Make Potassium Chlorate from Bleach

In this video we show how to make potassium chlorate from bleach.
To do this we boil down sodium hypochlorite to convert it into sodium chloride and sodium chlorate. While that's happening, in a separate container we dissolve an excess of potassium chloride in water to create a saturated solution. Continue boiling the bleach until sodium chloride crystals begin to form. Note the volume and boil off half of it.Sodium chlorate has higher solubility than sodium chloride, so boiling removes more sodium chloride, improving the yield. Stop heating and let the solution cool to room temperature. Filter out the sodium chloride crystals to retain the filtrate containing sodium chlorate and sodium chloride. Mix the filtrate with an equal volume of the saturated potassium chlorate solution to produce potassium chlorate, which precipitates out. Filter and collect the solid potassium chlorate.
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[@NurdRage]

This is basically a Redo of an old video that got taken down by youtube. They love to play Whack-a-Mole with my content. So rather than reupload i just redid it all. Anyway, I'm going to use most of this to try and make potassium permanganate.

[@vinnycordeiro]

I wonder why they took down the original video.

[@mbainrot]

@@vinnycordeiro Probably the ble-t-ch word, youtube is special like that 🙄, welcome back btw @NurdRage, sorry to hear that your return was brought about YT being YT.

[@TheSHJGaming]

Try not to get banned bud, I've been following you for years and I don't wanna see this channel get nuked.

[@falsedragon33]

Rumble is a good second choice.

[@Jerry_S.]

Reupload the video in a special vintage playlist for the chemist's BBQ jokes. 😁

[@HomemadeChemistry]

This felt like a Déjà-vu

[@garycard1456]

I miss the chemistry content of 'old school' youtube. Censorship is unethical.

[@Pootycat8359]

Aye, them was the good ol' days! Now, not only must we exercise caution in discussing various chemicals, we must employ euphemisms, innuendo, & symbolism, when discussing certain "political" and "medical" topics! And it's been reported that Google is greatly expanding their censorship capabilities.

[@Grak70]

Don’t even care this is a repost, I just love new NR content. I made my own little chlorate cell in a storage box and made some myself! Super satisfying.

[@emmanuelesrael6480]

You using mmo?

[@Grak70]

@@emmanuelesrael6480 platinum coated titanium anode, thick titanium wire cathode. I found a non-scammer source on eBay a couple years ago.

[@agentvx8320]

Repost? Don't care. Still my favourite chemtuber hands down.

[@davidparrish1133]

I tried the electrolysis method about 2-3 years ago. Using a carbon electrode was a bust, the exfoliating of the electrode was too high. My best trial was with pure titanium and MMO electrodes and touch of potassium dichromate. Worked like a champ, producing more than a kilo of potassium chlorate, even after double recrystallization. My most involved experiment and a lot of fun. (My chemistry degree was about 30 years ago.)

[@skr9]

مرحبا هل يمكنني التواصل معك

[@Random2]

No! I refuse to stop watching! I will watch it because I want to. And thanks for reminding me how I have been watching you for 10 years, you were my 2nd subscribed channel on youtube :) Here's to 10 more! EDIT: Wait, no, I have been watching you for 13 years now...

[@ZoonCrypticon]

Great , thank you very much ! I miss those old days, where you posted your videos more frequently, but I am still happy to see a new one right now.

[@andrew051968]

I think the original sodium videos and potassium chlorite video were what attracted me to your channel in 2010 or 2011

[@GigaDavy91]

I already saw the old video, but couldn't stop from watching this one , love your content

[@catfishtv411]

I have been trying to find a good explanation video in ages. Thanks!

[@asahearts1]

Honestly the original is the only chemistry video I've ever committed to permanent memory. 😂

[@dtrotteryt]

Yay! My Nurd fix is back! 🎉Great vid and a joy to see a new one from you, boss!

[@mr.x8259]

His original video was in 2010. I was a junior in high school, studying chemistry.

[@cooldude7301]

What U doing now

[@mr.x8259]

@@cooldude7301 I am an out-of-work lab technician.

[@jimurrata6785]

So glad to see you back making content again! The OSB fume hood background has the old Doug's Lab vibe! (your equipment needs more rust and stains! 😂 ) Thanks for this. Hope you are well.

[@Dinnye01]

What happened to Doug anyways?

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

@@Dinnye01 Also wonder what happened to that guy.

[@sciencefusion5352]

Waited thousands of years for your video

[@bielanski2493]

IIRC, this shot is WAY clearer than the original.

[@vandahm]

These are my favorite videos in KZbin.

