Growing a Chemical Garden

In this video I demonstrate how to grow a chemical garden, which unlike most of my projects is something you could safely do without much of a background in chemistry.
The most dangerous step here is the preparation of sodium silicate, but this can alternatively be purchased easily as a chemical called "water glass".
Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more out of this project!
BTW: The very general procedure for this video came from the KZbinr NurdRage, but this is a fairly popular demonstration many old diy-science kits.
#chemistry #science #hydrogen #gas #elements #fire #chemical #industury #color

[@DangerousLab]

The "destruction part" is a bit more gentle than I thought.

[@integral_chemistry]

lol it was now that you mention it

[@nakednietzsche7622]

Please please please make another video on this with the wider variety of minerals you mentioned. This is honestly one of the coolest chemistry related videos I have seen on youtube in quite a while. Keep it up man, you are amazing!

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you so much!! I'm so glad to hear you found this interesting as I wasn't even sure whether to release it (thinking people would find it boring). I've got a huge number of ideas on how to expand this, and I've gotten even more ideas from the comments section here. Already a WIP

[@nakednietzsche7622]

@@integral_chemistry You presented this video in a a really interesting, engaging & entertaining way. I am greatful that you decided to release this and am avidly looking forward to the follow-ups you have planned. I feel lucky to have stumbled across your channel in the first place because your content and style of presentation is unique and fresh. Cheers to you man 🤙

[@chrisprescott2273]

Very cool. Would be interesting to see a time-lapse of the growth if you decide to do it again.

[@integral_chemistry]

I 1000% agree. If I'm being totally honest though the whole time-lapse process (over the course of several hours, days, etc) is completely alien to me. I've got no idea how it's done or where to even start

[@chrisprescott2273]

@@integral_chemistry Sounds like an experiment in it's own right.

[@glitchout0137]

I remember when I was a kid (80's) my grandmother tried to expose us to all kinds of things to spark our interest. She would buy a kit, I believe it was called a "magic rock garden", to do this very thing. I loved watching the growth over time. Every morning I would check it out while I ate breakfast, the garden was safely out of reach of my food. If I knew how it all worked I would have loved experimenting with different additions and adjuncts to see what changed. Thank you for this trip down memory lane.

[@jorgeharoo]

I had a proffessor that specialized in this. He spends all his free time growing these gardens

[@kayne2075]

I wish I could see the stuff he made I’m sure it would have been beautiful

[@jorgeharoo]

@@kayne2075 I didn't see much of it bc that week we had a lot to do, but that guy has to be internationally known or sth, he had us crystallize lysozymes and according to him the way we did it is the only known way possible besides doing it in zero gravity. Idk tho, I'm not big into crystallography. I have pics tho

[@danielwinstanley4703]

​@@jorgeharoowhat course did you do

[@jorgeharoo]

@@danielwinstanley4703 I'm doing a degree in Pharmacy in southern Spain, I took an optional subject called Pharmacy - applied geology and crystallography. We mainly did crystallography tho, besides XRD and use of minerals for treatments or as excipients

[@jorgeharoo]

​@@danielwinstanley4703 pharmacy in southern Spain, I took an optional course of crystallography

[@7hunderstorm242]

Damn that looked real good

[@integral_chemistry]

I need a nicer camera, this one doesn't even do it justice

[@Ijustdo.]

Bet the flavour would be immense 🤤😋

[@integral_chemistry]

Forbidden rock candy

[@BillAnt]

​@@integral_chemistry- Another way is via a bit of acid/DMT, I was told it makes you walk in a beautiful chemical garden. heh I like your "pading" videos to keep the heat down from MA. ;D ;D

[@integral_chemistry]

@@BillAnt LMAO glad you caught that. I've got TNT, RDX, and TNG that I really want to put videos out on but I'm trying to space them out to "keep down the heat"

[@BillAnt]

​@@integral_chemistry - Great minds think alike... can't wait.... that will "blow" up your channel. ;D ;D

[@ACME_Kinetics]

@@integral_chemistry I'm not a content creator but those seem more like blockbuster releases that you might wanna sit on. I've only made 2 of those myself - do you get a breakdown of views by location? I decided to take my old website down after a huge uptake in views from Iraq and Afghanistan, but that was a different time. Also the DOJ nastygram letter, although that was more about Al/KClO4 possession.

