Make Hydrogen

[@donperegrine922]

Remember kids! Do NOT burn hydrogen near your generator....but DO light something on fire with it and leave it burning in the tall grass under your porch!

[@mercury6800]

Something similar happened to me

[@GRBtutorials]

Don’t forget hydric acid! Good old H2O also reacts with metals to form hydrogen... alkaline metals, some alkaline earth ones, and also some lanthanides.

[@warywolfen]

Incidentally, the process of plating a metal by dropping it into a solution containing ions of another metal is identical to that of making H2 with a metal & acid. Suppose you put an iron nail into a sol'n of CuSO4. Cu is below Fe in the electromotive series, so the Cu++ ions receive electrons from the Fe atoms, which become Fe++ ions that go into solution. And the elemental Cu is deposited on the nail. The exact same thing happens if you drop the nail into HCl. But because H2 is a gas, it bubbles off, instead of coating the nail.

[@thebestofall007]

Place some molten gallium on an aluminum can (or other aluminum) and let it soak in, then place the gallium/aluminum can into water and the aluminum will react producing aluminum hydroxide and hydrogen, while the gallium is left behind. You can then retrieve the gallium for later use.

[@draculicacid6927]

Since the gallium removed the oxide layer and exposes fresh aluminium which does react with water.mixing gallium and aluminium is producing a rxn the same as aluminium mercury amalgam.

[@94franz]

when i was a kid i used to produce hydrogen through hydrolysis and to route it to a modified small grass tube. modification was just to blow it with a torch at one extremity and pulling on the melting end until it gets a super tiny orifice. you would get then a small flame. with the pressure it was just super stable and nothing blew up...

[@will_der_dude]

Short and sweet and perfectly scientific!

[@sficlassic]

I see you used all acids.... Sodium hydroxide and aluminum works.

[@mistertheguy3073]

wouldn't it be better to use a NaOH solution? because now your H2 is contaminated with CO2

[@mistertheguy3073]

CO2 is also quite heavy, which makes it floating capabilities worse

[@EdwardTriesToScience]

depends on the availibility

[@giansieger8687]

if you have enough carbonate and a minute amount of HCl it‘ll be fine bc it first generates hydrogencarbonate. Also I feel like you would start to see small bubbles accumulating at the side of the gas wash bottle bc if the CO2 in solution

[@bpark10001]

In high school chemistry we used hydrogen to reduce copper oxide in a heated tube. To be sure the air was purged out, we collected hydrogen in an inverted test tube and passed it over a flame. When the hydrogen burned quietly at the mouth (versus burning with a "pop"), we knew apparatus was purged, and heating of the reaction tube could begin. Steam released by the reaction prevents air from being sucked in.

[@196Stefan2]

A quite cheap source for hydrogen is balled aluminium-sheet (foil) and a 20-25% sodiumhydroxyde-solution. It works well and the reaction starts spontaneously.

[@jonhoyles714]

great vid, love the glass setup cool.

[@lagerbergn]

Won't the sodium carbonate produce co2 that will contaminate the h2 gas to some degree?

[@IntrepidAlgonaut]

Tell me if you disagree, but lighting the H2 gas should have been a more violent explosion. Could it be because CO2 was being produced in your wash bottle? I would have scrubbed the HCl gas with an NaOH solution instead of a carbonate...

[@SafetyLucas]

+Chad Howarth It may have burned slowly because it had to take the time to escape the bag and mix with the air before it could combust. If it were already mixed with the air in the bag it would probably burned much faster.

[@NicolasBana]

He made a pretty good job at letting the whole apparatus filling with hydrogen, so there was no explosion because it requires oxygen ! and the bag did not contained enough to allow an explosion

[@DougsLab]

+Chad Howarth It could be all of those things. If I had an experiment that needed pure, dry hydrogen, I would certainly have used NaOH in the bottle. It's just expensive and I was looking for a quick solution for the demo. The problem with smart subscribers is that you can't get away with anything! :D

[@Marwie94]

+Doug's Lab Isnt it better to just skip the acid, and react NaOH(aq) + Al to make hydrogen gas?

