FUN with an OLD COIN! - Elementalmaker

In this video we will use some chemistry magic to turn an old quarter into something a bit more interesting! Starting with a old silver quarter which is composed of 90% silver and 10% copper. We first refine the coin into pure silver, and redissolve the silver bead into nitric acid forming silver nitrate. Its at this point that we bubble acetylene gas through the solution of silver nitrate to form Silver Acetylide, a powerful and dangerous primary that cracks loudly like a party snap when ingited. Do not attempt this one at home!

[@theCodyReeder]

Fair warning KZbin almost shutdown my channel for a similar video.

[@ElementalMaker]

Cody'sLab thank you for the warning Cody! I'm honored to have a comment from my all time favorite youtuber!

[@menosgrande1112]

Just came from cody's new video :D You were in recommended

[@laboratoryofliptakov8157]

Haha Cody here. I´ve SADS also. 9 months hang. Age restrict was use. I wish a lot diamonds from own sandals or from anything. Into a New Year...:-)

[@whiskeysudsjackwagon8510]

what?

[@texasdeeslinglead2401]

Cody'sLab KZbin is a pile of raging crap . glad to see you still running , Cody

[@suzesiviter6083]

If only we had intelligent programs on mainstream TV like this, something you can actually learn from.

[@bettylinker4780]

Suzy Siviter. So would Terrorists. Not a good idea. I was intrigued to see how much silver was in a quarter. Not enough to go through all that work and danger.

[@suzesiviter6083]

Betty Linker: I was referring to the chemistry/science aspect rather than explosions; but any terrorist can just google stuff like that anyway.

[@clausroquefort9545]

you can just buy sodium nitrate in american hardware stores. you don't even need more than the chemistry you learn in school to make explosives with that lol

[@larrytischler8769]

@@bettylinker4780 A little less than 1/5 of a troy oz. Ag, even though they were 90% fine. There is little danger in isolating the silver from the copper. We did that in Analytical Chem. lab.

[@senatorjosephmccarthy2720]

But they're conquering America by every means allowed. Which reminds me. Any country allowing computer voting might as well just surrender. Except they already have. Deuteronomy 28.

[@agenthambo]

I don't know why, but I was half expecting the words "Keep your stick on the ice." to be said at the end, let alone what I thought was going to be said while the camera was trying to focus. I enjoyed watching this, and I hope I am not on any watch list now. XD

[@ElementalMaker]

Agent Hambo glad to hear you enjoyed it! Love myself some AVE as well! Thanks for checking out my channel

[@wazjr1]

Me too! Machinist, electronicles and explosives must put us on the next level of watch list. Congratulations! "Focus you fuck!".

[@glennlake1138]

Everyone needs a hobby!

[@texasdeeslinglead2401]

Agent Hambo uncle bumblef$%k

[@eddiewilder5727]

exactly

[@waynetshudy7954]

This really brings back memories. When I was in college in the early 70s for chemistry, I made silver, copper, and mercury acetylides. Back then, the professors thought it was cool too, and experimenting in this way was expected from a chemistry student. If I remember correctly, the copper acetylide was more sensitive than the silver and degraded, turning dark brown (mix of elemental copper and carbon). The mercury acetylide was extremely sensitive and exploded while still moist as I was spreading the pieces during the drying process. It went off with a loud bang but didn't have the brisance in it's moist state to break the watch glass or glass rod I was using. It was like a cartoon explosion: loud noise, the watch glass, glass rod, and my hand blackened from the carbon residue, but no harm done. I'm fortunate to have survived those days. Very nice video and a good chemistry lesson! If it weren't for the occasional inappropriate language, I would play it for my chemistry students.

[@AZStarYT]

I'm glad that some commenters were not the fathers of you. me, Thomas Edison, Tesla, or any of the other bold geniuses who made discoveries by not being "kinder, gentler". If it weren't for risk-takers we wouldn't have the marvels we enjoy today. Thank you for taking a risk, however small or big. - from an old retired chemist who started with a Gilbert chemistry set back in the 50's, when he was 8 and made a lot of smelly, often flammable and even explosive compounds without losing any eyes or fingers.