[@experimental_chemistry]

A nice experiment that I did as a child. However, I did this with purchased water glass, which can still be found easily and cheaply in any pharmacy and many hardware stores. The problem with homemade silicate is the excess of alkali hydroxide, which itself forms insoluble heavy metal salts and interferes with silicate growth. The fastest and most beautifully growing salts are ferric chloride, manganese sulfate and cobalt chloride. Alkaline and alkaline earth metal salts are less suitable. Things get interesting and really colorful when a little yellow ferrocyanate is added. Other complex salts are completely unsuitable. Disposal is a mess. Because of the heavy metals, the entire approach belongs in the problem waste collection. Under no circumstances should silicate solution be disposed of down the drain. There is a great risk of a pipe blockage that is difficult to remove due to a combination of other chemicals that are subsequently flushed down.

[@integral_chemistry]

I do need to buy actual water glass, the stuff I can make myself is indeed far too alkaline for many projects I want to do.. and yeah I always mean to be more diligent about safety and disposal warnings but I always forget.. at this point I should probably make a stand-alone safety vid and pin it to my main profile page. In any case I'm somewhat surprised to hear that Iron (III) Makes the best structures, and a bit surprised at myself for not giving it a try. I think I'm just adverse to iron (III) as it always seems to stain everything or make a big annoying mess. I'll have to give it a smaller scale try not though because that sounds very interesting!

[@threaders9411]

As per several other comments please do this again with different mineral salts and possibly smaller chunks for more varied colours my kids found this really cool

[@ZoonCrypticon]

Very nice! Now you should think about a way how to conserve the beauty of such a chemical garden. Swapping the silica-solution without breaking the fragile crystals with epoxy would be great. Unfortunately this wouldn´t work I suppose. Freeze drying perhaps at very low temperatures after a sudden freezing shock with liquid N2 perhaps ?

[@integral_chemistry]

I actually think the epoxy thing could possibly be made to work! Most of the water could be very carefully siphoned out and replaced with resin without damaging the crystals (they're tougher than they look). The issue I guess then would be that I'm not super familiar with resin and Idk if it would cure properly with water present, and it's not possible to dry this without changing the color and structure a whole lot. Although.. the very last shot of the iron growth in the test tube was 3 months later. They do hold up well in the Silicate solution itself.

[@flyingshards595]

Could you slowly dilute/exchange the solution with water and then an (acrylate?) gel and crosslink it?

[@experimental_chemistry]

@@integral_chemistry It works. But you have to be very careful and use some tricks. First, dilute hydrochloric acid solution must be added to the top of the silicate solution, which forms a solid layer of silica to which the branches can grow. Then you poke two holes in the silica lid and carefully pour off the silicate solution. You then fill the garden with the synthetic resin components through one of the holes and allow it to harden. The real challenge will be to remove the entire object from the beaker in one piece. You may have to break it open carefully.

[@andrews.4780]

This was so beautiful! 😍 I definitely want to do this at some point.

[@no.elements]

That's pretty cool! I wonder what would happen if you dripped drops of concentrated salt solution to the solution of sodium silicate, would it just form a cloudy precipitate or would a soft shell form around the droplet?

[@integral_chemistry]

Thats actually a very interesting idea! My gut says a soft shell but I'll have to give that a test.

[@experimental_chemistry]

To make chemical "jelly drops", I recommend dropping heavy metal solutions into sodium alginate solution.

[@GAFUKIS]

This looks so cool!! I would love to see more of this!

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you! I think I'm going to try it again using only metal chlorides. For some reason (probably related to density) metal chlorides grow crystals the fastest, and so I could probably get an actual timelapse.

[@GAFUKIS]

@@integral_chemistry if chlorides grow faster because of density, then wouldn't it makr se se that fluorides are even faster? Sounds really interesting! Cant wait to see it!

[@integral_chemistry]

@GAFUKIS yeah if that's why then Fluorides would definitely be the fastest. To be honest I think the only Fluoride salt I have is NaF but maybe I'll try making some iron Fluoride and give it a try

[@GAFUKIS]

@@integral_chemistry thanks for considering my idea! 😊😊

[@neongrey333]

who knew those little kits they make for kids were actually so cool!

