Making Glow Sticks From Aspirin

In this video I will try to make glow sticks from aspirin. Glow sticks contain a chemical called TCPO. As chemistry is like lego you can turn acetylsalicylic acid into salicylic acid, this into phenol and via a few more steps end up at TCPO.
Despite this main synthesis goal I will also show other fascinating sides of chemistry. One is drying oxalic acid using a drying pistol, the synthesis of phosphorus pentachloride and oxalyl chloride, how to get red phosphorus from match boxes and lastly how trichlorophenol and phenol are made. Even fancy equipment like a powder addition funnel will be used.
I decided to run this long synthesis as NileRed sadly only demonstrated the last step which is way too easy and no challenge at all.
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[@isaiahhiggins]

What could be more entertaining than an unhinged, german, and feline nilered

[@DingleTwit]

I giggled like a middle schooler when you got a box of “ASS 500”

[@LabCoatz_Science]

This is probably one of your best videos yet, and I loved seeing the whole process from start to finish with each intermediate all in one video!

[@BillAnt]

Along with the humor at 7:53 especially from a German guy (hehe). Chemiolis is the king of chemistry humor, that guy is hilarious. ;D

[@nenben8759]

hydroxyl acid is one hell of a way of saying water

[@capatainnemo]

so is dihydrogen sulphide

[@acetylsalicylicacid]

@@capatainnemo What kind of water are you drinking?

[@touchofthorn1841]

Sulphide??

[@user-pr6ed3ri2k]

​@@touchofthorn1841He meant sulfide. Common spelling mistake for the scientific name of water

[@AnthemUnanthemed]

those glow sticks look like the ones I used to chew on as a kid! They taste horribly I wouldn't recommend it, theres better tasting things to chew on.

[@simonhiltunen7738]

I chewed them too and got huge panic when I did it. Didn't chew them ever again.

[@redmadness265]

Ugh I think I literally got traumatized from how bad glowstick juice tastes, like 'nam flashbacks kind of trauma

[@nenben8759]

lucky for us they're not thaaat toxic they have a florescent dye and

[@alex-mzlzl]

I had some in eyes in my young age 😬

[@DanBowkley]

Many years ago a very drunken party had me pouring a couple glow sticks into a bottle of beer, which I of course chugged. I swear it made my urine glow in the dark.

[@alllove1754]

What separates your channel from others, putting you in a very small group (relative to the population of KZbin channels) of my favorite channels to watch is your practices for purity, decent explanation for the procedure's chemical processes and overall teaching method, allowing me to understand that you know your stuff. Keep em coming, ❤

[@lucascsrs2581]

01:44 HAHAHAHA I was totally unprepared for that. Its like watching old school 4chan doing chemistry.

[@y33t23]

20:02 Bro thought he could get away with casually showing us literally the most toxic substance ever

[@LozzoAmiga]

Your editing and presentation gets better and better. Awesome!

[@BillAnt]

Nice animation of the chlorine flow in the tube at 15:11

[@Funtime2UwU]

The first few minutes with the funny moments, cat ears and German accent were funny enough to keep me watching. And now that I've watched the whole thing, I must admit, the production quality is AMAZING, was expecting like 400K subs not 20K! Hopefully I'll see you succeed. You're an enjoyable personality, keep up the good work!

[@DangerousLab]

Your glassware collection is phenomenal, I wonder how many you have that haven't been showcased yet, would love to see more!

[@charlesnathansmith]

There's a special place in hell for companies that individually wrap every tablet like this

[@THYZOID]

Ehh if you plan to use them like they are intended to actually be used individually wrapped tablets are fine. For bulk chemistry they aren't but people like me are probably not the target customer of these companies lol

[@charlesnathansmith]

It's not fun to have to fight for an aspirin when you already have a headache

[@Underestimated37]

It’s mostly to reduce the risk of unintentional overdose or misuse by children. Pretty much no medication in my country is sold in a bottle, everything is in blister packaging.

[@KashyBang]

Asprin is also not the most stable molekule. If you smell realy old asprin tablets, you can smell the acetic acid.

