letting hate fuel you. Fuck crystal growth, fuck wet chemistry, and most importantly, FUCK iron isotopes.

[@xxxm981]

Please rant in autistic details what iron isotopes have done to you.

[@noalear]

@@xxxm981 I second this.

[@Flesh_Wizard]

The supernova that produced those isotopes is probably giggling from beyond the grave after seeing that comment

[@TheBackyardChemist]

@@xxxm981 *austenitic

[@steveschein2619]

WAY back in the day I was the chief engineer of a semiconductor research lab for a big university in Florida. I can remember telling my boss he probably shouldn't let all of us have access to ultra-pure chemicals that we did. So much for that! We certainly had FUN! Okay, blowing up a hot plate with fulminating gold was really fun.

[@HubsLab]

Hey! I've been experimenting with this stuff and I found out that when you melt it, let it turn black and then cool it down you will get a brown explosive powder. That's quite interesting and maybe that might help to solve the mystery:)

[@alexandermarsteller7848]

With the preliminary study done, you just need to get some funding to get a PhD student into that shed as well as some analytics hardware to map the entire triangle in excruciating detail. Some nice high-speed spectrometry to see what happens when the yellow stuff turns angry.

[@Qfeys]

I think they threw out your paper when they read: "These rudimentary shed observations are conducted in the hope that it will shed some light on the underlying chemical mechanism." Big mistake to write a pun in the introduction. You should have kept it for the conclusion.

[@BigParadox]

I made this mixture when I was 14 or 15 (1973 or so) after finding the recipe in an old encyclopedia. From the name used in the book I got the impression that it would detonate if you hit it, but it didn't, to my disappoimtment. Then I thought It might work better if I disolve it in water (well, not the sulfur of course) and let it dry. I waited for it to dry, but I was too impatient, so I thought I should dry it by heating it. I took a small amount and heated it on some aluminium foil over a flame. The water boiled and evaporated. And as soon as it became dry it melted and then BANG. The time from the water totally evaporating till the bang was very short, and the reason for that was probably that the amount was so small. But the bang was incredibly loud and sharp.

[@BackYardScience2000]

"Science sucks, know what I mean?"... Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

At the same time it's pretty awesome. Hope you had a great Independence day!

[@chrisjvas]

There’s a 1000% percent chance someone from the FBI watched your most recent video 😂 I’m here for it

[@BackYardScience2000]

​​@@chrisjvas oh yeah, they saw it and didn't like it. As you can see, it's no longer on YT if we're talking about the same video. Lol

[@AnonymousFootballer]

Jokes on you Tom I majored in geology. I dream in ternary diagrams. 13:50

[@baleksus]

This is your best edited video to date, loved it. It's super cool you're back and keep on rocking

[@Nuovoswiss]

Am I the only one who thought just to stoichiometrically balance the reaction for complete sulfur oxidation (and subsequent reaction of SO2 with the carbonate? 2KNO3 + K2CO3 + 2S --> N2 + CO2 + K2SO3 + K2SO4 Which would give ideal weight ratios of 50:34:16 The reason for the carbonate isn't just to react with the sulfur dioxide, but to lower the melting point of the nitrate closer to the autoignition temperature of sulfur. Carbonates also form cursed complexes with elemental sulfur, leading to a 3-component eutectic liquid of sulfur, nitrate, and carbonate (fuel and oxidizer homogeneously mixed on a molecular level? +heat=Boom).

[@Nuovoswiss]

It occurs to me that making the eutectic melt at ~295C, then letting it cool, it could be powderized and used instead of sulfur in traditional gunpowder formulations for higher energy densities and burn rates.

[@Saleemsan]

I thought of it, but too lazy, so thank you

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​​@@NuovoswissReading some other comments, a very similar compound (similar ingredients [sodium instead of potassium], slightly different preparation) was apparently used as a flintlock primer in france, and the grinding step recommended the use of an apprentice... Mostly because it's about as sensitive as nitroglycerin and is a hard resin when cooled. Luckily, another commenter mentioned that it crumbles if worked while cooling before becoming basically a solid lump of highly sensitive explosive resin. So granulation using a rolling pin on a cool (explosion resistant) surface is recommended. Powdering can be achieved by moving the still plastic granules to a warm surface to work with a smaller roller. Admittedly, I'm thinking that it could probably be poured into the caps as it is apparently equally violent as when ground (it's already got an oxidiser, so granulation seems unnecessary). Will probably try it out when I can next afford the ingredients. (Edit: reread posts and corrected some inaccuracies related to ingredients)

[@pietrotettamanti3183]

Wow mate, I remember you from like 6 years ago giving reasonable chemistry hypotheses under just about any amateur chemistry video. At this point I'm curious. Where did you study?