[@SafetyLucas]

Doug's Lab come on now...NaOH isn't _that_ expensive

[@tommyzhao6600]

wouldn't the hcl fume react with the sodium carbonate to form carbon dioxide gas which will contaminate the hydrogen product?

[@eshwarseplay]

Nitric Acid can't be used to produce hydrogen at all usually... the H+ is oxidised to H2O. There are some exceptions ( Very dilute HNO3 produces H2 on reacting slowly with Mg or Mn) but they are not viable methods and are just impractical.

[@Prchemist06]

If someone dont get hcl You can use Drain cleaner or caustic soda with aluminium

[@EdwardTriesToScience]

It's too violent usually and you have to have cooling baths and all that

[@Prchemist06]

@@EdwardTriesToScience yeah I know that, sometimes the reaction gets out of hand , but it's an easy source to produce any hydrogen gas. :))

[@EdwardTriesToScience]

@@Prchemist06 Yeah I actually used that reaction alot before I found out I could get HCl for wayyyyyy cheaper, the only problem (other than runaway reactions) was the hydroxide solution getting hot enough for long enough that it'd start to etch the glass, otherwise its a nice reaction

[@Prchemist06]

@@EdwardTriesToScience yeah it's an annoying property of NaOH to etch glass.

[@DJChesley]

I just love your videos Doug! That's my name too by the way

[@NicolasBana]

Great video as usual ! But i'm wondering, a gas washing apparatus filled with solid sodium carbonate wouldn't be more efficient ?

[@ib9rt]

I notice in your equation at 4:24 you had apparently not written in the "6", "2" and "3" in front of the HCL, AlCl3 and H2. This could be confusing for beginners trying to follow your calculations. Maybe you could add an annotation with the correct details?

[@danp762]

What would be the best way to dry it? Concentrated sulfuric acid? Magnesium sulfate? Drierite?

[@draculicacid6927]

Mg metal and h2so4 leaving Epson salts or aluminium and sodium hydroxide.

[@keithjurena9319]

Dry MgSO4 is cheap..bake Epsom salt at 300°C for two hours on a sheet just a few mm deep. Weigh before and after, it is over half water.

[@lydia4356]

Hey, Have you ever made pure Aspirin? Why not try it if not?

[@bpark10001]

Won't NaCO3 release CO2? Why not use dilute NaOH? No matter what the acid used or its volatility, its mist will contaminate the hydrogen. That's also true for NaOH/Al reaction. You need a scrubber always. In high school, we used zinc and H2SO4. This can be put in a generator and will generate hydrogen steadily for hours. (We used this to reduce copper oxide to metal in a heated tube.) To test the gas in the apparatus, we collected the gas in an inverted test tube and ignite it away from the setup. Only after the hydrogen burns quietly at the mouth did we start heating the reaction tube. As the H2 gets consumed, equal mole volume of H2O is made, preventing backflow of O2 into the setup.

[@richardarmstrong3rd53]

If I was to use water and separate the hydrogen from the oxygen with electrolysis. How would I go about separating the gases from each other?

[@Andrew-my1cp]

The set up for that process is as follows: Take a container that can fit a test tube or something similar in it. Fill it with water and an electrolyte. Put a a test tube or similar container with the hole towards the ground into the larger container. Make sure the test tube is filled with water completely so there is no air in it. Place your electrodes so that the electrode that produces hydrogen which I believe is the negative one (not sure) is inside of the upside down test tube. Place the other electrode in and turn on power. Oxygen will be made but will dissipate into the air but hydrogen will displace the water in the test tube. Your hydrogen will be contaminated with a little bit of water vapor. With this set up it's basically impossible to avoid that just because of vapor pressures and such.