[@funDAYsmiling]

like it's Sudafed or Imodium.

[@Samonie67]

The weird phosphorus smell you describe is probably phosphine from metallic phosphide contamination reacting with water vapor

[@pepe1011lol]

phosphine is highly toxic!

[@BillAnt]

After this long synth, I'd have to take a couple of aspirins for my headache. lol

[@nomcopterlabs]

So cool! So many channels have talked about synthesizing Oxalyl Chloride but I think you are the first to do it. Love seeing this full synthesis really starting from as early as can be imagined!

[@Moritz___]

Nice to see a that complex procedure done in just one video

[@Ryba125]

Nice to see my favorite catboy/girl with good trigger safety.

[@THYZOID]

Mew >:3

[@psychosomaticdragon]

​@@THYZOID *pats head*

[@andrews.4780]

I love that you showed the entire procedure start to finish. I love in-depth chemistry like this. Awesome content Thy! ❤️

[@user-jj2gt3fg5j]

Omg pleasseeee make anhydrous HF and do acid bace reactions in it I’ve always wondered how acids and baces operate in non water solutions and ammonia and HF are the closest solvents to water. You’re content is amazing and incredibly underrated and I’ve been subscribed for a while now ❤

[@zodd0001]

Simply congrats, for this long, hard and time-consuming work. You had a very high amount of patience.

[@laserfloyd]

Man, here in the States you could have bought a kilo of aspirin in a bottle and just dumped it into that beaker. Respect for popping each one of those out of the blister pack. That's dedication! 🧐

[@fraserbuilds]

This is just an amazing video! its such a clever and creative synthesis and the footage you got is phenomenal! I loved every minute.

[@THYZOID]

Thanks! Btw congrats! I just saw that your channel exploded. it was below 5k the last time i checked lol

[@fraserbuilds]

@@THYZOIDThanks! its been a super exciting month :)

[@trulyinfamous]

Is it just me or has there been an explosion of new chemistry channels in the last couple of years? Up until somewhat recently I got recommended very few chemistry videos outside of some big channels, but now I regularly see smaller chem channels in my feed. I'm glad because it's more interesting videos like this one to watch.

[@Amateur.Chemistry]

Amazing video, I was also planning on doing this but oh well

[@mytoasterwentflying]

This is a pretty big project, well done!

[@alex-mzlzl]

Very cool to see the whole synthesis !! I really enjoyed it

[@chemdelic]

Videos are getting increasingly better brother!

[@THYZOID]

Thank you brother!

[@johnkelly7264]

Incredibly interesting. Love the detailed explanations. Subbed here.

[@THYZOID]

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for subscribing!

[@ejkozan]

Thy, i must say, that Your comedic sense is on another level nowadays! And you look good in cat ears XD Great video!

[@THYZOID]

Thanks bro! will get some more funny outfits soon uwu

[@ejkozan]

@@THYZOIDJust not TOO funny XD This look, seems ideal midle ground XD Professional catboy XD

[@digdouglasdig]

Wow! Truly impressive work, that was no small feat.

[@martinkostov3392]

Thanks for the video!❤❤❤

[@Underestimated37]

Fantastic video, was interesting to watch even though I know nothing of chemistry!

[@666xotic]

Finally a compition with Nile red

[@christopherleubner6633]

Turned a small amount of asprin to trinitrophenol before for a synthesis that needed it, but turning it to glow sticks is amusing. ❤

[@TheBackyardChemist]

There is another technique for making PCl₅ that does not require all of that heating. You bubble Cl₂ into a slurry of red P in chloroform under stirring.

[@christopherleubner6633]

Yup, as a bonus the excess chlorine will disolve in the chloroform giving a very good visual indication of the endpoint.❤

[@wintermoonomen]

Enjoyed the video now I know what to do if there is ever a glo-stick shortage.

[@BalticLab]

Geil, endlich hat das mal Jemand auf YT gemacht! TCPO Videos gibt es zwar schon, aber der Oxalsäure->Oxalylchlorid-Teil war da bisher immer der Bottleneck der Verzweiflung. Spitzen Video!

