Making Something Stinkier Than Thioacetone: Selenoacetone, Selenols, and My Experience With Selenium

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Keep exploring at brilliant.org/LabCoatz/. Get started for free, and hurry-the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

[@Dee-nonamnamrson8718]

Pointer, take it or leave it: don't put the chemical in the title. People with short attention spans are more likely to click if it's a mystery.

[@longshot789]

If he was on top of things, he'd respond for valentines day.

[@tedphillips2501]

Back in 1955, when I got an HO train set for Christmas, it came with a selenium rectifier. That was when I first learned Selenium dioxide was extremely toxic. Please take the warnings in this video extremely seriously.

[@robotnikkkk001]

=DUDE,MAKE *_THELLURORGANICS_* ,OKAY????????????? ............U'LL BE DEVASTATED OF IT'S ODOR....1 DROP SPILLED RESULTED IN 100,000 PEOPLE EVACUATED

[@anpolar]

The warning after the manufacturing process... hmmm.

[@breadman32398]

Maybe mail some to Nilered as a final test to see if he actually has a sense of smell.

[@DrMoe.Lester]

I doubt it, he is the piss chemist after all.

[@unexpected2475]

There's definitely precedent for that, what with the fart juice video on NileBlue where he was fine but people were dying around Nigel, and also phenomena like not smelling H2S after too much exposure to it.

[@William-Morey-Baker]

he is definitely nose blind. so is this guy. i think he should test his sense of smell, objectively, againts other people. not just stinky stuff, but all kinds of smell, at different levels of dilution, to see how sensitive each participants sense of smell is.

[@squa_81]

Possibly one the worst ideas one can have. Imagine how confused the mailman would be for smelling something awful for days in his van

[@UserBeenBanned]

@@DrMoe.Lester should get him to give bear grylls a few drinks 😏

[@Quake120]

If LabCoatz and NileRed ever did a collab for smelly chemistry, I think they would make a smell that is actually sentient and travels around on its own accord causing havoc.

[@ZakKohler]

*Reeking havoc

[@Endroid.]

Ignoring that, I would highly enjoy seeing them collaborate and create the most nasty and disgusting stench to ever exist.

[@handpaper6871]

You are describing the Smell of Foul Ole Ron, which I believe would be best left on the alleys of Ankh-Morpork.

[@auracle6184]

@@handpaper6871 thank you, I was going to comment this but I wasn't sure if anyone would get it

[@peterectasy2957]

how many kilometers LabCoatz and NileRed are to each other ? -)

[@koussayyahyaoui4882]

Soon enough, you'll gain an immunity to bad smells just like a certain KZbinr.

[@worldsfunniestvideosandbes3684]

Is it the same person that I’m thinking of: Nigel from Nilered?

[@dustin860]

I worked as a flavor chemist and some of the worst things I've smelled were mercaptans. Some were stong enough that they'd make my coworkers puke if I opened them in the lab. Fun stuff

[@NickFrom1228]

Sounds like a topic for another video. Would be cool to have a different kind of smell compared to the thioacetone and selenium based molecules.

[@ordinosaurs]

In 2013, there was a leak in a plant producing that stuff in Rouen, France. The stench was felt in Paris where I live, over 100 km away. I still remember it (it happened on my birthday, it helps), it was like the whole city had been doused in diesel. Unbelievable.

[@rowandoyle7]

Someone in my lab works on thiols, they spilled a full vial and had to use 5-6L of ethanol to clean it up

[@dustin860]

@@rowandoyle7 I'd be extremely surprised if there wasn't still a residual smell. Stuff is crazy. One of the thiols I worked with would make your piss stink after just smelling it.

[@dansamarco1610]

Ohhh yes, mercaptans are fucking vile. Although, while they're uniquely disgusting, they're not necessarily overpowering in their stench (imo).

[@Nighthawkinlight]

I've done some stuff for video that would look pretty sketchy to a passing observer, but you've set a new bar here: 9:00 I salute you.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Hey, nice to see you here man, glad you enjoyed the video! I salute you right back; it's channels like yours that inspire channels like mine.

[@BobBob-fk7kn]

Only comment let’s change that

[@carpeinferi]

Let's be honest, this is probably one of the least sketchy things someone could see at a park in Oklahoma.

