How to make an Acid and Base Bath

[@Sytrew]

Thanks for adding your sources and the cost! I think it is a good touch

[@NevinWilliams71]

Though I'm not sure if it'll work the same with alcohol, a sodium hydroxide gel can be made by adding about a tablespoon of corn starch to a liter of water before dissolving the hydroxide. Either the heat or the pH level causes the starch to polymerize, like a gravy. The gel will then cling to glassware that's dipped in it, letting the base break down surface dirt/oils/deposits without being fully submerged in a bath. The water in the gel evaporates quite slowly, and rinses off easily with water. The caustic stuff also is less prone to splashing when it's been gelled.

[@NileRed]

+Nevin Williams hmm very interesting. Never heard about doing that!

[@NevinWilliams71]

+Nile Red It's used for removing paint and grease from vertical steel and base-safe surfaces, for which it does a fair job, but I've found it works vert well for cleaning glass.

[@atrumblood]

So that's how they make basic drain cleaners thick and goopy.

[@hoggif]

Ultrasonic cleaners are great for cleaning any hard to get inner parts. With them you only need to fill the bottles with a suitable liquid and the outside can be plain old water. Not so great for large parts that are not containers though.

[@Erik-yw9kj]

Your channel is probably my favorite chemistry channel on KZbin. :)

[@jasonpatterson8091]

Solid granular sodium hydroxide is available at most hardware stores as drain cleaner for ~$7 per pound. The stuff is reasonably pure, definitely enough for washing dishes.

[@Camroc37]

This beats my vinegar-baking soda cleaning baths.

[@naturalscience3529]

Hahaha same here :D

[@abhinavsaini3512]

Lol

[@flugschulerfluglehrer]

Hi! You could simply put a brick (or some other heavy voluminous object) in the base bath the lift up the level of the liquid.

[@mr_sowong9464]

Flugschüler Fluglehrer finding something that big that doesnt dissolve costs more than buying a litre of isopropanol.

[@martinv1995]

Little late, but what about using a smaller container? It would also elevate the level of the liquid

[@ordinaryperson4862]

@@martinv1995 200iq entered chat

[@theChaotiChemist]

Really useful video! Have you had experience with using methanol instead of isopropyl alcohol? Methanol is cheaper and is $10 for 4 L or so at Canadian Tire. I would guess that the methoxide species would behave similarly to the isopropoxide

[@RobertSzasz]

Methanol is nasty enough that you would need to keep it in a fume hood.

[@theChaotiChemist]

Robert Szasz I work with it in a ventilated area with no issues. Absorption through the skin is what I am weary of though!

[@NileRed]

theChaotiChemist I think isopropanol is used because it lasts longer (could be wrong). However, I just looked it up and apparently methanol is also commonly used. I actually didn't know that.

[@Jaeger.radiophysique]

Hey, i just had one important question, does any of those chemicals evaporate, specifically isopropyl alcohol, seen the price, i would hold it in a waterproof container ? And if we need to change the baths (and how often in that case) ?

[@acmilanshevachels]

I've began watching your videos and they are incredible! Are you an organic chemist? Ph.D.?

[@NileRed]

+acmilanshevachels I am technically a biochemist. I was a chemistry master student in an organic lab, but for several reasons I decided not to finish the degree.

[@theshrek7460]

Finally I can take a bath that cleans me. Thanks

[@thenerdyfarmerguy6144]

How long can these baths generally be used for???

[@Camroc37]

Hey, I got my distillation apparatus. I will make a video next week, but basically it is a plastic screw-on cap with a rubber disk that can be taken out to fit a thermometer. It would let out vapors, so I will have to get a thicker thermometer.

[@NileRed]

Camroc37 Let me know when the video is up and ill check it out.

[@Camroc37]

Nile Red Okay, thanks.

[@Camroc37]

+Nile Red Here is a link to sciencemadness where I have a picture: www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=63392

[@ProjektOchExperiment]

Nile Red you rock!

[@generalingwer4341]

Needle nose pliers on u flask? I love watching ur videos.i have learned very much in just a short time.thanku!

[@tasmansetter9693]

Would Ethanol work instead of Methanol or Isopropanol do you think? It would definitely be cheaper.

[@Moritz___]

you should absolutely avoit such a large container of methanol standing around. when you breathe that in for some time you will get headace due to methanol beeing broken down to formaldehyd. take care

[@edwardvarby4363]

Base bath disolves glass? That's very interesting.. I wonder how it works, & how fast. Does it work on the silicon dioxide itself ie would it disolve sand?

[@Pariatical]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ7OpYWKfbFkhKM

[@jessicag630]

Kind of want to see this applied for cleaning the pot for boiling the urine in the previous videos.

[@TonyMontana-wo5rz]

this video is based, nilered.

[@05017351]

Chromic Acid rinse!! Does it every time!

[@danielbrennan53]

Quite antisocial, tho.