[@THYZOID]

vor allem der trichlorphenol teil wurde noch nie gezeigt. wenn ich das nochmal machen würde, würde ich allerdings nur 20g phenol in 1L wasser chlorieren. wäre deutlch säuberer und effizienter

[@disturbed_deliberations]

I rushed out and bought aspirin as soon as I saw the start of this fascinating process. After watching it, I took 2 aspirin and went and bought some glow sticks.

[@THYZOID]

wise choice

[@jozefnovak7750]

Super! Thank you very much!

[@chir0pter]

So convenient for chemical waste/microplastic disposal when it snows out

[@Alias-MX5]

Fantastic video.

[@ChemExLK]

Interesting and detailed video 🎉🎉🎉 Love the content ❤

[@sydneyhunt6681]

Your amazing at explaining and teaching 😊thanks 😮

[@syntactyx]

You are one of the most brilliant chemists on KZbin - your editing, all your lab work and theory, all sublime. Thanks for another wonderful video

[@BillAnt]

Love the reaction diagrams along with some humor. ;)

[@MrYellowOffical]

Very cool some new Style of Vid!

[@bulkbogan4320]

please keep making these longer videos

[@blueobsidian6766]

Very nice!

[@nileyellowchemistry]

Where do you buy your glass bottles for your reagents? I have been looking for some such as the one in which you are storing your benzene in.

[@THYZOID]

i unfortunately can´t tell you where you can buy those bottles. this was an old one i reused for benzene

[@anon-means-anon]

I've never seen a powder addition funnel before but it makes sense that it would exist.

[@michaelbrodsky]

I’ve separated ASA from pill crud using only water many times. ASA is soluble in hot water, the crud isn’t. Boil crushed up pills in enough water (check solubility tables), scrape PVP blob from surface and filter the rest (keep hot). Then let cool slowly. Voilá!

[@THYZOID]

it is still so much cleaner and easier when you use acetone for the extraction. especially dthe drying of asa

[@qcard76]

The KZbin algorithm suddenly felt like berating me with Scandinavian organic chemistry content (I'm all for it)

[@hantrio4327]

He's not Scandinavian

[@akhilthechemist]

Nice multistep synthesis

[@1indapink3indastink]

I swear, i wish i had a friend like him! Dude is high AF and I'm sure he could make anything! LOL

[@pelegsap]

Hmmm... *acetyl*-salicylic acid... sounds like an ester! Perfect idea for a series of videos *cough* *cough* 😛 Great video as always!

[@fadiyosef4452]

Hello, when heated concentrated nitric acid reacts with sulfur, sulfuric acid is produced. Is the resulting sulfuric acid a vapor that must be condensed, or does it remain inside the reaction tube? Thanks

[@GAFUKIS]

Very amazing video!

[@timmulm]

Wow amazing

[@glory_be_to_God777]

23:37 Looks like a dancing person holding glow stick rings.

[@trucmuche8174]

Did this phenol chlorination three years ago to make TCPO. While this was successful, TCP is so horrible to work with that I much prefer the "green" analogs of TCPO which do work well. The smell of TCP is so strong and penetrating that my shed still stinks. Impossible to get rid of the odor. Not mentioning the waste management side of things. While recrystallizing TCP, I had a beaker full of the stuff cracking and spilling TCP on the hotplate (which was too hot...), which is the perfect recipe to produce large amounts of TCDDs. Ended up scrapping my fume hood and part of my bench by fear of TCDD contamination. Not fun. The raw TCP I obtained was much more oily than Thy Labs' one (possibly from incomplete chlorination or over-chlorination, I don't know, didn't check), and recryst was a pain. At the end, I got red-tinted crystals as Thy Labs, but the red color is due to impurities, as pure TCP is greyish, like Thy Labs' first sample. The esterification with oxalyl chloride (commercial, as I had enough dealing with chlorine) went similar, with the mixture going brown as I added pyridine. However my yield was quite poor at first, with most of the products being carried away as I washed the filtrate with methanol. I had more luck with a large excess of oxalyl chloride and pyridine, and washing with water only. For the glow stick reaction, I used about the same reactants, and used rhodamine 6G (from waste fluid from an old dye laser) instead. Even with using very dilute H2O2 and ethyl acetate as solvent, I got a very strong yellow glow lasting for ~10 minutes, definitively stronger than shown in the video. Very nice video ! Especially the OTC approach starting from aspirin :)

[@tyt0uoff146]

where did you get your vintage acetone bottle ? I love it !!!