[@NickFrom1228]

Perhaps it's just me, but I haven't thought of any of your things as being sketchy. Fun perhaps, but not sketchy🙂

[@Sniperboy5551]

@Nick Knight To an uninformed lay person, wearing a respirator and mixing chemicals in your trunk totally looks like Breaking Bad.

[@1000percent1000]

i love how all of the chemistry youtubers refer to each other occasionally, and i especially love your reference to E&F

[@Dharleth82]

You're a pioneer man, can't wait for the finale! Just be careful with the tellurium, I've heard some horror stories. You don't want "tellurium breath" it sounds genuinely awful.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I was so worried that I would get the "selenium stench" from this endeavor, but I never did (even though I handled the selenium directly at times, and inhaled small amounts during the tests). Hopefully tellurium is in the same ballpark!

[@argoneum]

After (mis)handling some broken Peltier device my sweat used to smell like moldy cheese mixed with rotten cabage for like a month. Don't recommend, fortunately it went away. The breath was ok though.

[@cezarcatalin1406]

@@LabCoatz_Science Try other stink champions like n-butyl selenol, putrescine, 1-methyl indole (the one with the methyl group on the nitrogen, not 3-methyl indole), n-butyl isocyanide and 2-thiopheneselenol. Together those are the royal flush of olfactory horrors.

[@Brain_Juice]

LOL @ tellurium breath!

[@untitled6578]

@@cezarcatalin1406 what does n-butyl isocyanide smell like? is there anything you can compare it to?

[@quantrox8191]

NIce video. Just a note, for your future safety. Whenever you want or must use the respirator always do the following: wear in and after it is sealed exhale all the air in your lungs. That will push all contaminated air from the space between your face and the respirator. If you wear it and getting a deep breath without it you basically take a deep breath with all that nasty stuff you want to be protected of. It may be not so important here but if you ever come to work with larger quantities then the little wrong breath may cost you life

[@stinooke]

I honestly wondered about selenoacetone when ywatching the thioacetone video. A while back, when tributyl phosphine sulfide and selenide became commercially available again, he sent an email to the entire group to warn us against buying the selenide saying "I do not recommend buying the selenium analog because of the very bad smell of selenium compounds." As it turns out, a lab where he spent some time as a postdoc had a "stinky room" where, some 20 years prior, an incident involving some Se(-II) compound had occurred, and the room still reeked!

[@_iakvb771]

naughty grad students get sent to the Stinky Room to atone for their crimes

[@supersophisticated9943]

@@_iakvb771 Rule 1 of the stinky room. Talking about the stinky room to new people is very funny and we should do it as much as possible to bait them into visiting it.

[@Keneo1]

@@_iakvb771to a(ce)tone for their crimes was right there

[@blahsomethingclever]

The triThio disappeared pretty quickly when airborne, only some tubing stank after a week long bleach bath for the equipment. But then again tri deadens the smell. Handled 3grams and after an initial half second hit, i smelled nothing (of the Stink). Still smelled everything else, my food, hot car motor. How weird. So the selenium smell sticks around? Makes sense. Or there could just be a single drop or piece that got missed. My synth of tri was odorless, pride myself on good scrubbing. Two aquarium bubblers in series through bleach. Sadly for me there was no way to purify it without a scrubbing fume hood. Being out in the countryside does not help, it got smelt 4 miles away while I still smelt nothing trying to wash the solution. Treacherous stuff. Do not do it. The danger is that those not exposed to it b before experience it like the first time you've smelt it. It's almost a tool of terrorism, one that oneself might quickly grow numb to, think a synthesis failed, etc. Don't do it

[@BackMacSci]

Man this was fun. I was worried for your safety, but it was fun😂. Time to make some telluroketone 😀

[@justinbanks2380]

Your dad is a freaking trooper! Going out with you doing these tests, handling and smelling the toxic and smelly chemicals without PPE. Your parents allowing you to do these experiments in the garage. (Most would see it as mad science and try and either stop completely, or gently try and persuade you to do other pursuits) I salute you and both your parents sir! Thanks for sharing with us

[@neomt2]

You're not concerned about their health and long term consequences?