[@dn7627]

How many shots did you take?

[@jdmaine51084]

Man, I may have said this already on another video, but it's worth mentioning again: You have a good sense of comedic timing. "What was I wearing, what is that shirt?" Next scene: "so I found the shirt..." There's something monumentally funny about an Aussie chemist working in his shed. Because the chemistry, the science of it all is very real... but you make it NOT boring. If I were a chemistry teacher in high school, I'd have my students watch some of your videos in class.

[@andersjjensen]

What makes it even funnier is that he has a degree in physics, not chemistry, and other YT chemists outdo him routinely in every other metric.... than being actually interesting.

[@jessicabowden6857]

100 percent agree. i always am paying attention to try to catch the easter eggs. i wonder if dr.andfire likes "this old tony"

[@alexrogers777]

Yeah and what's funny is if you're interested in that tangent about the internet then it's a nice break, and if you hated it then you're just sitting there thinking "Hurry up and get back to the chemistry" which is like every teacher's wet dream

[@CNGboyevil]

0:06 suddenly realizes I shouldn't watched this at work

[@tadcastertory1087]

Working from home is key for that.

[@the_real_ch3]

11:05 is a moment of pure editing brilliance

[@OverlordMaggie]

Loved this vid. I learned much, as a science nerd I think you HAVE given to the community! I've never seen a ternary graph let alone it being a heatmap as well, short of the (muscle / body fat / height) sliders in videogames. As a D&D nerd I can now throw more real life science into my alchemy as well. Roding the fence on entertainment and education is why I love your channel so much, glad to see whenever you have an update. The reference to throwing the pinkshirt, the pained expression due to The SuspenseTM (I *hate* being startled so thank you for enduring this), the on-point humour, the unexpected Styropyro appearance, this video was pure magic and it made my day.

[@Jack93885]

11:11 really cracked me up. I was so focused on the intesresting drugs and then that got me so good.

[@andersjjensen]

For a chaos chemist, who breaks glassware, janks setups, contaminates samples, and generally just shoots from the hip, it's kinda weird that he has comedic timing down to the millisecond.

[@SuperCookieGaming_]

the potassium carbonate being important to the explosive makes me this thats where the focus should be. While working on a different project i found a source (Handbook of inorganic chemicals, Dr. Pradyot Patnaik) that stated that potassium chlorate (KClO3) can turn into potassium perchlorate (KClO4) and potassium chloride (KCl) when heated. I suspect that something similar is happening to the potassium carbonate and it is turning into potassium percarbonate (K2C2O6) which is a strong oxidizer. I doubt this theory is right but its my best guess. Edit: to be clear i don't think its the heat alone that is causing this, either the KNO3, sulfur or both are needed to do this. to test this you could try heating the potassium carbonate with one of the two and both and cool them. then examine them in an FTIR machine. the change bond structure for the percarbonate would show up on there.

[@xxxm981]

Well..... that should be very easy to test, no? melt some carbonate and then see if it violently reacts with organic solvents

[@liam3284]

I also suspect some complex with the KNO3 is at work. I would be interested in what products are left after the detonation.

[@etelmo]

If you want to measure the temperature of metal like the hot plate I find putting kapton tape on it to change the emissivity/reflectivity works pretty well, it's generally good at high temps with soldering too.

[@miklov]

Could you also add a thin layer of soot with a lighter? I assume there would be a temperature gradient but that the soot would be more or less the same temperature as the metal.

[@etelmo]

Maybe? Kapton tape is nice because it's very very repeatable though and it doesn't really break down until 400c or so (although the adhesive does a bit earlier, ymmv depending on brand)

[@lazydictionary]

You could just attach a simple thermocouple to the plate pretty easily, no need for IR and messing about with emissivity values.

[@applepiesapricots3109]

@@lazydictionary True but most don't have a thermocouple and don't know how to use a microcontroller to make one for $20. Explosions&Fire doesn't seem to be an electricity dude so I doubt he has a multimeter capable of attaching a cheap probe.

[@ame7165]

you can buy sheets of it to cover it completely. they used to use them as a 3d printer bed surface back when we all printed ABS with 2.85mm filament and everything warped like crazy. kapton handled the heat and held like glue

[@GabrielGABFonseca]

"Why should _I_ give back to science, science just takes!" [Long, soul-deep sigh] "... science just takes, y'know what I mean...?" Resonated with me and my current time in life entirely too hard

[@aaronnester5132]

I have to say, I've watched probably ten of your videos, I can't fully follow the nuances of the chemistry, but your attempts to do one thing and your struggles to reach your end goal and hell you go through, it's all highly entertaining. I also mean that in a nice way, I actually enjoy your videos.

