Mercury Thiocyanate Decomposition in Slow Motion: The Mesmerizing Chemical Serpent Reaction

In this video, you'll witness the mesmerizing beauty of chemical serpents, a fascinating and visually stunning chemical reaction. I'll show you the slow-motion decomposition of mercury thiocyanate, also known as "the pharaoh's serpent".
We'll also experiment with adding different elements to the reaction, such as liquid oxygen, nitrous oxide, and liquid chlorine, to see how they affect the combustion and growth of the serpent.
Additionally, I'll showcase a combo reaction of mercury thiocyanate decomposition and ammonium dichromate volcano, both in real time and slow motion. You'll see how these two reactions complement each other.
And lastly, I'll introduce you to another chemical serpent that emerges when a mixture of p-nitroaniline and concentrated sulfuric acid is heated.
So join me for a scientific journey into the world of chemical serpents and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to stay up to date with my latest chemical experiments!
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0:00 Mercury thiocyanate decomposition
2:05 I add liquid oxygen to decomposing mercury thiocyanate
2:30 I add liquid nitrous oxide to decomposing mercury thiocyanate
3:03 I add liquid chlorine to decomposing mercury thiocyanate
3:44 Combo reaction of mercury thiocyanate decomposition and ammonium dichromate volcano
5:24 Catalytic oxidation of ammonia by oxygen
6:02 p-nitroaniline serpent
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Mechanism of polymerization of 4-nitroaniline:
scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.ph...
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[@twitchlazy]

I don't know how your channel hasn't gotten more visibility! Best chemistry experiments on KZbin. Thanks!

[@stevenbirch]

The combination used to be called "snake in the grass" here in UK, with the two ingredients pressed into a small aluminium foil cone to make the product. Oh and BTW, a more consistent long snake can be obtained if the mercury thiocyanate is pressed into a pellet with a solution of gum arabic and potassium nitrate in water. Much larger and more impressive "snakes" can also be made from nitrated pitch (e.g. napthol pitch). A pressed pellet 15mm diameter can emit a snake over a metre in length and 25mm diameter when lit. Correct nitration requires considerable skill...

[@9ziggs]

If you could touch the finish snake product, what would it feel like, texture, hard/soft, dry, oily, squishy.. and what do you think it would smell like?

[@InputEmitter]

I have witnessed some strange occurrences in my time here on earth, but this is some truly bizarre and beautiful chemistry. Brilliant!

[@EddieTheH]

When I got the notification for this I was literally just reading an entry in a very old book "Granddads book of chemistry" discussing this experiment and how "children shouldn't do it without supervision" as if mercury isn't toxic as long as there's also an adult inhaling it with the kids!!!

[@moronicpest]

Ammonium dichromate was probably the first non-household chemical I was introduced to as a kid, for the familiar 'volcano' reaction. Later I found it could also be used as a simple rocket fuel, and seemed to be among the coolest burning rocket fuels. Because of this, light weight rocket tubes could be constructed with minimal layers of paper. Even though it has toxicity issues, if I had to pick a favorite chemical, that might be the one.

[@nosurprise885]

All Cr compounds are bad ass

[@cpchehaibar]

Your approach to the reactions for the sake of the beauty in them is amazing. It is why kids love to make experiments in the first place.

[@sebastiand152]

Great, as always. I just leave this comment to convince the KZbin algorithm to suggesting the video to more viewers.

[@ChemicalForce]

ha-ha, I think KZbin's algorithms have learned to skip this kind of comments :D

[@Biped]

the pharaos serpent is still one of my favourite experiments to look at. It never stops to look amazing. now even better in slowmo

[@Space_Debris]

The amazing part about seeing this is knowing it is *real.*

[@charlesballiet7074]

WOW just amazing to watch ive never seen anything like it.

[@luisfernandoenrique]

Your channel is one of the most amazing things i have ever seen in my life. Thank you so much

[@j_sum1]

How did this not arrive in my feed for two days? If I was making a budget scifi movie, I would film these reactions and use them for special effects.

[@Piocoto123]

This was beautiful!!

[@Nobe_Oddy]

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!

[@xfxox]

It would be interesting to look at the reactions of intermetallides: K+Na+Cs ... tenx!

[@j.h.jun.2214]

Impressive - thank you for this video!