[@justinbanks2380]

@@neomt2 @neomt2 ? I am, I actually left another comment on this video about the filter of his respirator as he shouldn't be able to smell through it if it is fitted and working properly. But his dad is an adult and chose to not wear PPE. He said in another video that his dad takes and does mobile radiology tests (you can actually see the machine in the shots where he's mixing in the back of the vehicle.) It is not like his dad is being subjected to anything blindly. He's obviously intelligent and also behind the camera for most of not all this video. So he made an informed decision. You don't have to agree with someone's decision, but when it involves the possibility of hurting or saving themselves and doesn't affect others, it's their choice. I would've thought we all would've learned this with the whole heated debate the whole world went through recently about vaccines, etc... Guess not. I was more inspired by parents that just support their children and the things they are interested in and passionate about, even if supporting those things is a burden or nuisance to themselves while they support their children. (Garage space being used instead of being available for storing what they want. Driving out to secluded spots to help film and be a second opinion on tests of smell or whatever, instead of staying home to watch a game or something they would rather do.) So many parents shut down their childrens interests or passions as soon as it interferes with what the parent wants to do.

[@alexhamon9261]

Epic. Here's to Nile's peer review sending you to 50k subscribers and beyond. Also have you considered working with Ordnance Lab for your flux compression generator project? They'd be all about featuring such an exotic shape charge, have their own range, licensing, HE, etc.

[@wackyvorlon]

Now that is something I would love to see.

[@tonyquark493]

I have been into electronics since I was a child, and I can remember the old selenium rectifiers would absolutely STINK when they went bad or shorted out.

[@andygozzo72]

yep, i've come across an odd one or 2 that were a bit stinky when not in use, still have one

[@gamerpaddy]

in german they were called Gleichriechter (spoken "gleich riecht er"), which is a derivation from the word Gleichrichter (Rectifier). it translates into "(it) smells right away" or "soon he smells"

[@andygozzo72]

@@gamerpaddy hehe, yeah, i 've seen that term on german sets and service data

[@tonyquark493]

@@gamerpaddy Wow thank you for that. Did not know that at all ;)

[@LuMaxQFPV]

Same here. That burnt selenium rectifier smell is one that stays with you for life !

[@markiangooley]

When selenium semiconductor devices burn out the smell is pretty intense and vile. They’re getting less common but I had at least one selenium photocell as a boy nearly 50 years ago. Big Clive has spoken feelingly about the stench in some videos and I think has burned out at least one or two in them.

[@kaboom4679]

I have worked with them and bringing one of these old reekers into the office was akin to an act of war . This was because a burned up power supply with selenium rectifiers was a very common " nuclear option " in the endless prank wars that we engaged in . Fun times .

[@labrat2069]

Thioacetone is the best Valentine's Day gift a woman could ever want! :D

[@Nebuchadwicknezzar]

The worst smell I've ever experienced was after leaving sprouted garlic in a jar of water for a long time without changing it. I wonder if I was smelling organoselenium compounds since it seems to be a similar smell to what you're describing, and selenium compounds are found in garlic!

[@kaboom4679]

Captain Mercaptan , Earl of Stench ! Lots of old electronics had selenium rectifiers in them and when they blew the stench was incredible . You could build an electronic stink bomb from old selenium rectifiers . Long years ago one of my talents was successfully making and deploying such things . Not an easy task , as it is very difficult to avoid getting caught , just like deploying a suicide vest . Anyway , I will await the Tellurium Chronicles . You might also check out some phosphorus chemistry and also consider concoctions of multiple substances , such as butyric acid , and cadaverine or whatever you care to combine . Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts .

[@AsmodeusMictian]

I get the feeling you have your own pair of FBI agents assigned to you. I would say that you have your own agent, but with a name like that and comments like this....they probably gave you two just in case :D

[@aighti]

I don't know why but these past few weeks I'm really into watching people make the smelliest substances

Ah, you too? 😊

[@ikaros4203]

😂

[@nomcopterlabs]

Great video! Really cool watching your channel grow this fast - you deserve it. The most terrifying part is it revealed that I already have the reagents and equipment to make this and that is dangerously tempting.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Go for it, it's worth the experience in my opinion, but then again I'm insane, lol! Just doing eat it or over-expose yourself to selenium, and you'll be fine.

[@blahsomethingclever]

I love how relaxed you are. If anyone should do these things it should be you. Subscribed.

[@That_Chemist]

having made small amounts of hydrogen selinide, I am already anxiously watching

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I'm just grateful that I didn't experience the flu-like effects of more serious exposure...or worse, selenosis!

