Extracting Pure Iron from Pills

In this video I try to extract elemental iron in as pure a state as I can manage from iron supplements. Done on request, but actually turned out pretty fun and I learned a lot.
In reality I probably should have at least given electrolysis a try, but I've been doing it so much lately I wanted to try something weird and completely different.
#chemistry #science #hydrogen #gas #elements #fire #chemical #industury #color

[@y33t23]

Fun fact: Iron Oxalate is what one of the most rare minerals on earth is made of. It's called Humboldtine and a recent find of a sample in a rock collection has caused its entire discovered mass to double. The entire amount ever found on earth is about snow ball large.

[@TechGorilla1987]

This isn't really relevant, but my wife has had to have a number of iron infusions. The liquid in the IV bags was a SUPER thick, ferro fluid-looking slurry. It was quite a striking looking substance. Almost like oxidized blood.

[@integral_chemistry]

It might have been something similar. Heme-iron is by FAR the most bio avaliable form of iron so it may have been some synthetic form

[@alllove1754]

I just had this thought about that, bc my brother had to go on that, but I hadn't known it was like ferrofluid, which takes me to the weird thought: I wonder what would happen to a person if they went to MRI exam RIGHT AFTER!

[@zenongranatnik8370]

For fast thermite reactions you might want to add some flux (borax, cryolite, fluorite etc.). Pros: -slows down the reaction (safer and more controllable) -makes less material fly into the air (higher yield) -isolates metal from the atmosphere so it oxidizes less (higher yield) -keeps the reagents hot for longer so the molten metal coalesces into a blob easier (higher yield, a chunk of metallic iron instead of some powder/aggregate) Cons: -you have to experimentally find the right ratio, too much and the reaction is incomplete. Great video nonetheless, keep going!

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

Pyrophoric iron sounds crazy, oxygen is seriously reactive.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

People don’t realize how reactive most metals are when you increase their surface area and remove the oxide layer. Aluminum is an example of one that’s wildly reactive just from removing the oxide layer. We use it every day though.

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 If you grind up aluminum and then expose it to air, it can set on fire just on contact.

[@aahaanchawla5393]

​@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252removing the oxide mayer just creates another oxide layer

[@Abdcwyxz]

To make life easier for you, rince the oxalate paste with acetone to remove the water. Then, you put the paste in a round bottom, under high vacuum and in a warm water bath. You'll end with a much easier to deal with product

[@experimental_chemistry]

If you use not to concentrated solutions it's very easy to let it settle down and filter off just by gravity, pre-dry it manualy between filter sheets and paper towels and let it dry completely in a warm place over night in open air. No vacuum pump or dessiccator needed.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah either of those would definitely have been better than just letting it air dry as a solid mass. It was so insanely hard I was very close to just sacrificing the dish it dried in

[@experimental_chemistry]

​​​​@@integral_chemistry In my case it dried to a powder, nearly no need to crush. I guess it depends on the concentration and ratio of the mixed components how the product precipitates at the end.

[@spencerroach4489]

This is very interesting to me because I have to take this exact supplement three times a week to prevent anemia. I always wondered about the exact makeup of it, and now I’ve seen it with my own eyes…thanks!

[@integral_chemistry]

No problem! Happy to hear you enjoyed that aspect of it, it was certainly a fun project to do

[@zebdeming]

I've done quite a bit of iron smelting from ore in a bloomery furnace, and to make something metallic from something that isn't, is always soooo cool to watch! Thanks for sharing!

[@integral_chemistry]

No problem at all! I was considering taking this a step further and trying to make a little trinket or coin out of this iron, but I feel the melting point is too high for me to really work with, and I think without first making it into steel it would just oxidize too fast

[@zebdeming]

​@integralchemistry1849 I have melted almost pure iron before in a propane/forced air furnace, it is difficult and very hard on the furnace refractory materials/crucible. It is also very difficult to keep other things reacting with and alloying with the iron at high Temps, atmosphere in the furnace and what the crucible is made of will both effect carbon content and I doubt that unless using induction heating in a vacuum it would be possible to keep carbon out of it.

[@TheHollomap]

Your videos are fascinating

[@andrews.4780]

Loving the video consistency ❤️

[@blubberbernd2347]

Using Oxalic Acid seems like a great way to produce a really fine powder of Iron (III) Oxide for amateurs. Great take away from this overall fun and informative chemistry video. Subbed!

[@integral_chemistry]

Thanks man! And yeah I remember about a year ago being really annoyed that I couldn't figure out any easy way to make Iron (III) oxide in a relatively pure state without co-producing tons of Iron (II) and (II,III) oxides. I wish I had figured this out sooner but better late than never lol.

[@aqua-op]

Some awesome visuals here - worth the "needlessly complex" route you took - appreciate it!

[@integral_chemistry]

Glad you agree! When the objective is something as silly as "get the iron out of pills" I like to try and get creative about it

[@Thereno1is]

Cool chemistry! What did you use to originally acidify the ground pills? What would an ethanol/phenol/fulminating solution in under freezing conditions need to be, more electrophilic? As the aforementioned proved quite toxic to stable biological oxygen and interestingly the aforementioned remained very stable respect to time… Maybe a pt of sorts?