[@chicoroth8679]

absolute amazing!!! thank you

[@VendettaProspecting]

absolutely amazing buddy

[@connorb9157]

Awesome video thanks

[@mythics791]

very cool video, your channel is a pleasure to watch.

[@Kyu_97]

Gorgeous video 🥰

[@richardsmith3199]

very interesting work thank you

[@omegahunter9]

I LOVE watching these reactions in slow motion. I wish I could watch hours of this with some classical background music. Then I'll sip some hot tea and vibe.

[@Ratzfourtyfour]

6:29 complex chemistry but looks like a shoddy magic trick lol. Great vid!

[@ChemicalForce]

Hey mate! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate your generosity, superthank you for the Super Thanks!🤑🤑

[@OTOss8]

I'm not particularly smart when it comes to science however even with my limited capacity to understand what you show in your videos, I always find them fascinating.

[@michaelseitz8938]

Fascinating 😊

[@massimox8256]

Stupefacente! Grazie.

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome.

[@user-rm5yj9zh4h]

Thank you

[@quintonwilson8565]

very cool!

[@sealpiercing8476]

Pretty cool! What messes you make!

[@shukfahid]

ChemicalForce: Hobbies: making UHD vids of chemical reactions. Me: Hobbies: dropping tabs and watching them.

[@experimental_chemistry]

You can also simply carry out the catalytic oxidation with glowing chromium dioxide powder, then you can do without carcinogenic ammonium dichromate. We have this as a short on our channel. Non-poisonous snakes are formed by igniting calcium gluconate tablets (which any chemist who handles hydrogen fluoride should have on hand as an antidote) or lozenges containing sodium bicarbonate and sugar.

[@krishnendupaul230]

Bro , you can start video lectures for class 11 and 12 organic and inorganic chemistry

[@listennui]

6:49 this is what Big Popcorn wants you to believe will happen if you use the popcorn button on your microwave

[@homelab7074]

Can you tell me from where do you get these chemicals? I am a big fan of chemistry and I want to know, pls tell me.....

[@andrestrujado]

The stuff of nightmares...Mine was the clean up after doing all of these demos.

[@TheRolemodel1337]

2:05 can you try to alter the reactions looks by doing it in an atmosphere with varying lower amounts of oyxgen (like 5% 10% etc or in a inert one) also what happens if you thoroughly mix it with other decomposing materials like (NH4)2Cr2O7 in different proportions (how would it alter the kind of "snake" that forms) 7:41 could you try to use filters for your camera to let us see through fireballs like this? (similar to the goggles glasblowers use to block the emission spectrum of sodium)

[@TheHuntermj]

I'm trying to make a serpent mixture that uses non-toxic materials. I need materials with the following properties: Material A - melts at a moderate temperature and can set quickly preferably one that doesn't oxidize easily. Material B - produces gas at a temperature not too far past the melting point of Material A, preferably via a lower temperature combustion.

[@roberthines2741]

I wish I had your lab and the chemicals that you get to experiment with, put my unused chemistry degree to some use and have fun too! At least I get to experience it vicariously here though :)

[@dielaughing73]

It's safer watching at home..

[@Muonium1]

If you put a fluorescent screen behind this setup and illuminate the apparatus with a shortwave mercury vapor lamp are you able to see the mercury being volatilized out of the experiment in shadow as the reaction proceeds?

[@APerson-rc6vb]

imagine showing this to someone before the 1800s

[@Ratzfourtyfour]

ChemicalForce: Chemical Serpent Reaction Me: Weren't there a million vids already o YT? Also me: Little did I know....

[@deshazo_henry]

Reminds me of creatures out of David Cronenberg movies

[@jonadams8841]

I am so glad that I don’t live downwind of your fume hood. At least I hope. 😂

[@GMCLabs]

Those clips look like they could be used in a sci-fi horror movie!

[@sootikins]

I was thinking more along the lines of Japanese tentacle p0rn - lol

[@27.minhquangvo76]

I believe you should work with uranium hexafluoride.

[@acronus]

It looks like a time-lapse video of a weird alien fungus growing.