[@satisfaction2431]

bro this guy is the best guy in here shout out to you

[@kaitlyn__L]

Woo potassium permanganate! I love purple chemicals. BTW I can't believe it's been 10 years already :o

[@edgeeffect]

When I watched your old Potassium Permanganate from batteries video, the world changed for me... KZbin stopped being a repository worthless videos of people slapping each other and animals having sex and started to become a place to share real science. I've learned so much from so many channels since then and I wonder how many of the channels I watch today drew direct or indirect inspiration from you. :)

[@spiderdude2099]

Thank you for still making content

[@georgecooke9010]

FINALLY THE VIDEO REAPPEARS!! THIS IS CHEAP, QUICK, AND EASY. YOU MAKE SAFTY PARAMOUNT AND YOU WER'NT SHITTIN ABOUT HOW ANGRY BOILING SULFURIC ACID IS WHEN IT STARTS BUMPING. GOOD THING I LISTENED TO YOUR GUIDELINES. THANKS DR, YOU'RE LIKE NILE RED ON STEROIDS.

[@wolpumba4099]

- *Introduction:* Discusses the utility of potassium chlorate as an oxidant in chemistry and pyrotechnics. - *Materials:* Recommends using sodium hypochlorite-based bleach with the highest concentration possible. - *Step 1:* Boil sodium hypochlorite bleach to convert it into sodium chloride and sodium chlorate. - *Step 2:* In a separate container, dissolve an excess of potassium chloride in water to create a saturated solution. - *Step 3:* Continue boiling the bleach until sodium chloride crystals begin to form. Note the volume and boil off half of it. - *Step 4:* Cool the solution to room temperature and filter out the sodium chloride crystals. - *Step 5:* Mix the filtrate with an equal volume of the saturated potassium chloride solution. - *Step 6:* Stir the mixture to produce potassium chlorate, which precipitates out. - *Step 7:* Filter and collect the solid potassium chlorate. - *Efficiency:* Criticizes the method as inefficient, yielding only 10g of potassium chlorate from 700mL of bleach. - *Alternatives:* Suggests electrolytic methods as more efficient for producing potassium chlorate. - *Applications:* Plans to use potassium chlorate for high-temperature reactions and possibly to make potassium permanganate. - *Conclusion:* Recommends this method only for demonstrating the science, not for practical production.

[@EgonSorensen]

Excellent summary Excellent video = Perfection

[@mysterious-tx7pd]

Can I use potassium chloride as fertilizer?

[@NurdRage777]

Let's start cooking in the kitchen :)

[@mysterious-tx7pd]

@@NurdRage777 oh yeah

[@jrlee1233]

good

[@anyideasa.i.8090]

I was thinking the background and the video looks the same, so what am I missing 😂😂😂. This along with nitric acid we’re the first chemistry experiments I had ever tried, been dabbling in chemistry ever since. Drive down the memory lane. I think it was 2011 or 2012. Thanks NurdRage,

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

Great video thanks for sharing

[@joshmlp]

Happy to see a video from you!

[@abcstardust]

Thank you for posting. This is awesome!

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

you're welcome

[@blubberbernd2347]

Would love to see a video on potassium permanganate

[@SharpAssKnittingNeedles]

Thank you for your effort to re-shoot and re-upload! Surely an argument for pure chemistry just in how beautiul it was seeing your solution crystallize 😍 so pretty! I sure as fuck appreciate applied chemistry of course, but there is nothing better than seeing chemistry done for chemistry's sake

[@jasonpatterson8091]

"You can stop watching this one." Funniest thing said in a Nurdrage video in a while.

[@aga5897]

... aaaaaand He's back ! Welcome to the Future.

[@ssl3546]

he has risen! hallelujah!

[@anyideasa.i.8090]

I remember watching this video around 2011 or 2012 and doing this on my 3rd floor balcony. This is time traveling 😂, I could smell and feel the air of 2012

[@TheChemicalWorkshop]

1:25 hey old guy ill continue watching just because i like the filming and reactions

[@TheBlackKnightmare]

holy smokes it has been over 10 years since i started watching you and i do still remember your old video ... i feel old

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

you are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Pyrokartoffel]

A video about perchlorates would be nice

[@xydegek3121]

I was hoping for the permanganate video :)

[@SkylerLinux]

I do remember the old video, but I'll still watch it

[@pseudomemes5267]

new upload I'm excited

[@Killerhurtz]

In the first 100 comments! Yay new Nurdrage video

[@nunyabisnass1141]

I've rin the electrlytic method with carbin ekectrides and it works fine, but its much slower because it requires careful observation of the current density and voltage, but the buggest problem us the filtering if the carbon contamination. Its super fine and will clog any filter paper you use, and is not advisable that to use your good glass frit fir vacuum filtering, as you'll never get it completely clean. Lastly the multiple filtration and recrystallization steps eat into your yeild. Seriously, just use mmo or platinum, or rhe double displacement from pool shock calcium hypochlorate.