[@That_Chemist]

@@LabCoatz_Science you legit are - you guys smelled them WAY too close to your face

[@adamfarhadi]

Great video! Watching such interesting chemistry videos from channels like yours and NileRed’s always makes me wish I studied chemistry in university 🙂.

[@DeathCubeKX]

Before my time in electronics selenium was used in rectifiers. I've heard many old-timers say that when one of those old selenium rectifiers shorted out the smell could clear the room - and that's just from the metal burning a bit.

[@conradsmith9441]

This guy is an entire O Chem lab all by himself. If he works in a big lab somewhere someday he is gonna be a valuable asset.

[@colemannielsen2099]

This comment gives me flashbacks from college quantitative analysis. ;)

[@conradsmith9441]

@@colemannielsen2099 oh hey Coleman! What are the odds I’d run into a friend on KZbin? 😂

[@colemannielsen2099]

Haha it’s a small world for science peeps 😂 did Nile Red send you here too?

[@conradsmith9441]

@@colemannielsen2099 I just found it when I looked something up. I recently followed Nile though.

[@nonsequitor]

It's always nice to see wonderful nutcases standing on the shoulders of other wonderful nutcases and sometimes even doing a kind of insane human pyramid of chemistry ;-) :-) :-)

[@connorwestgate]

your killing it man, def one of the top chemistry channels on youtube, and your subscribers will reflect it soon

[@ChristianMiersch]

Thanks for this impressive test! Now we are eagerly waiting for the tellurium analogues!

[@joeylawn36111]

They're rather unstable, however, especially hydrogen telluride.

[@DrTacoPHD665]

15:55 once his dad puts his arm down, he really looks like he's green-screened in. Everything else in the photo is blurred but he's crystal clear and positioned right at a straight line to mask off of.

[@deeyablo]

"This one came straight from hell." I laughed way too loud.

[@supersophisticated9943]

Fam really made a shoutout to like 6 different KZbin chemists in this one video. Also, I am totally investing in this. We have wanted to have the chemical that smells of rotting fish (trimethylamine, I believe) for a long time. That is still on the agenda, but since this is being offered so openly, I am definitely not passing it up. I can't wait to have our mother question us to an extreme level.

[@sivvamsudhir2636]

yo any ideas who's the guy at 2:17 i really wanna check his video out

[@alexgutter8509]

@@sivvamsudhir2636 It's explosions and fire

[@sivvamsudhir2636]

@@alexgutter8509 thankss

[@alexgutter8509]

@@sivvamsudhir2636No problem ! Have a great day !!

[@yaboi_jesus9577]

I’m glad NileRed gave you a shoutout. He really led me to a hidden gem with your channel. I believe you’ll be just as big as he is someday

[@HariharMohan]

Tellurium costs only $32 per 100g so not as expensive as it’s rarity would suggest. I’m very curious to see how bad it smells! You could perhaps publish these findings in a research article!

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I'll definitely be trying tellurium this summer, as soon as school gets out!

[@flomojo2u]

@LabCoatz If you have a peltier cooler you have bismuth telluride, and since bismuth has such a low melting point it's very easy to inadvertently melt a peltier device if you don't cool it properly... as I found out the hard way, so it's not necessary you smash it or anything to get the contents out of the porcelain sandwich.

[@tazman1937]

Organotellurium is a great way to poison yourself right quick

[@WoWHCCarnage]

i watched the whole video, and now i have to watch them all, truly congratulations for all the work you do, greetings from Italy!

[@theKashConnoisseur]

Ever since first reading Derek Lowe's discussion about thioacetone in his blog, I'd always wondered how bad they (thiols) could actually be. It seems like maybe their potency is slightly overstated, but it's nice to see the selenium analogues hold up to their vile reputation lol.

[@kaboom4679]

To bad Derek has seemingly abandoned TIWW and How Not To Do It type of stories . They were absolute gems and many of the comments were pure gold as well .

[@theKashConnoisseur]

I understand why he's apparently stopped doing such content, as eventually the things one wouldn't work with and the stories of chemistry mishaps must eventually run dry. But it's still great stuff to revisit. Seems like every time I go back for a re-read, I feel inspired to open Max Gergel's "Ignition", which isn't a bad impulse at all!