[@THYZOID]

found it standing on a glass container

[@TravisTellsTruths]

Awesome 👌

[@derrekvanee4567]

Nile red and rage and everyone else be *FUMING NITRIC ACID* over this

[@Quinazolineking]

Another Epik video by Thy 😍

[@MsMondbluemchen]

Super Video. :) Ich sag mir auch immer, Vorsicht ist besser als Nachsicht! Der persönliche Schutz sollte immer an erster Stelle stehen. Finde es toll, dass du da auch darauf achtest. Finde es auch so toll, dass man in der Chemie alles aus allem machen kann. Bitte mach weiter so !

[@moortin3783]

Been looking for a video about this procedure for literally years, thank u, 4 real. Can you give me more specific details about the 2,4,6 TCP making? Thankssss :)

[@THYZOID]

if you make it i would recommend only to use like 10-15g of phenol dissolved in 1L of water/HCl for the chlorination. this way it is more efficient. bubble chlorine trough it at 70°C for 30 hours. the solution should be saturated with chlorine towards the end. more info 'Fundamental Processes of Dye Chemistry' p146 (book available in the sciencemadness library) what i wrote was my adaptation of the procedure. in the video the concentration of phenol was wayyyy too high leading to all these clogging problems. recrystallize from acetone directly. other solvents or solvent mixes appear inferior. use ppe. I made it a priority to use a "sealed" system with a scrubber and to always wear a gas mask and gloves while handling the tcp in case there were dioxins present

[@trucmuche8174]

Also, proper waste management is a must. TCP waste (which may contain dioxins) is horrendous, and must be dealt properly, ie. by a specialized company. Altough TCP was heavily used to treat wood, it's not an excuse to discard the waste in the wild. Also had clogging issue when I made TCP this way. With my inferior crude product (I guess I did not had complete chlorination, ans I did it for only 20h at a lower temperature first), acetone was not enough for recryst as the product always oiled out (nasty red oil). I had much more luck with a 50/50 mixture of methanol and 30% HCl.

[@FullModernAlchemist]

The match heads aren’t worthless you can mix them with dryer lint to make a sort of scary effective campfire starter.

[@matze1389]

Kann ich das Aspirin auch vor den lösen in aceton zerkleinern?

[@THYZOID]

ja

[@doodlemold2736]

bro got the giant flask

[@northpointaxe6167]

What images are you flashing durring this video?

[@Josezwitterion]

Wauu muy buena síntesis 👍👌👏👏

[@chanheosican6636]

Would buying ASA or SA powder work better. I seen SA on etsy.

[@hantrio4327]

Then he could have just bought phenol

[@timhartherz5652]

Me before watching: "I have a bunch of expired aspirins, maybe i can quickly do something fun with it" Me after: "...know what, throwing them away and just buy glowsticks seems the more economic solution"

[@philouzlouis2042]

Hi Thy Labs, Super nice video. Glad you are stil down here posting interesting videos about chemistry. Interesting fact TCPO seems to be part of the "battery" - motor of the reaction what is a key starting molecule into the glow process and a common part of the various glow-sticks; I have bought quite some and usually one may think that after the glow has extringuished, it is the END; but in fact if you look carfefully at the reaction; the only part that is really consumed is the oxalyl moeity... so we can recover the trichlorophenol / trichlorophenate. To spice up a bit the "external output" or the "flavor"; the only "cosmetic" ingredient is in fact the "fluorescent dye". So from what I have gathered (used and unused glowsticks), I can recover TCP, and various fluo-dyes or phospho-dyes that display various shades of colors (1 or 2 per color in fact). Funny fact the dye "never really dies" ;o) (ahhh the fun of chemical humour); it can be revived by UV light as a convenient UV-fluo dye or phospho-dye. Continue the fun of chemical sideways :o) Regards PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)

[@THYZOID]

Philou..... You always leave great comments. Thanks for that mate!