[@chrisjones7837]

Why not just use NaOH and avoid gaseous contaminants altogether?

[@colew.9771]

What about zirconium and steam as a reaction?

[@hiddencow3272]

*lights plastic on fire *just dumps in some grass near a wood-paneled house. oof.jpg

[@warywolfen]

Oooops! You goofed with that list at the beginning of the video. You can't make H2 by reacting an acid with Cu. To make it, the metal has to be above H in the electromotive series. Hot, concentrated H2SO4 will decompose Cu, but it produces SO2, not H2. That's because the H2SO4 is acting in its capacity as an oxidizer, not an acid.

[@DougsLab]

+Clyde Wary Excellent observation! I totally missed that when I was preparing the lecture segment. I have added an annotation to correct it.

[@warywolfen]

+Doug's Lab Great! I sent you a message, before I found out you made the necessary correction. Thanks :)

[@SuperAngelofglory]

also, I am surprised Zn isn't on the list; and please review that chemical equation (Al+HCl)

[@Tycho343]

What happened with that poor stir bar ?

[@aliarshad5551]

is this posibble to react HCl with red Phosphorus to form PCl3 + H2

[@evan2587]

no

[@evan2587]

phosphorous is not a metal

[@lizo2468]

Where do u get ur lab supplies from? Keep up the videos!

[@DougsLab]

+Elisabeth Esther Mostly the hardware store and eBay.

[@vijaygavarasani9137]

@@DougsLab can I get the contact number

[@alexslab.4875]

0:31 Are you sure that the metal attacks the acid? Wouldn't the acid attack the metal?

[@Ambient_Scenes]

Instead of using an acid, I believe you could also drip a concentrated solution of NaOH onto aluminum foil to make H2 gas. Just saying...

[@keithjurena9319]

Actually, the NaOH is just a catalyst. Aluminum oxide and hydroxide are quite insoluble in water. NaOH breaks the oxide/hydroxide layer, allowing the water to react with the metal. Look up the rocket propellant called AlICE. Also used in slurry blasting agents

[@Ambient_Scenes]

@@keithjurena9319 Oh, thanks for the insight. Sounds like I've been wasting quite a bit of NaOH in the past then lol.

[@Ambient_Scenes]

On the other hand, if you actualky write down the reaction between Al, H20 and NaOH, it looks like the Na is actually used up in the reaction, not recovered like a catalyst would be. It also makes a difference how much water is available since you'll either make anhydrous or hydrated aluminum hydroxide.

[@bdot02]

I know you do chemistry, but why not use electrolysis?

[@warywolfen]

+bdot02 This is just one method among many. But it's the "classic" method that everyone learns in a basic chem class. Electrolysis is certainly cheaper. And here's another one... Several decades ago, I saw an ad in a surplus catalog for weather balloons. The balloons included cannisters of CaH2, which when added to H2O, produced the H2 for filling the balloons.

[@PauloConstantino167]

Your bubbles of HCL-contaminated hydrogen are enormous, you can't hope to be washing it out like that. You need smaller bubbles

[@DougsLab]

+Constantino Fine Art SHHH!!!! You're not supposed to notice that. :) I really need a gas washing bottle with a fritted sparging tube.

[@draculicacid6927]

I know from experience that heaps of HCl gas is given off as well in this rxn and I'm wondering if U checked whether you're hydrogen still had hcl in it? Like did U hold a piece of pH paper against the gas stream? I'm not convinced that one bubbler is enough.personally I'd use multiple wash bottles.

[@unicornbro4536]

just gonna start a fire like that?

[@mistertheguy3073]

did he just throw the burning stuff in the grass???

[@lorenzolafayettequadri5275]

The best and easiest way to go is doing electrolysis of water but ok..

holy shit can you guys read the other comments before you tell him the same thing over and over again? wouldnt it be this? hey wouldnt it do this? hey co2 is contaminating your hydrogen hey man hey hey hey