[@ahh59823]

It was a beautiful article! I want information about vitamin D3 and zinc. Because it is a hair strengthening drug -Unfortunately, my country does not have zinc

[@johndeaux8815]

What do you mean you country doesn't have zinc? It's an element 😂 not a drug

[@Grateful.For.Everything]

👏👏👏 That’s Pretty Cool!!

[@GerManBearPig]

Instead of iron supplements, you can just eat those "black" olives which are actually green ones darkened with iron The iron complex used for both is chemically exactly the same (at least where I live)

[@Drjtherrien]

Nice! I was thinking about doing this on my channel but I would have gone the carbon reduction route. Looking at what you did here, I think your approach is honestly more pragmatic.

[@experimental_chemistry]

Nice! Never got the self-ignition of pyrophoric iron caught that successfully with my defocussing camera... I would strongly recommend doing thermite reactions only outdoors.

[@integral_chemistry]

Thanks! It was kinda tough to catch even with manual focus just because the light from the ignition is so dim. And yeah I'd have to agree. I did a smaller amount of thermite as a redox demo when teaching, but it was about half as much and in a real professional fume hood. Don't think I'll be doing this again in my diy hood 😅

[@markiangooley]

If you have a rusty steel tool, soaking it in a strong solution of oxalic acid will remove the rust. If the rust was bad there may be obvious pitting in the steel afterwards.

[@integral_chemistry]

It's fantastic for removing rust stains too! It's actually the only thing I've found that can efficiently remove prussian blue stains interestingly enough

[@TheOpticalFreak]

I think it will work better if you use Fe: iron 2 (ll) Acetate! That is also sold as an heme iron mineral supplement! It's also non magnetic iron. and the tablet pills are white in color. I guess because of the cellulose filler. But they have a really strong Iron/Blood flavor! 😬😝

[@dajuwilson81]

Setting off thermite in your fume hood? Bold move.

[@integral_chemistry]

I've done it in real fume hoods several times, but yeah don't recommend it in a DIY hood. Any more than the amount I made could have been a very bad time lol

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Made some nickel carbonate (for nickel aminoguanidine perchlorate) yesterday that has a very similar texture to your iron oxalate. Sucks to filter.

[@integral_chemistry]

Hm I actually made tetraamine Copper persulfate recently, sounds somewhat similar to what you're working on. You are also the one who suggested I do nickel hydrazine nitrate last year right?

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

@@integral_chemistry yep, that was me. The tetraamine copper perchlorate is great if you progressively press two sections of 1-2mm grains (about 3-4g in total) into strong confinement topped by a little bit loose, add a fuse or e-match and then seal it. Makes a great blasting cap that you can pretty much abuse without worrying about accidental detonation. The best demonstration to do with it is to burn it in the open, it has a really brilliant blue flame. Check out the Laboratory of Liptakov channel for the synthesis and his posts on sciencemadness on it. That guy is a genius.

[@stanislavkorniienko1523]

Great video, thanks)

[@integral_chemistry]

Glad you liked it! :)

[@Preinstallable]

I think you meant to say ferr*ic* oxide when you put it in the toaster, since ferrous oxide is iron (II) oxide and its black

[@integral_chemistry]

Oh yeah I meant to say ferric, my mistake.. I kinda edited this together way too fast and probably made a couple little mistakes like that

[@Lucas-uu5em]

Very cool uwu

[@user-db6of2ck8w]

Very God 🎉

[@williamcox1091]

would this work for magnesium?

[@PyroRob69]

Hehe, easier to just get metallic iron from a box of corn flakes

[@integral_chemistry]

Oh really? Is it already in its metallic form or something?

[@PyroRob69]

@@integral_chemistry It looks like iron filings you might get from filing an iron 16 d nail. Find the corn flakes that have been 'enhanced' with iron.

[@PyroRob69]

@@integral_chemistry kzbin.infoQuP0ZkZD4Vk

[@zenongranatnik8370]

​@@integral_chemistryDepends on the brand but yeah, some cornflakes have iron filings added so the manufacturer can boast about how much iron there is inside (with tiny bioavailability but who cares). You can mix some cornflakes and water in a blender and then just collect the iron powder with a magnet.

[@asf130thecompany7]

Correct me if wrong: According to this video the iron that there should be there is like 83% there or am I mistaken?

[@blubberbernd2347]

The yield of 83% is what he was able to recover from what was there according to the information on the box

[@randomlyJohnson]

Can you get lithium from the medicine lithium

[@imikla]

What did you lower the pH with initially?

[@blubberbernd2347]

Sulfuric acid seems the logical choice since there are already sulfate ions present in the solution

[@imikla]

@@blubberbernd2347True, but given how much trouble it is to make (or even distill), when ever someone better at chemistry than I am might have used an alternative, I'm curious.

[@InitHello]

So ... will this process work to extract the iron from the blood of my enemies? Asking for a friend...

[@DeepCZero3]

Whats the music at 8:30

[@jaimeortega4940]

Good job! What happens when you construct/cover a blimp with thermite and then fill it with hydrogen? kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIjIgGSnZcx7gKc

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

What the goofy ahh iron oxalate?

[@alllove1754]

I wonder if you could make a self starting thermite using this stuff, the pyrophoric stuff that is. Idk how though, so... that'll be the day. This was a welcome video. Btw, I found oxalic acid as a rust remover, right next to the other rust remover hydrochloric acid (ace hardware)❤