[@DrTeddyMMM]

Leave Thomas Edison out of the equation, he was in it for the money and payed off inventors that worked for him, taking their inventions and calling them his: "You work for me, so what you make is mine"....the same thing he tried to do to Tesla but Tesla told him to stuff it and went off on his own.

[@damirdze]

@@DrTeddyMMM , ... And what about 90% of the contemporary professors, do they do it differently nowdays ? Aren't they in the same boat of the feasting on the students work ?

[@glues4wood]

I had one of those kits

[@sionsoschwalts2762]

Chlorinetriflouride, the best part of the old chemistry sets.

[@larrytischler8769]

@@DrTeddyMMM you are very naive to think that the employer does not have full rights to any invention made by his employees. Nobody would hire people to cut them out of the product they intended to make. Edison was a great commercial success. Tesla was a failure. He zeroed in on to many impractical dead ends.

[@JimN5QL]

Holy s***! Great job. I am impressed!

[@tonyackrill3718]

excelent video my friend, i have always been interested in chemestry and wish id have excelled more from school but in my days i had to work to help support my family, still im now 59 and able to have pastimes and make my own fireworks so im sure i can use this in my pyrotechnics of the future, thank you very much and God bless you and your family

[@ElementalMaker]

Thank you, but definitely keep this stuff away from pyro use. It's way too sensitive to be safely used for anything in the pyro field. Stick to good ole flash when you need a loud bang 👍

[@mcRydes]

came here from NightHawkInLight. excellent video

[@ElementalMaker]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!

[@benthere8051]

I am impressed. Well done. You have an amazing understanding of the process.

[@ElementalMaker]

Jim Ferguson thank you Jim! I appreciate it! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@kandkmotorsports]

" I made significantly more than I wanted to" code talk for "yikes! I better pay attention before I lose a hand!

[@ElementalMaker]

kandkmotorsports your damn right there!

[@officermeowmeowfuzzyface4408]

and for legal purposes lol

[@jackvandergriff]

kandkmotorsports lol. A triangle firecracker blew up in my hand. Still have both hands but hearing loss in left ear and tinnitus

[@richardruddy6341]

One of my friends at around 13years old blew up a small hill in his fathers field. He totally levelled that hill and collected about 50 dead rabbits afterwards. Some had been ejected from the hill as it had contained the main warren which had kindly accepted many small sacks of modified fertiliser. That damned hill jumped about 3-4 foot in the air and took us both off our feet even when a long ways away hiding in a drainage ditch. His dad was well pleased about the rabbits and having a field for planting crops which was normally used for cattle now and again. But when he found out how much fertiliser had been used, he wasn't a happy man.

[@mwilson14]

As a former coin collector I am saddened, but as an amateur mason jar chemist, I'm thoroughly entertained. I'll definitely leave playing with primary explosives up to you and others that really know what they're doing while I watch in fascination. I just received my 35% hydrogen peroxide today and I'm nervous enough handling that. LOL.

[@brice9613]

Then why do you need 35 % peroxide for ?

[@mwilson14]

I'm using it for many things. I'm not as nervous handling it now. I just know to be careful and to fully understand anything I work with.--thoroughly read through MSDS sheets.

[@BM-yy8db]

"former" coin collector? Did you end up turning all the coins into explosives? :p

[@robertlangley258]

Matthew Wilson Matthew this is exactly my point. While this idea is a little interesting if you know and understand the science, I just feel sorry for all the 10-14 year old boys and a few girls that will likely lose their eyesight a few fingers or bad burns because they don’t understand what’s involved. Videos like this would be banned to the general public in a kinder safer Great America where our children would be safe from closet scientists..#mytwocentsworth

[@mwilson14]

LOL. Nope. I still have them all. I just don't grow the collection. My kids will get my collection some day.

[@Enjoymentboy]

Great video. Entertaining and educational as well. One small suggestion if I may. Instead of sodium chloride try using potassium chloride.. Does the same job but converts both the silver and copper nitrate into chlorides and leave some good old fashioned "potassium based oxygen" in solution ready to crystallise out and use for other fun stuff. I've been doing this with my silver refining for the past year and i have recovered a little over 10kg of the stuff. I use mine to generate more nitric acid but I am sure that you can come up with many more "entertaining" things to do with it.