[@DerDrako]

Lovely.

[@MSteamCSM]

Maybe you cold make a video about making platinum covered titanium electrodes. I have done it using old platinum thermocouples that I dissolved in acids and with addition of NaNO2 electroplated on titanium, it was no so hard.

[@Alberto_Travagin]

Can you show the tricloroisocyanuric method? I never heard of it.

[@TaintedMojo]

An old classic

[@Kevin_KC0SHO]

Kinda funny, when the video started I thought, wow its been awhile since I’ve seen this one. Wait this uploaded 1 hr ago, is there a glitch in the Matrix, dejavu?? Then you mentioned the old one was taken down and I laughed… sorta.

[@ElPsyCongroo.]

Whats the concentration that you used for the video? I can get 100g/L hypochlorite for $1.25, would it be a better option than a chlorate cell for me knowing that its way faster and kind of cheap?

[@Ubya_]

after 10 years, yeah i'm still watching it

[@SuperAngelofglory]

How about bubbling chlorine gas through hot concentrated alkali? Never tried it myself, but it is supposed to work.

[@piisom1142]

Ey hes posting again!!!

[@navidmehdi6]

Wait he's back? Is he really back

[@falsedragon33]

A good souce is "liquid pool chlorine" sold at walmart in the pool section. Its 10%, and a bit cheaper than the 8% "bleach" sold in the laundry section. 12% is hard to find anymore outside of the expensive pool stores.

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

a good source is the near lake full of radiation

[@intheclutch4618]

Can i use bleach with chlorine such as a liquid pool sodium hypochlorite based solution?

[@twocvbloke]

Wel, that's one way to get the party started with lighting your charcoal like that... :P

[@psirvent8]

Hello, Shouldn't we try downloading this video before it gets taken down as well just wondering ?

[@jerrysanchez5453]

I actually did a double take on my feed because I couldn't believe NR posted a new video

[@deepikanarayan6515]

How do you get potassium perchlorate for thermite?

[@ThatOneOddGuy]

Wait I've been wanting to make KClO3

[@SyntheticFuture]

That's one way to light a BBQ xD

[@Ramy_Ramz]

I am watching this for scientific purposes only.

[@udtheaesir]

Repeats or new, I'll still watch anyway~

[@truthdoesnotexist]

a much more efficient reaction is to use calcium hypchlorate which is used to chlorinate pools and comes in bags as 50% calcium hypochlorate powder instead of just the sodium hypochlorate which only comes in 15% concentration max

[@jeffreyfugh7602]

Since calcium hypochlorite is moderately soluble in water, would reacting it with sodium bicarbonate help make a stronger bleach solution and hence make the process more efficient?

[@djdrack4681]

Out of curiosity: have you thought about videos on making Ammonium/Potassium Per-chlorate? They're fairly toxic, but Id' be interested to see your approaches; as you always have no-frills, solid processes.

[@TsunauticusIV]

Potassium perchlorate and aluminum dust 😈

[@cyan_oxy6734]

Just heat the chlorate and it disproportionates into chloride and perchlorate. Don't do it with ammonium chlorate though as it might detonate on you.

[@karolus28]

Cool

[@moyai2555]

hi i did this in a cookin pan and the solution turned a brownish red?

[@christopherleubner6633]

You can also use the lead oxide plate from an old lead acid battery to use electrolysis to convert the bleach to chlorate and eventually perchlorate. The plate must be from a freshly charged battery as lead sulfate will mess up the reaction. Take the plate (anode) and soak in dilute NaOH. Then soak in distilled water for 12 hours then soak in salt water for 12 hours. Then you can use it to make your perchlorate. The Cathode can be any relatively unreactive metal you like.

[@lloydevans2900]

Why specifically the lead plates from a battery? If they have to be free of lead sulfate, why not just use pieces of old roofing lead with the surfaces cleaned up by rubbing them with wire wool or sandpaper? Or even lead/tin thick gauge (plumbing grade) solder wire - I used that to do an alkaline water electrolysis a few years back and it seemed to work pretty well.

[@christopherleubner6633]

It needs to have a lead dioxide surface. If you use just plain lead it will form a coating of lead chloride before the dioxide will form. The lead dioxide acts as a catalyst that creates the chlorate ions rather than just using up the chlorine.​@lloydevans2900

[@gsestream]

try chlorate molten NaOH electrolysis metal redox bath process

[@HeaanLasai]

I'm only interested in the science, not doing it in practice. Thank you for your outstanding channel! Electrolysis of potassium chloride produces both chlorate and perchlorate. Allowing it to run to completion produces perchlorate selectively. Mixing chlorate and perchlorate isn't usually an issue if only used to burn things. Though chlorate mixtures are an order of magnitude more sensitive than perchlorate mixtures. HOWEVER, when used in a synthesis, the two oxidisers are not always interchangeable. You then need either one or the other. Is it possible to separate the chlorates and perchlorates produced? Is it possible to detect when the perchlorate production has run to completion, so you don't have to run the cell for weeks just to be sure?