[@cetomedo]

From what I can tell, the stories are accurate, but a main part of it is ignored. The chemists whose friends ended up having to prove to them thioacetone was vile never said they smelt anything that bad. The way it was proven to them was by showing the detectable range, rather than the potency. I think the main problem is that chemists with experience smelling weird compounds eventually have their sense of smell dulled to the point that something capable of knocking out a sensitive person doesn't make them feel that much. That was the case with NileRed's videos too, with his friends having a far, far stronger reaction than he did to all the smelly compounds he made. I imagine this guy's dad, constantly being with him in all these experiments, also has a more 'defended' sense of smell. In the worst of the stories, the people that got affected the worst were always common folk, and there was no mention of the exact percentage of the people that got knocked out, other than the fact that it wasn't a majority. The closest we got to seeing an actual average person react to the smell of thioacetone was NileRed's friend, who was still definitely compromised as he smelt the compounds used in producing thioacetone and probably smelt a variety of other chemicals. I think we're just underestimating how wildly a person's sense of smell can vary in strength.

Lol indeed! Just for the record. “Ignition” is by John Clark - mr Gergel wrote something similarly entertaining, but I don’t recall the name.

[@theKashConnoisseur]

​@ Oh gosh, you're right! Gergel's was "Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide?"

[@danielbueche5686]

I'm very glad that you and nilered are able to handle these reactions and I am glad that he refured you because I can't tell you how much I love chemistry and never tire of reactions

[@AngieDeAguirre]

Video: "Worse than thioacetone" NileRed: hold my island...

[@arnautarnautsen2564]

I have been scouring youtube for this video for months! Thank you! Also, as somebody nearly killed by hydrogen selenide, kudos for the courage.

[@arnautarnautsen2564]

@@Paonporteur It isn't anything particularly interesting: I diluted potassium selenide outside of an aspiration hood (because, idiot); the solution's pH was *theoretically* high enough that no hydrogen selenide should have evolved, but wasn't mixed well enough, so it did. Luckily, it only lasted a couple of seconds, then the potassium oxide at the bottom of the vial (i.e., under the selenide) decided to dissolve as well. Not a great two seconds, though.

[@arnautarnautsen2564]

@@Paonporteur Honestly, no. I read everywhere that it smells horrible, but I think it has the same problem as hydrogen sulphide, i.e., in higher concentrations, it interferes with the functionality of your olfactory nerves, and you can't smell it any longer. I knew I was inhaling it because it feels like your lungs are paralysed, a feeling that starts in your throat and proceeds down your airways, but I couldn't smell anything, not even before the exposure symptoms or after the whiff was over. If it can be of any help, a Polish colleague of mine, who had smelled in trace concentration, described it as resembling the smell of rotten horseradish, referring, however, to a type of horseradish they eat in Poland, and I am not entirely sure it's the "standard" one.

[@Grawlix7]

I just about died laughing from the godfather of crazy youtube chemistry bit because it's so true. Love E&F!

[@robertwehrle]

As someone who did extensive work with organoselenides for my PhD work, there are a few points that I should bring up. While acidic conditions increase longevity, any selenols you made pretty quickly oxidize to diselenides when exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere, much, much quicker to thiols, especially smaller molecules like the ones in the video. To this, you were most likely smelling a variant diselenide instead. For a more efficient, but technically challenging synthesis of your selenols, I would recommend going through Grignard reagents than transmetalate with the selenium metal, much more options are available at that point for potential future videos.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I considered the Grignard pathway, but ultimately settled on this method, since it was basically a "one-pot" synthesis with claimed yields greater than 90%. With the 1,4-butanediselenol, I think I was mainly smelling the diselenol, since we made it and smelled it within a timespan of roughly thirty minutes, and it was sealed off from the air for most of the time, so very little oxidized (in contrast to my isopropaneselenol and diselenoacetone samples, which were not sealed off and consequently had visible signs of oxidation).

[@k.c.sunshine1934]

It would be interesting to find some skunks in the campground and see if you can make the shunks run from the smell ;-) . Great work!

[@Brain_Juice]

This is a great video, well shot, edited, informative great job... More ppl should see this very entertaining and educational!!!! Rising star!!