[@henryjiang9664]

05017351 Hydrofluoric bath!! There will no longer be any glass left, therefore no stains!!!

[@nathanw8622]

Use Fluoroantimonic acid! It reacts violently with water; therefore, it is a good cleaning acid

[@AlldaylongRock]

Chromosulfuric is also quite good to clean glass filters tho sometimes you need quite a lot if the stains are very difficult

[@_bryan_bryan1522]

I know this is an old video from your garage, and maybe a bit circular, but how do you clean up and dispose of these baths? I have some glassware with very stubborn iron and copper stains that I want to try this on, but do you store this somewhere for when you need it or do you make new baths per clean up?

[@Qwertypp10]

Nice job :), however isn't it much cheaper to make such solutions in less amount in bottles? You can close the bottles and put them on the shelf in more safe way. I think that using for example the bottle with mixture, maybe funnel and beaker when you want to for example rinse the condenser will be enough in 99% cases. You made baths like you have industrial lab ;p

[@Neuroxix]

Why does the hydroxide and water solution need the alcohol for cleaning? Is the hydroxide solution not enough on its own?

[@jimsvideos7201]

Use a container to displace some of the bath if you need more depth.

[@speedslayerr]

Most underrated comment in the world

[@InDmand]

Could you eat/drink from glassware after these baths? you know, if you had to.. And how long do these baths last you before you change them out?

[@NevinWilliams71]

+InDmand The baths themselves aren't tenacious on glassware, nor harmful in small, diluted quantities. The stomach produces HCl itself, so it can deal with a bit extra from external sources. Stomach acid will also neutralize NaOH into heat, table salt, and water, so trace NaOH would also be well tolerated. NaOH is a major component of many dishwashing machine detergents. However, while dilute traces of the baths themselves mightn't be much of a health risk, the same can't be said for whatever mystery substances said baths have dissolved during their duty as glassware baths, nor with what substances lab glassware has been in contact. As such, don't drink out of lab glassware.

[@InDmand]

+Nevin Williams Thanks, thats what i was thinking myself.

[@AuroraRoseTOG]

Way late to the party, but does this work for teflon as well?

[@jheadley635]

What is the actual point of the isopropyl alcohol? Is it just a non-reactive medium to add volume to the bath, instead of using just a lot more water and NaOH?

[@Neuroxix]

That's what I want to know too

[@speedslayerr]

Plz Nigel tell us

[@ZekeLeviJr]

How does the alcohol help the base bath? Would another type of (fairly dry) alcohol work just as well, for instance some of your home distilled ethanol fuel?

[@NileRed]

ZekeLeviJr Technically it doesnt have to be dry because I added water after anyway. I believe isopropanol is generally used because other alcohols tend to polymerize or undergo other reactions with the base. I could be wrong though.

[@ValutDweller]

+Nile Red In our lab, we use concentrated ethanol and dissolve solid KOH in it. No addition of water. Such bath has quite powerful cleaning abilities.

[@NileRed]

That is true. But sometimes if it is too strong it can eat the glass faster if you forget it inside :p

[@ValutDweller]

Yup, we keep glass in there for no more than one night usually, especially sintered glass equipment :D

[@NileRed]

I notorious leave stuff in it for like a month...I am terrible.

[@ArmTheMassive]

The fact that you just casually mention to remember a base base dissolves glass made me lol.

[@matisawi3842]

It is really interesting to me that in in my country sodium hydroxide is really cheap (around 4 US dollars per kilo) and hydrochlorid acid pretty expensive (+/- 15 US dollars per liter). And based on this video, in canada is exacly opposite. Not including inflation from 8 years. What are the causes? I'm from Poland btw.

[@TomyyY90]

whats the reason to add isopropyl alcohol? is it for the solubility of sodium/potassium hydroxide?

[@NevinWilliams71]

+TomyyY90 It helps to dissolve non-polar compounds, like oil and grease. Once in solution, it's easier for the hydroxide to hydrolyze what it may, instead of attacking just the surface of an insoluble residue. That which doesn't hydrolyze might then be acted upon by the soaps that are formed by oils in hydroxide baths, and kept from re-depositing upon the glass that way.

[@TomyyY90]

+Nevin Williams oh! that's totally reasonable! thanks for your thorough answer! still got a lot to learn, but every bit helps :D

[@PenguinzAreAwesome]

What Nevin said is slightly true, but not really. The whole point of the base bath is forming sodium isopropoxide. This is an extremely strong base, which is why this etches glassware. In fact, even the video isn't completely correct. You're supposed to make a supersaturated solution of your base (I use KOH, as it is more affective), and add that in. This gets rid of any extra water which could interfere with isopropoxide formation, and is also why ~100% IPA is required.

[@SuperAngelofglory]

Is i-C3H7ONa/i-C3H7OK stable in the presence of water? I thought alcoxide salts can only be made reacting 100% alcohols with reactive metals, not bases

[@sleepychemist2701]

+SuperAngelofglory Because of pKa differences, there isn't significant amount of alkoxide in solution. The predominant base is aqueous hydroxide; the alcohol is there to dissolve any non-polar organics.