[@Dank_Lulu]

The fact that my fave OG youtube "homebrew" scientists get to meet-up and exchange ideas is one of those odd joys that only The Internet can afford. Happy you're part of that, Ex&F since apparently the australian internet can't really afford much... 😁

[@gakulon]

WOOT TRIANGLE DIAGRAMS!! The most interesting part of soil science!

[@Ardient_]

My guy has finally synthesized enough Cubane to be proud of himself once again to upload a video.

[@leafcastellen4629]

I'm in love with this! In our lab yesterday, my post doc, research assistant and I were all nerding out about this!

[@AllisterCaine]

Dude the source thingy on yellow powder is so true. We were arguing and riddeling what it actually is back in 2001. I thought it was nitrate and ascorbic acid because that was one take somebody had. We went back to synthesizing PETN and building KNSO rockets after some days because we didnt find out shit. Great video, can relate to your internet struggle as a german, ee have the word "kupferkanzler" (copper-Chancellor ) for helmut kohl because he fucked up the network in the early 90s because he was buddies with somebody from the copper industry.

[@felixml919]

I literally looked at your channel like an hour ago and was disappointed to see no new upload in months. Now this pops up. Good day

[@mohinga2136]

love how elegantly the shrapnel spins after explosion

[@RepChris]

5:00 Somehow Australia and Germany BOTH made the mistake to go for a fiber-copper hybrid internet, which as a german I can confirm is absolutely horrible.

[@richardpurves]

The UK was doing it too. Another good reason to avoid it.

[@lettuce984]

@@richardpurvesThe UK or copper hybrid internet? As a Brit it’s probably both

[@Sp00kq]

​@@lettuce984 both.

[@tildessmoo]

I mean, I can understand the hypothesis: Homes use less data than whole networks, so the best transfer speed/cost ratio is probably somewhere in the area of using fiber for trunk and neighborhood lines and existing copper for home connections. They just fail to realize that there's a difference between home fiber lines and trunk fiber lines, and that the difference in speed between copper and fiber is greater than the difference in data volume between home and trunk lines, and that there's a bidirectional delay involved in the interface between copper and fiber.

[@andersjjensen]

@@tildessmoo Denmark solved that as following: Fiber itself is cheap as fuck, but fiber switches and routers are expensive, so it was mandated that every time there was some kind of cable work (power, infrastructure signalling or telco) they had to put fiber in the ground while they were at it. Then over time "the problem mostly solved itself" and it became cheaper to go fiber-only then to maintain ADSL networks. Some still have coax internet because they get it bundled cheaper with their cable TV, but even those companies are starting to segment the internet out on fiber because people switch if they can't get as fast internet as they want. Personally I pay $22/mo for 100mbit (a Big Mac is $4.65 for reference) and the fastest my provider offers is 1Gbit.

[@Captain_DelParaiso]

You , in this video, act like the scientist I wanted to be as a kid. Even if you didn't solve anything (yet), you don't act like someone who /already/ knows everything. It's really refreshing and I wanted to say thank you for being so authentic

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

I loved this video! It left me feeling second hand... no, third party accomplished! (seems more accurate lol) The only thing I wish it included? A couple where you had the cover screwed on. Actually, it'd be interesting to do two additional cover-on experiments: 1) cover on, sealed shut (glued), with a hole poked in it to vent - to see if it results in a bigger bang just due to containment. 2) cover on, sealed up, NO vent - to see if the vapors *add* any energy to the event.

[@mortlet5180]

I'm left with so many questions: What would happen if you substituted KOH, KH or even just K metal for all (or just some part) of the K2CO3? What if you form the polysulfide first, then powdered it and added it to the powdered KNO3? Does Na2CO3 or NaOH work if you also use NaNO3 and if not, at what % of NaNO3 in KNO3 does the reaction fail? What about other cations, especially ammonium, and what about replacing some of the nitrate with nitrite? What effect would anhydrous HNO3 have and how sensitive is the mix to any water? Could you substitute K2S for some of the Sulphur?

[@sianingdog]

18:22 As someone halfway through a physical chem PhD, I know exactly what you mean.

[@sativaburns6705]

This triggered a core memory of the transformers cartoon where they traveled to medieval times and made black powder from bird crap and rocks or something.

[@falkensakurai1488]

variable scanning and DOI made this a whole new scientific level

[@FlaminTubbyToast]

My favorite part about this is that this guy didn’t even complain about yellow chemistry being bad. He just says “the worst part is the suspense” like mate non-yellow chemistry would be better for you