[@frzferdinand72]

There is actually a channel named Feanor Forges that goes into perchlorate production, if you're interested in checking that out.

[@pmcKANE]

Stop watching a video because I've seen it before? No, thank you

[@oblivion476]

Neat

[@thegamerEcho_419]

we miss you.

[@sazxcdewq123]

Hmm, personally, I would cover the main reaction beaker, the reaction is driven by high temperature, not by evaporation and in my experience, when heating open beakers on weak (100-300 W) hotplates the temperature can be as low as 80 C, and that 20 degree difference can slow down the reaction a lot. What is the wattage of your heating element? Actually, chlorinated lime would be a more economical source of hypochlorite, but dirtier. Weiridly, potassium nitrate is easier to get here than potassium chloride, how can it be used? KNO3 is less soluble at low temps than KCl, this can be a problem. Myself, I bought KClO3/4 just before it got regulated, I'm more interested in sodium salts, they are more useful for synthesis (iodates, ClO2, etc.).

[@user-he1bd9sm3b]

in america if you go to home depo and buy "chlorinating liquid" its about 20% (legally not considered bleach at that point)

[@lrmackmcbride7498]

The yield isn't horrible. Assuming 10% bleach but looks like 7%, there is 70g of sodium hypochlorite. 3 molecules of hypochlorite convert to 1 molecule of chlorate and 2 of chloride. Call it 23g of chlorate. But the reaction is only 50% efficient so he got 10g which is close to ideal.

[@Berghiker]

What percentage is 25 grams per Liter?

[@antonek2137]

pro tip: lowering pH before boiling to about 6 (I am not sure) greatly improves yield, try this out

[@mysterious-tx7pd]

Can I use it as fertilizer??

[@garrygreenfingers2784]

Definitely not!

[@mysterious-tx7pd]

@@garrygreenfingers2784 thanks

[@glenwoofit]

How do you turn that into Perchlorate?

[@hantrio4327]

Electrolysis

[@crashmatrix]

I was going a bit nuts with deja-vu until you explained it

[@user-jj9ur6td1x]

So I'm just curious is is it okay if I use calcium hypochlorite rather than sodium hypochlorite

[@eventsigil9176]

I read that you can but I don't know about the yield and I have not seen any video demonstration on it yet

[@eventsigil9176]

Instead of sodium hypochlorite, why not use calcium hypochlorite?

[@koni101]

If I use NaClO4 will i get KClO4?

[@NurdRage]

yeah, if you can get NaClO4 then sure

[@DiakronYT]

hmm, I read about this in a cookbook once.

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

fine cookbook

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

slip

[@anthonyrichard7319]

50%.....is good then

[@gatovillano7009]

Completely unrelated to the video: I never liked the way NaOCl is written. It gives the wrong idea of what bleach is chemically as in it looks like a stable molecule written this way. But bleach is anything but stable. It is a free radical that wants to react with anything it comes across (usually, in a very dangerous way) and the sodium is only there to stabilize it so it doesn't start reacting and break down into oxygen and chlorine before the customer wanted to use it. Besides, bleach is almost always sold as ions disolved in water. I think it should be written like this: Na+ OCl-. This would do this molecule justice, as in ''this molecule is very reactive, use it safely'' 😝 But maybe I'm a bit picky 🤣 Cool video BTW 👍

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

not related, dont care

[@humannotanalien8675]

hi CSIS

[@FishyBoi1337]

jokes on you, I'm gonna watch it anyway

[@runspace]

The only guy in the world who doesn't know the difference between "access" and "excess"...xD LoL

[@NurdRage]

can't find the error, where is it?

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

here it is@@NurdRage nerdrage

[@laurenwrubleski7204]

"... those of you who were with me about 10 years ago..." god I feel old 😅

[@Kargoneth]

That's one way to light a charcoal grill.

[@kikkerdiegamed]

How many ml of bleach did you had?

[@NurdRage]

about 700mL

[@ashlyschuck7059]

Is it safe to boil bleach?

[@NurdRage]

not indoors, best to do it outside or in a fume hood.

[@Ismsanmar]

Is this one of those videos that put you in some kind of fancy list? Neice.

[@Plane_Person]

Why is this in my FYP

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

Supported by Todd Chlorox

[@unvergebeneid]

Did KZbin care to say why they took the old video down?

[@social3ngin33rin]

reacts so fast the charcoal is still cold :P

[@soadjngvijkhsdbghfijsdhujfgah]

reacts so fasst wooooow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nerdrage

[@user-db6of2ck8w]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