[@buggsy5]

You do not want to react copper chloride with acetylene if you wish to dry the material. Copper acetylide is very sensitive when dry. Both copper acetylide and silver acetylide are impact and friction sensitive. I seem to recall that the copper compound is the more sensitive of the two when dry.

[@K0ester]

This video is what got me into energetics and chemistry in general. Now i have a pretty full amateur lab and lots of knowledge. Thankyou!

[@ElementalMaker]

That is so awesome to hear! Thank you!

[@jaythatguyyouknow5135]

I just found this channel a week or so ago and have been checking it out here and there until today. Now I’m stuck and feeling like a mischievous little boy that just found out what happens when you add the works (blue cap) and some foil into a bottle, cap it off and gtfo. Long ago (back when I was just a wee boy) one of my dads friends knew this trick and performed it with large amounts the proper ingredients (prepped with the correct ratio) then chucked it into a 5 gallon bucket that had a locking sealing lid. They quickly positioned this receptacle under an old 1-ton truck and had every stay far back. If you read this far and have picked up what I’m putting down I’m sure you know what happened next. When that glorious moment went down 2 things happened. 1) I got to watch the front end of truck jump and 2) My mind was forever tainted knowing stuff like this can be done. Now I’m a father and it’s been years since I dad or seen anything like that but watching this channel has me wanting to figure out similar experiments I can legally do in small and safe batches and have some fun with my sons while getting them interested in home chemistry. If anyone actually read this to the end and has any suggestions on experiments that would be legal safe and cool to do with my boys drop a comment. It would be greatly appreciated.

[@aerobiesizer3968]

I love everything about this video. The random starting materials, the bad background, the toxic chemicals, the terrible lab equipment, the bad safety, and not least the fact that he's making illegal explosives in his home. It's amazing, and I want to try this someday.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

It's surprisingly not illegal in most US jurisdictions as long as you follow the rules.

[@SuperLaplander]

Very nice video. thanks for sharing.

[@SaccoBelmonte]

So interesting to watch. You know your stuff very well.

[@ElementalMaker]

Sacco Belmonte I appreciate it! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@davidbennett8636]

Enjoyed your video thanks for sharing "WOW"😀👍🙄

[@ElementalMaker]

David Bennett thanks a bunch!

[@im12runb4trouble]

Cool but man what a lot to go through. Oh well, thats chemistry for ya. Enjoyed the video, thanks for making it.

[@davidporowski9512]

Thanks Much; Initially thought you were going to produce silver fulminate👍

[@nizedk]

Great video. Thanks!

[@ElementalMaker]

Glad you liked it! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@LoftechUK]

That was so awesome

[@John-kc7ko]

This video is awesome!

[@crazymatorcoins1732]

That's super cool never knew you could do something like that

[@ClayFisher00]

you just earned my sub sir. Congratulations on a great video.

[@martinlumber]

You’re like a grown up, manly Cody’s lab...

[@ElementalMaker]

A Martin haha why thank you. Love Cody's channel!

[@flavortown3781]

I've always thought Cody was a bit of a fop but so am I so

[@antonioliles5027]

As a numismatist, I highly disprove of this! As an amateur chemist, I love it!

[@ElementalMaker]

No fear, my hoarde of silver I plucked that coin from has all been declared junk grade, so no numismatic value

[@antonioliles5027]

@@ElementalMaker Excellent! Glad to hear it. As a person who also has a lot of junk silver, I know exactly how that goes.

[@peterpiso7384]

Great video hope to see more stuff soon

[@ElementalMaker]

The Siren thanks! You definitely will!

[@peterpiso7384]

ElementalMaker thanks for the reply great channel

[@tylerlawson9247]

Nighthawkinlight sent me here too. Love your videos! You obviously are a chemist.

[@explosivefreak666]

WOW, cool chan.! Now you've got another member... ME.!.. Seriously, good & comprehencable material with detailed info.! I'm sold. :)

[@canadiannaturalist6369]

I love your disclaimer at the beginning of the video. " let me be the dummy" I thoroughly enjoy your content

[@canadiannaturalist6369]

I've always been fascinated with chemistry where did you learn to be so proficient at it?

[@jasongeorgeoff4626]

Great video man

[@GMCLabs]

water helps with the acids ionization as well, concentrated HNO3 will not react as fast until you dilute it with water to make it ionize.