[@nici6603]

Good thing I am German so I can read those articles easy (although I admit that the translation is almost perfect now). Only downside is that here in Germany the amount of restrictions gives me headaches (can‘t even buy Peroxid solution concentrated more than 12%). I’d dunno how this is in other country‘s but damn it i just wanted to make some proper piranha solution (oh and you also can‘t buy any Sulfuric acid with a concentration beyond 15%, but in contrast to hydrogen peroxide you can just distill it). Oh yeah same goes for nitric acid, I mean let‘s be honest, what am I supposed to do with a concentration of just ONE percent…

[@victordonchenko4837]

Add sulfuric acid to a nitrate salt, pure nitric acid after distillation :)

[@erikseavey9445]

They're just scared Germans might almost take the world over again because Germans are too awesome for their own good so they restrict the heck out of you lol

[@Ulvens]

New subscriber here. Nice concept, and video. Glad to see someone doing full format chemistry again. Nile mostly does shorts nowadays, and I'm not into it.

[@BackYardScience2000]

Me neither. His channel went downhill and he doesn't even really do chem anymore. Just quick shorts that make him money. That's all....

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

I wonder if you could get a *bunch* of: cabbage, asparagus, garlic, whole eggs, and durian fruit. Then toss them all in a pressure cooker... BUT, instead of the weight installed, put a short chunk of rubber hose in order to adapt your condenser. _(might need a splitter, to give you an access point so you can periodically add more water... or, alcohol? 🤔)_ *ALL* in an effort to get all of those stenches concentrated down. _Just_ to see how all of these *food-grade* stinks compare when combined... 😊👍

[@christopherleubner6633]

Just add some rotting fish too let it all rot and ferment. 😵😲💩

[@YCbCr]

@@christopherleubner6633 Surströmming distillate? Sounds fun :D

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

@Lil Yeet Now I've gotta ask.... Did you do it for chemical science? Or for culinary science? 🤓

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

@@christopherleubner6633 God that sounds awful! *_SPEAKING_* of scat... At this point, I feel like the pressure cooker will never get that stank out of it, so.... _might as well_ toss in all the bodily fluids as well! 🥴🤢 If anything, it'll yield the best non-clickbait, clickbait title! 🤣 _"I Combined All of These Things for_ _SCIENCE, and _*_THIS_*_ Happened..."_

[@kazyclay]

I hope this channel explodes (in a good way), you definitely deserve it!

[@laurensvisser7623]

Selenium truly is the worst. I've had two encounters with broken selenium rectifiers in my life. Once accidental - a PSU capacitor shorted out and blew up the rectifier. I ran out of the room with the device in my arms practically gagging, to let the device waft out outside. Once intentional. I had a known bad rectifier. Put it outside, on my balcony. Closed the door. Powered it up. No i didn't like my neighbors. I could smell the stench through the door. It is POTENT. The smell is a mixture of rotten broccoli, bad farts and rotten eggs. M

[@HodorsLeftShoe]

Now more and new sponsors along with massive channel growth. Well deserved

[@______IV]

Is there a best smelling compound? I’d like a sample of that one.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Honestly, that award would probably go to vanillin. If I recall correctly, it has one of the lowest odor thresholds, and it smells good to most people, so you could argue that it is the best-smelling "smelliest compound".

[@______IV]

@@LabCoatz_Science : I’ve never smelled isolated vanillin, but I want to now. Of course I’ve smelled vanilla which contains hundreds of other compounds besides vanillin, but only monsters don’t like the smell of vanilla so you’re probably right. Thanks for sharing all of your hard work!

[@lisotunali3807]

I dont know how i ended up in this part of youtube but man am i here for this

[@Petemate69]

Great content mate! You should really wear safety glasses when handling acids man you don't want to go blind

[@Xenotrickster]

Shout out to Periodic Table! Genius of a man. Glad you are a fan!

[@GRBtutorials]

OK, so next up is tellurium, and after that… oh. Oh, no.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Maybe when I'm an old geezer on my death bed, I'll make my last wish be to smell the polonium analogues, lol.

[@stalecisco666]

😂 😂 That intro was funny, also your production is looking pretty professional. Great vid.

[@OueGrame]

LabCoatz 2024: making telluroacetone

[@pyrazine]

i found your channel through nilered and i just wanna say, very excited to have more high quality chem youtubers! subscribed and can't wait for more

[@lordsqueak]

As a swede, I wonder how it compares to surströmming. I'll be honest, the reaction to the smell in the video seems,, kinda tame. But I guess you're not supposed to eat it, like with surströmming, so there is that factor to account for. ;)

[@NameyNames]

I kind of like the smell of surströmming, so I'd imagine that this is a LOT worse. Or ... better? Would love to smell it sometime.