[@andrzejniegolewski9878]

For the acid cleaning I rather prefer concencrated H2SO4, because it's better and the cleaning process is more faster than with dilute HCl.

[@mr_sowong9464]

ciekawa chemia thats expensive and h2so4 will continue absorbing moisture until it got to 10%

[@theamateurscientist]

but nile i have a problem if i rinse my glass ware in acid the labels on it like 24 40 joint mark will go away

[@Chemi4001]

wow , Isopropyl alcohol in USA is very cheaper than in my country but anyway , For NaOH its $1.5 per 500g. (And someone's cheaper than me)

[@NileRed]

Chemi Rockwood Yeah, my NaOH was kind of expensive. I could have probably gotten it cheaper elsewhere.

[@NevinWilliams71]

+Nile Red Lye : $8/ 500 g, $26/3 kg at Home Hardware. www.homehardware.ca/en/cat/search/_/N-2pqfZ67l/Ne-67n/Ntk-All_EN?Ntt=lye

[@NileRed]

I actually just bout 500g for 8$ there just a few days ago. Way cheaper!

[@seniamcclurg3388]

Can the Acid Bath be used on Aluminum intake manifold to clean the carbon build up? Thanks Chuck.

[@GammaStyleGaming]

No, since the acid would damage the aluminium and it also wouldn't dissolve the carbon.

[@nivmoshe5536]

Hey nile red, i have a beaker that i have boiled down rust solution and the rust stayed on the sides now i have a red-orange line in the side of the beaker apperently made of rust rinsing and scrubing doesnt do much so can i do an acid bath made of dilute phosphoric acid? will it be more efficent?

[@PenguinzAreAwesome]

Any acid would be able to help. If its on the inside of the beaker, just fill it up with some dilute acid and let it rest for a while. Try scrubbing after that

[@nivmoshe5536]

Alright, thank you

[@fordprefect7316]

I got scream of the butterfly stuck in my head now

[@speedslayerr]

This man's is all grown up meow 😊

[@nathanroos4143]

wait, how does a base bath dissolve glass? and also, why use the isopropyl alcohol, and not just make a lye solution with water?

[@Neuroxix]

It pulls the silica into solution, eventually the glass is supposed to get a frosted look to it from it

[@munazzanaaz276]

Sir what is acid bath ???

[@kranganekar]

Woah ! I never knew that a base bath can dissolve glass at RTP ... Should take care next time... Nice Video Btw ...

[@NileRed]

kshitij Ranganekar I had a 3-necked RBF fall apart when I took it out because it thinned out one of the necks. Most glassware is fine. It is mostly a problem with repeated long exposures.

[@kranganekar]

Nile Red oh.. So a material like a glass membrane of a glass electrode should never be kept in strongly basic solution for a long time ...

[@NileRed]

I would say that would be a bad idea.

[@kranganekar]

Nile Red thanks... I learn alot from you and your videos

[@THaupt03]

Nile Red Isn't borosilicate glass resistant to strong bases?

[@DW-indeed]

Diffusion: The thinking man's spoon :P

[@anibrieger8233]

Acid wash glass to remove shine

[@tmfan3888]

3:06 y is KOH mor common 2 b used than NaOH?

[@EdwardTriesToScience]

it's more corrosive, so it clean better

[@pinksapphire2898]

+Nile Red could you do a video on some strong alkali metals rubedium or cesium would be awesome or a video on something radioactive americium or uranium and like make them into salts and stuff?? thanks

[@NileRed]

+Seth Black I would, but I cant get any of those :(. Also radioactivity is scary!

[@pinksapphire2898]

+Seth Black and you can pop americium beads out of smoke detectors there small but still work

[@pinksapphire2898]

+Seth Black xd you can handle uranium without getting hurt i believe i dont know about americium

[@pinksapphire2898]

but seeing uranium hexaflourite or uranium nitrate crystals would be really awesome

[@pinksapphire2898]

+Nile Red sorry wrong link www.elementsales.com/pl_element.htmharm cesium and rubedium and uranium are all for sale but the cesium is really pricey $70 per .2 grams with a hazmat but i think itd be worth it being the strongest available alkali xd

[@crosos]

At 1:25 there is a ten second silence

[@7sedma]

Kemstrie

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

Canadian Tire? only know Canbodian Tire :D

[@MSteamCSM]

7$ for 200g NaOH?? OMG It's 1,3$ for 1Kg in my country

[@user-pr6ed3ri2k]

emnistry orboringnotherdt

[@user-pr6ed3ri2k]

taimpts bvdverrydt roundbdmdtfglazzst

[@allisontomic]

this was forever agoooooo

[@PointyTailofSatan]

So basically, licking them clean is a bad idea? lol

[@carlpotter5539]

O NO! NOT CRAPPY TIRE!

[@dankboitown4678]

lol

[@Guilherme_M.L.]

Last

[@big_neek]

u really thought 😹😹😹

[@Asdfghjkl_f1234]

​@@big_neekq