[@Yellow_Chemistry]

where did you get that fancy glasswere??!!

[@THYZOID]

collected it over the years

[@Yellow_Chemistry]

@@THYZOIDit's impressive! and good video too

[@DanskerneFraDanmark]

It all ways like a flashbang when you show yourself in the video

[@karolus28]

Cool

[@Turts_McGurts]

Nice video

[@me28memyself]

Di-Hydrogen monoxide is VERY dangerous at 100 C. Glad that you mentioned the contamination.

[@micahphilson]

0:57 "ASS 500" I want whatever brand of aspirin he's using!

[@t04v7]

Do you know how methylene blue is made? Not the solution, but the actual dye powder?

[@THYZOID]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylene_blue

[@chiranjeevinaidu3660]

whats with the weird expression on 3:17 (visible only for one frame)?

[@-r-495]

once there was a misunderstanding and someone received 100g salicylic acid from a pharmacy. Someone asked for it because of a skin condition. Once could make a topical solution that helps with softening up scabby skin, just needs a tenside and one is just about done - apparently. Other tonics often contain a steroid too, don’t do that at home kids.

[@-r-495]

the canister. they are so useful, doesn’t matter if it is a carrying case for chem. Or as a buoy. Or whatever 😊 Truly enjoyed this, thanks!

[@user-dz9bx1dg5j]

Well not only from aspirin...is an understatement ..😂😂😂

[@Corruptedhope]

This gives major nilered vibes

[@MrChristianDT]

No, the first thought in my head was actually, "Please, turn that thing off. I have a headache."

[@nunyabisnass1141]

You...could have added those fillers to a friendly oxidiser and had a nice little light show.

[@triklettriklerbu1592]

Really nice video. Only feedback i have is to maybe better explain the mechanism for each step

[@LenKusov]

Rookie mistake buying the wrong matches, you're after the striker strips not the matches themselves so you gotta buy the big 200ct bundles of individual matchbooks. More striker strips, and easier to scrape off cause the book matches are usually a bit glossier cardstock than box matches. Or if you need a LOT of it, there's always the old trick of "pack a tube furnace with charcoal and boil phosphoric acid through it" to get WP and then setting the jar in front of a UV bulb, but that has an annoying tendency to explode if you don't use enough insulation on the condensate tube.

[@nikkiofthevalley]

> annoying tendency to explode

[@zundappwatercooler]

are you the new worker who identifies as a cat from ricky & the boss

[@R-Tex.]

I had no idea you're a cat boy🐱

[@THYZOID]

Mew

[@thesinister9096]

I'm sticking with dollar tree glow sticks. Great video!

[@christopherleubner6633]

Props for distlling the solvent to reuse it, a lot safer and economic than just using a fan to evaporate it.❤

[@THYZOID]

i burned it after distilling it off 🗿

[@user-eq8ge2kp6m]

"at first glance they look compleetely different" yeah sure i know im not the only one who saw the ring groups and knew u can get 2 for the price of 1

[@douro20]

What's in the blue barrel? Pyridine?

[@THYZOID]

What do you think anyone could do with so much pyridine? I collect my halogen free solvent waste in there lmao

[@user-jm3qo7lb8f]

23:20 distilled watee :3

[@teresashinkansen9402]

TCPO looks capable of producing some very nasty compounds if heated to the right temperature.

[@thomasvanwyk]

amazing video\

[@SciDOCMBC]

23:58 Oops, someone just got pretty scared. 🤣🤣🤣

[@lashamartashvili]

OMG, I thought it was Dr. Strangelove speaking.

[@megawarhammerofhell1]

The best way to get red phosphorus is by road flares. A lot more product for little amount of time. I don’t understand why literally no one ever thinks about that. Including the meth head cook that use todo the old shake and bake method.

[@user-yb5cn3np5q]

I can't imagine going to pharmacy and buying a full bag of ASS without giggling.

[@THYZOID]

while wearing cat ears lmao