[@notmyname327]

Great video! Loved the Extractions & ire reference

[@KernelLeak]

I'm not sure if the USPS has a "no mail" list, but I'm sure if you mail that stuff around you might just find out... :/

[@LabCoatz_Science]

There is a restriction on poisonous materials, and selenium is toxic (although there isn't any data available on most selenols or selones). To get around it, I'm only sending trace amounts: enough to be smelled, but not enough to be measured or considered dangerous!

[@KernelLeak]

@@LabCoatz_Science Keep us posted, then... :P (I'll get me non-lab-coat...)

[@TheYouTubeAquarium]

Just sent some funds your way from Fresno, CA! Excited for my little package to arrive. Keep up the good work!

[@theoverlord3839]

So excited... im sure you can ship me 5 grams of *coughs* not this substance

[@troyclayton]

6:06 Some work on identifying skunk thiols was done at UNH, my home turf. There are still stories of the chemistry building being evacuated when a vial was spilled over half a century ago. Smell isn't the only thing when dealing with compounds that are lachrymators. These compounds are often detectable at incredibly low ppm, but have much stronger effects (beyond smell) at concentration. Go to a paint store and buy one of the disposable "spray your own paint" cans. Squirt some. IDK what the vapor pressure of that stuff is, but make an aerosol and I'm sure it will 'pop'.

[@thomassynths]

I thought it was amusing when you said you up-played your reaction to the thioacetone... in all these chemical tests you don't really to appear to be _that_ offended by the smell from your visible reaction. No gagging and constant retching.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Yeah, I've never smelled something bad enough to trigger my gag reflex. Most smells just don't offend me that much! But there are some things that make me cough and pull away, like pure chlorine gas, acid vapors, or irritants like chloramine.

[@conradsmith9441]

“That is the worst smell I have ever smelled in my entire life” *proceeds to continue wafting into his nose* 😂😂😂

[@ivuldivul]

Nilered: "It's not that bad..." 😂

[@Strobie_one]

Bro!!! You are an absolute legend for the honourable mention of the S-tier lord of Yt chem, Mr “yea nahhh” E$F.

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

God bless German Wikipedia 🙏🙏🙏

[@LabCoatz_Science]

What would we do without Germany!

[@rursus8354]

9:43: now the car have to be evacuated for a week. No problemo, though: the car belongs to my dad.

[@ahmadmazbouh]

ah shit.. here we ho again

[@bzuidgeest]

I'm not a chemist, but this reminds me. Vintage electronics when old enough sometimes contain selenium rectifiers. When one of those blows up it stinks to high Heaven and the smell can linger.

[@Dylan-fk1do]

40 seconds in and I'm waiting for this channel and video to blow upppp. Keep up the great stuff!

[@sciloj]

We had a conversation about it at work today. I brought up the fact that over the course of the last 150 years or so, people learned to tolerate more and more acute smells due to more exposure to them (fuel, solvents, household chemicals, etc.) It is in a way similar to how children first have pretty strong reactions to unpleasant smells but adults can deal with pretty much anything. So my next question was whether we can identify several classes of substances triggering smell receptors that we have to detect the potentially most dangerous chemicals that our ancestors were able to encounter. And then, identify the most potent (volatile, etc.) ones within each group. An obvious list would include sulfur (selenium, as a stronger "relative") compounds (related to natural sulfur and feces), ammonium compounds (related to urine), and some phosphor-organic compounds (related to decomposing fish). Less obvious would be things related to feces and/or bodily fluids (scatole?), decomposition of flesh (cadaverine?), and some stuff produced by yeast. There are really unobvious things like that disgusting component of beeswax smell (fatty acids, 2-nonenal?) that makes old unwashed clothing smell so repulsive. To overwhelm someone these days and not let them quickly adapt to a bad smell, it has to be a combined attack on smell receptors.

[@haros2868]

It must smell like decaying plant materials because rotten potatoes contain selenium

[@zalzalahbuttsaab]

15:52 (Dad sampling): "Oh! Let me sample this horrific odour!) 🤣🤣🤣

[@sciencething1449]

One things hobby chemists do is show the world what certain chemicals really are, like Ex&f with c2n14, you and nilered with thioacetone and more stuff. i like that.

[@ryankassel5691]

You're a legend. Thanks for your work

[@notsparks]

Glad to see you followed through with selenium promised after the NileRed drop. Congrats on the 20k new followers, too. Looking forward to what oddities you come up with next.