[@bobgrant-beer3020]

Brilliant!!

[@supercritical5582]

yep your on a list for sure. don't worry I'm on a list to

[@glennirwin2457]

Best channel on the tube....

[@ElementalMaker]

Damn that's a tall compliment. Thank you Glenn 👍

[@14goldmedals]

I enjoyed watching you on Nurdrage too.

[@ElementalMaker]

Lol no relation to nurdrage, although I love his videos.

[@kokamoe7082]

Now this is my kind of chemist

[@ElementalMaker]

ALL MEMES TO BE EXTERMINATED A glad you like it!

[@mxcollin95]

Very cool! 🤙

[@JasonVladimir]

I don't know how you figure this shit out, but I'm glad you share!

[@ElementalMaker]

Thanks Jason! Glad your enjoying!

[@thomasblackwell9507]

If enjoying this puts me on a watch list I don’t care. It was definitely educational and interesting to watch. Keep up the good work! Don’t let the man get you down. By the way, where did you learn all this?

[@anoimo9013]

Very good synthesis of silver acetylide¡¡. I guess the silver oxide can be directly reacted with nitric acid to form silver nitrate. Thus obviating the need for the crucible step

[@Berghiker]

AP also has a nice loud snap to it.

[@gordonyoud5975]

All through the video I was waiting for a BANG and a piece of hand to land on the table, a scream and then a blank screen. :-))

[@TruAnRksT]

LOL 11:51 , all of that from a complete silver quarter. Now that IS amazing.

[@ElementalMaker]

That was actually just a small portion of the silver recovered, those quarters about about 93% silver.

[@theITGuy-no3nt]

Interesting. Thanks!

[@ElementalMaker]

the I.T. Guy glad you enjoyed! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@MakaDawgG]

wow cool vid dude!

[@jolllyroger1]

And when you put the hydroxide you are actually developing just like film in photography..... If you make your silver nitrate in a darkroom and coat paper with it keep it in the dark until exposure then hydroxide you have done the photographic process

[@djyul]

You got a thumbs up!And a sub!Ãn i rang the bell. Love it!

[@windigo000]

"lab grade equipment" ... made me lol

[@killbillgoodfellas]

Concentrated nitric acid oxidizes metals creating a passivating layer. Always add a little water until it starts reacting, it shouldn't have taken that long.

[@killbillgoodfellas]

NEVER COMMENT BEFORE FINISHING THE VIDEO...sighs.

[@ElementalMaker]

Yeah it was a bit of a brain-fart on my end! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@Sauspreme]

Wait I thought he ended up doing that? OH DAMNIT! NEVER COMMENT BEFORE READING THE OTHER COMMENTS!! :-P

[@diji5071]

Hahah'

[@suzesiviter6083]

Tomás Allende: Would adding more water to NaHo for Aluminium reaction also help prevent the passivating layer?

[@laboratoryofliptakov8157]

Pretty pure Ag from this method. Respectively for pure SA-DS. Important method for apart Ag from Cu. Good work.

[@ElementalMaker]

Laboratory of Liptakov I appreciate the kind words! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@laboratoryofliptakov8157]

OK, subscribed...:-)

[@mxcollin95]

Damn....pretty cool. New subscriber here 🤙

[@ElementalMaker]

Glad to have you aboard! Thanks for your sub 👍

[@quijybojanklebits8750]

The real hero here is that god damned wood q-tip

[@eddiewilder5727]

you got a point there. anyways. i believe in the freedom for one to do what one wants as long as it does not hurt others and it is a interesting video even if it is dangerous

[@ElementalMaker]

Appreciate it Eddie. Hope you enjoyed the video! (Other than the poor old coin loosing its soul LOL)

[@geologist_luna]

Filters, filters, filters. To prevent as much loss as possible, we chemists use filters while decanting.

[@sieren9306]

As I coin collector, I was very very scared at the title, but nice video. Still that coin.

[@ElementalMaker]

Glad you enjoyed, I too felt bad for the coin, but science is worth the sacrifice! Thanks for checking out my channel!

[@jennellhickam7912]

It's a good thing then that I don't mess with chemistry.

[@tngunworks9065]

In minecraft, you actually don't need to isolate the silver by itself, the end product while it may contain copper acetylide will still have sufficient brisance as that is also a PE.