[@integral_chemistry]

They certainly used to be! As of the last 10 years or so safety laws are such I doubt they sell these for kids anymore :/

[@neongrey333]

@@integral_chemistry i did a quick search and it does actually seem like they're still around-- but the slightly friendlier/safer crystal growing kits seem to be both more common and cheaper

[@gkiferonhs]

Could a bubbler establish an oxygen concentration gradient within the growth tank. Then using manganese or vanadium might get crystals changing color as they grow.

[@integral_chemistry]

Oh wow yeah that's an interesting idea. The iron kinda did that on its own with the older growth going from white, to green, and then kinda orange. I'll have to give that a shot

[@experimental_chemistry]

The “growths” are quite fragile, a “gas storm” would destroy the “garden”...

[@clannishkobra8965]

Also please do another in depth video or at least a series. I've been researching the formation of moss Agates, and other types of silicon based formations as some is biological in origin but a lot is chemical based. A lot of what I've read is theoretical since no one has been able to recreate an agate in a lab setting.

[@Ir8Xe]

Yes, please, add more metals to chemical garden!

[@flyingshards595]

I remember those as a kid. Well done! Thanks!

[@joshuapeters4384]

amazing! keep up the good work!!!

[@zodd0001]

Great !

[@troxinium8410]

Let’s see more of this!

[@rajkomarcerta-vp5ig]

This was good

[@lorez201]

Might be interesting to expand this experiment/demonstration by using other bases besides silicate like carbonates, phosphates, vanadates, cyanometallates, or even just hydroxide.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah it's actually kinda staggering to think about how broadly this vid can be expanded.. still thinking what I'd like to try first

[@Kwauhn.]

I would absolutely like to see more of this! This is like a chemist's zen garden! Beautiful! EDIT: I'd love to see what grows after a partial destruction of the garden, since it seems that things start reacting again immediately after your break the structures. Also, after some time, the cobalt complex actually looked really dense and interesting. I think that, if your follow this video up, you should include some of it in future runs.

[@antonschollum3128]

Wicked brother

[@jirischimer9540]

That looks amazing. Thanks for sharing. I have a more practical question - how long does it last? If you contain it without access to water/oxygen does it stay “nice” for months/years?

[@Jp-ue8xz]

you killed it! 😭

[@jimsvideos7201]

Neat!

[@custos3249]

All the people commenting about the forbidden flavor, yet none of them brave enough to try butt chugging.

[@thegold3538]

How does the naOH react so quickly with the SiO2. Shouldnt it be heated first. It seems very quick

[@integral_chemistry]

I'm assuming it was because of all the heat generated when the NaOH dissolved in the water

[@thegold3538]

Probably. Its kind of amazing that NaOH can react with sand so vigorously

[@brawler99]

Oooooooh! Aaahhhh!

[@1.4142]

part 2!

[@biggamer_2489]

i wonder how it'd taste😋

[@integral_chemistry]

Hmmm.. metallic 😅😅

[@experimental_chemistry]

The main problem here would not even be the toxic heavy metal salts or the corrosive excess hydroxide. The razor-sharp microcrystals of the silicate in the digestive tract would ultimately have a fatal effect...

[@user255]

@@experimental_chemistry I doubt that. Silicate minerals are abundant in nature without ill effects. It seems to be harmful only in lungs.

[@experimental_chemistry]

​​​@@user255 Don't forget that silicate is converted to silica with stomach acid. And remember how hard it is to clean this from glassware and how easy it may block the drain - so I certainly wouldn't want to have this in my digestion system... 😉

[@user255]

@@experimental_chemistry Well, yes, big clump would certainly be a problem!

[@sparrow082]

Stalactites - hold the ceiling tight, Stalagmites - grow from the floor with mite.

[@tomholroyd7519]

I use "hold to the ceiling tite", and "they mite reach the ceiling"

[@MrYellowOffical]

Yeah bro very cool i m excited to seee i m the first one!

[@petevenuti7355]

No last when they're listed from newest to oldest

[@integral_chemistry]

Lol I gotta check how my comments are listed 😅

[@Buy_YouTube_Views_Gain_Fame301]

When faced with negative energy, channel your inner strength and replace it with positive energy. Let positivity be your shield against negativity