[@Krispyk894]

Teachers when someone starts talking in class 😮

[@lagomoof]

What happens with a superfine mix of the powders of ammonium dichromate and mercury thiocyanate? How about if the two salts are melted together under an inert atmosphere? Do they react there and then? (Is the latent oxygen in dichromate "accessible"?) If not, what does the cooled salt "alloy" do on heating? Are there other thiocyanates that create serpents the same way? Or how about mercury selenocyanate? Or other selenocyanates?

[@Esterified80]

Reaction of alkali metals with acetyl chloride and acetic anhydride?

[@omegacentauri9634]

Can you mix sodium oxide and phosphorus oxide to make exothermic molten phosphoric glass

[@stilicho539]

This guy just casually throwing liquid chlorine on stuff, having it splash everywhere.

[@dielaughing73]

Right? I'm keeping safety behind my phone screen

[@skyethebi]

I’d be very interested in seeing a video about spontaneous endothermic reactions. It’s a concept that’s very interesting to me and I’m also wondering if you can find any that don’t involve a change in state of matter. The first spontaneous endothermic reactions I can think of are: salts dissolving in water, NaHCO3 + AcOH, and CoCl2•xH2O + SOCl2. All of these involve a solid converting into gases or a solid turning into an aqueous solution (which is sort of a change in state). Are there any that exist that don’t lead to the state of matter changing? I love your videos and I want to thank you for sharing this great chemical content with us.

[@ChemicalForce]

You can watch the reaction between CoCl2 and SOCl2 in my Dicobalt Octacarbonyl video

[@skyethebi]

@@ChemicalForce I just meant that I’d like to hear about and watch more of these reactions. Although I did love both the video about thionyl chloride and the one about dicobalt octacarbonyl. Visually I think that the SOCl2 + CoCl2•6H2O is an amazing reaction, and I’d love to see what other really cool reactions you can come up with.

[@skyethebi]

Side note: I think it’s kind of ironic that a baking soda and vinegar “volcano” is actually colder than room temperature.

[@JetFuelSE]

You gotta make a video on some Xenon compounds.

[@Chiavaccio]

👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@kennycarter5682]

i wonder how liquid fluorine looks?.. on another note. i wonder how a large scale ammonium dichromate reaction would look like. like. a really large amount.

[@Space_Debris]

6:02 p-nitroaniline serpent Every ECO celerity priest/est flying a private jet followed by security in their jet... "The _help'll_ clean it up! They "can't" understand hypocrisy?!"

[@user-rm5yj9zh4h]

Сделай ролик про соединения теллура

[@Damidas]

I want to see what would happen if you did this inside a sealed metal box so that there wouldn't be any room for reaction to take place

[@jimsvideos7201]

I feel like I need PPE just to watch this.

[@doctor_cringe.]

Простая реакция, но тем не менее прикольная, делал такую

[@AJ-qv9yo]

Looks like alien or zombie lifeforms. Thanks for the nightmares. :D

[@TheMono25]

If I have a big container full of banana skins and water that have been added and added the skins every other day over the last 2 years do u think I could extract potassium Metal some how

[@TheMono25]

I have seen Cody's lab do something similar

[@markh.876]

Low sodium salt is pure KCl but how are you going to get the potassium out? Not easily.

[@rafaeloqrp6162]

it looks like high quality computer animation not chemical reaction , cool

[@procactus9109]

This is the most bizzare chemical reaction.

[@markkettlewell7441]

It looks like one of HP Lovecraft’s shoggoths 😅

[@joshwasho9110]

I wonder how it would look in zero G

[@p1ai162]

C3N4? What the heck?😮

[@corywilliams9895]

Snake fireworks

[@negroneanderthal6988]

Imagine pooing that out, then trying to explain it.

[@2.7petabytes]

Forbidden onion rings 🤪

[@alllove1754]

I've heard if the barking dog, even seen it, but the barking spider? 😒

[@GruntCo]

Stuff looks like the Flood

[@mersilvaureus1525]

Excuse me sir, but did you just say *liquid chlorine?!*

[@resipsaloquitur13]

This is Boov #4 happening

[@piyankasmakeover3983]

I think this amazing chemical is not man made

[@uncleal]

"Southpark" season 2 episode 8

[@regor5150]

This looks like a Tool video

[@uncle_thulhu]

Immediately lose 2d4 SAN.

[@lawrup]

First

[@jimcoppa6946]

Looks like one of those stupid snakes you light up around the 4th of July

[@jansenart0]

Scheiße!