[@josephisaacs78]

Impressive...

[@huscat1609]

16:24 "I definitely see a little bit of glass in the product, but it shouldn't affect performance much."~ElementalMaker, dividing some white powder with a blade

[@-a13x-75]

i remember melting silver oxide into silver on a charcoal briquette using a straw to blow on it back in high school chemistry class

[@ElementalMaker]

Very cool! Never would have thought to try that!

[@buggsy5]

@@ElementalMaker Before our fancy pressurized bottles of gas were available, chemists and others used blow pipes. My ancient jeweler's blowpipe is kicking around somewhere.

[@hanleypc]

Once you have your coin dissolved you could just place some copper metal in the beaker and pure silver metal will drop out of solution and be replaced by more copper in your nitrate solution.

[@joeestes8114]

Nice experiment!, i subscribed

[@ElementalMaker]

joe estes thanks for your subscription!

[@tomharrell1954]

Wow great synthesis of silveracetylide. For the cool stuff you do you should have a lot more viewers. I think You Tube don’t like you! But I do!

[@chadtucker3229]

When you make the bangs you should have a decibel meter so we can get an idea how loud it is

[@asammahina]

Not that I'd recommend anyone try this, but if you do, only quarters made in 1964 or prior have silver in them

[@industrialadhesive6357]

You can also bubble the Acetylene into acetone and pour the acetone into the nitrate solution

[@afbennett3038]

I was expecting some zinc flash powder but I was pleasantly surprised

[@ElementalMaker]

AF Bennett glad to add that exciting little twist to your life!

[@Enjoymentboy]

You've missed another option that leaves your silver intact and available to resell. After I dissolve my sterling silver in nitric acid I cement out the silver onto copper to recover most of the silver. The silver nitrate that's left dissolved and mixed with the copper nitrate is recovered by adding potassium chloride to precipitate out silver chloride and leave behind a solution of copper chloride and potassium nitrate. I'll then gently heat the solution to evaporate off a good deal of the water and then chill the rest in the freezer. Pretty soon I get nice heavy needles of potassium nitrate crystals which I can then filter off and wash. Now, in my case I have no need for (or interest )in any explosives so I reuse the potassium nitrate to make more nitric acid and I occasionally use it to fertilise my garden. But if one were so inclined they could use it to make black powder. Not advising...just saying. :)

[@jamesdavis8021]

That looks like a whole lot of work for a firecracker 🤣

[@5c0u53]

Nope , putting thoughts in my head.............................. Guy Fawkes springs to mind....................

[@cubanelabs8573]

Basically how to make out of your grandad old coin collection explosive for a civil war

[@coldshot5555]

When I was a kid they sold slivers of wood dipped in that Silver salt and dried out, then sold for Cigar loads ...lol

[@dwalker399]

I bought some of those at a county fair years ago. They were fun! Also bought some flash paper off the same guy.

[@kieranodea771]

There's no negative effect to adding excess sodium chloride. As long as you rinse the silver chloride we'll with distilled water. ;) great video by the way. Hope it stays safe from youtube bots

[@superdupergrover9857]

i don't care how old you are. reactions where stuff instantly falls out of solution is always fun.

[@ElementalMaker]

superdupergrover absolute truth! Salting silver out of solution is way too fun! Thanks for dropping a comment and checking out my channel!

[@indra-fu1ew]

"don't try it at your home" Ok, I'll do it in my room

[@ElementalMaker]

But... Isn't that still at your home? Or are you rocking a tree fort room or some wild shit?

[@indra-fu1ew]

@@ElementalMaker some wild dorm room btw and close to the tree fort

[@senatorjosephmccarthy2720]

That's where I painted my bike when I was 17. I didn't know it was going to make so much overspray HA! Our house was 15' from my dad's body shop.

[@breintje91]

Doesn't silver chloride convert straight to silver if you leave it in light (or heat it?)

[@slimjim119]

How much punch does it have say compared to gunpowder or tnt

[@wallplug3903]

Is that the same stuff that's in throw-pops?

[@coleramsey6705]

no those are silver fulminate. Its more sensitive iirc

[@mealex303]

Invest in a benzomatic oxy - propane ready-made kit they have the mixing torch/cutting head, connectors, tubes, i think nozzles and one of each bottle. Even a first timer can easily melt gold from jewelry or nugget form very fast. And silver is obviously not a problem.