[@BerzerkaDurk]

Wow. Did Nigel's shoutout really lead to you gaining 23k subs? That's amazing.

[@stavroslibavius9699]

You are awesome ! Greetings from Greece, I look forward to the corresponding experiment with tellurium !

[@austinmoore2946]

Subbed for intro alone. Hilarious

[@unexpected2475]

18:15: Can't wait for your 1,000,000 subscriber special where you make polonoacetone and livermoroacetone.

[@NerdlabsSci]

hey labcoatz! nice job! also congrats on 20k subs!

[@Reneholleman1]

Used to work in a place where they added Mercaptan to the natural gas. Everyone had to go through the pump street and your colleagues would lock the doors. It just went into your pores and clothes, weeks later people would ask about it still.

[@benbilbro516]

Very glad NileRed shouted you out, I have so much content to catch up on! Great video

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Glad you like the content, although I must admit: the newer stuff is much better quality than the old stuff, haha! Hopefully I can continue to provide you with engaging content, my next video will be covering how I distilled a superacid in my garage, if that sounds interesting!

[@benbilbro516]

@@LabCoatz_Science half the fun is watching the evolution of the content! Im looking forward to the superacid distillation; im only comfortable just messing around with glacial acetic acid lol

[@keithyinger3326]

As somebody who has worked on a chicken raising operation for 20 years, I'm kind of curious what those smell like. I have smelled some pretty rotten stuff over the years. Dead and decaying composted chickens, wet manure thats 6 inches thick. It gets its own special stink when it gets wet like that and starts getting grain packed into it that starts rotting and it all starts composting together. One friend of mine came to help out at the farm once and couldn't stop gagging from the smell, but to me it's not really that bad. Sometimes when you get into those big thick cakes of wet manure right under the feed lines during cleanout, it almost smells like a fermented wheat, or bread with notes of butterscotch. So that's why I say I'm kind of actually curious what those stinky compounds would smell like to me.

[@wazsam2723]

I was waiting for this!

[@youssefashraf6]

First time viewer and instant subscriber here. Love your content absolutely a gem and especially how you explained your process with that in situ solution! A bit of constructive criticism though, I am a chemistry lover even though I'm from a totally different background and for me the theoretical part about selenols was a bit of a blur, would be stoked to see theoretical stuff in a more exciting form.

[@buen0excellente837]

The intro alone had me stoked for the rest of the video.

[@PoorMansChemist]

Selenide smells way worse than either sulfide or telluride in my experience. H2Se lingers for days and always gives me a headache. Even making potassium selenocyanate is a smelly process.

[@wardenpotato]

Absolutely amazing video, loved every second of this, you deserve so much more than 26k subs, hope you grow to huge numbers.

[@minklmank]

Colleague of mine worked with organoselenium compounds in our shared lab - I can confirm. The smell is horrible, lingering and made all of us celebrate the day when he finished his PhD even more - great guy though. It has been three months and we still get waves of the smell occasionally.

[@MrRyanWonderlin]

Yeah, but you should also compare it to some classically bad-smelling organic substances like surströmming. I don't think it'd travel nearly as far, but I'd be interested if the quality was worse

[@lars3509]

Now I am being hyped up for the NileRed reaction video creating an even more potent Eau de death. Or worse, a NileBlue video. Good Video, especially the intro

[@nashton9964]

I think a good word for the last one is "piercing" based on what I've seen from your face. I have some perfume materials that are the same way and need major diluting.

[@d0nnerknispel64]

I love this intro idea, great work!

[@beautifulsmall]

Rotting garlic + fermented sewage, thats brussel sprouts (devils eggs) which contain selenium. Fascinating video.

[@drunkskunk00]

Awesome. Found your channel through NileRed, and can't wait to see more.

[@jerrysanchez5453]

I love the periodic videos entro.such a under rated channel

[@minnyh]

Fascinating how difficult it is to explain a smell - or maybe its really a combination of taste and smell.

[@DaveTexas]

Back some 30 years ago when I was making museum-quality B&W photographic prints, I experimented with selenium toning, which is a way to make the print more stable over a long period of time. The lab where I worked made me do the toning overnight while no one else was there due to both the odor and the toxicity. I worked under a vent hood and worse a respirator, but the whole building still smelled pretty awful for days and I had to throw out some of the clothing I had worn while working. Fond memories…