[@Gunbudder]

it is very easy to make unstable silver acetylide that will simply explode for seemingly no reason. i've heard of it just going off seemingly at random while in storage. if you make this stuff, it is best to keep it in very small separate quantities.

[@ElementalMaker]

I've never made more than a gram or so just to demonstrate its power. I would never consider making this in a large quantity, although it is much more safe if made properly than other primaries such as AP.

[@nehorlavazapalka]

You made serious mistakes handling the SA.DS (you made the double salt version, which is less sensitive than pure acetylide), you should not put any primary explosive on a watch glass, you should not scrape it with metal (but with wooden stick and wodden sticks wrapped in cotton wool) and above all, wear leather gloves with forearm protection! Glasses + face/neck shieldd are a must, too. Earplugs are a no brainer. Rememeber, some primary explosives can detonate even when 25 % wet! And in some cases, water doesn't lower the friction sensitivity that much.

[@shannondove96]

For a more practical explosive.....make copper oxide from older pennies then make powder aluminum from cans .....basicaly flash powder from pennies and cans.

[@jpbonhomme5051]

You need a small silicone spatula for getting precipitates out more easily

[@ChaplainDaveSparks]

Interesting ... as an academic exercise. It would have been easier just to start with pure silver (such as silver shot or fractional ounce rounds) methinks.

[@damien639]

It's the chemical equivalent to AvE! :D

[@quint3ssent1a]

IIRC, copper acetylide also very explosive. Nice that you bothered with refining of silver, but that was unnecessary, you could just bubble acetylene through first solution to get mix of explosive acetylides.

[@sorinrenato]

That glass watch will not help the nitric vapours condensing... Those vapours are nitrogen dioxide . Will form nitric acid only when will contact water( your lungs contain water, righ?) , and the result is that you will have nitric acid in your lungs ( or other persons lungs, but will be your fault). In order to keep you almost safe, cover that glass beaker with a large glass bell. The water in the pan will form low concentration nitric acid when in contact with nitrogen dioxide, but the water lever must be reasonably high and in contact with the rest of the water. This recovered nitric acid can be used to lower the concentration of the nitric acid purchased from the supplier.

[@dsandoval9396]

"Honestly officer, I learned all this from a channel on KZbin called... ...Markiplier! He's the guy you want! If I were you I'd use the tasers first and _then_ ask questions."

[@jpbonhomme5051]

You could easily pick out that piece of glass with a slightly wet Q-Tip

[@tonyackrill3718]

Would the principles be the same if another metal was used such as aluminium?

[@RedDogForge]

will that potassium hydroxide reaction also work with other metallic chlorides like lead chloride?

[@johnsexton5066]

got a question is this shock sensitive like in a primary explosive used in detonators?

[@ElementalMaker]

John Sexton yes its quite sensitive. Thanks for the comment, I should have mentioned that in the video.

[@smeado3533]

I used to make Mercury Fulminate at home in college. I tried to make Silver Fulminate once with some old silver quarters and it didn't work. Probably for the best since I probably would've blown my hand off.

[@TreasureGeo]

Cool....i wish you were my neighbor

[@ElementalMaker]

I wish you were mine too haha. My neighbors aren't huge fans of the occasional loud noise lol.

[@quijybojanklebits8750]

You really should use a pipette with the nitric acid, it is possible that it can leak while pouring.

[@donaldasayers]

Copper acetylide is also explosive and can formed inside acetylene fittings if the wrong sort of brass is used. You probably did not need to remove the copper from solution.

[@michaeldomansky8497]

Congratulations! You made "Snappers" ....

[@nivelbraack]

almost, he has made silver acetylide and in snappers is silver fulminate. but yeah, really close to snappers xD

[@normandragot9927]

You can ignite this explosive, but can it also be detonated by impact, like silver fulminate?

[@rosstemple7617]

Wow that’s a lot for high explosives. Didn’t imagine it took so much to do that. Awesome. I was wondering about the off gas of the nitrousdioxide, is it able to be converted to nitrous oxide? I always wondered how they make laughing gas.

[@richardlyman2961]

No