Piranha Solution Eats Stuff

Episode sponsored by MEL Science and their monthly science boxes - get 50% off your first box at melscience.com/s8o/ and use promocode PV50
More links and info in full description ↓↓↓
More acid videos on Periodic Videos: bit.ly/Acid_PV
Videos on all 118 elements: bit.ly/118elements
Support us on Patreon: / periodicvideos
More chemistry at www.periodicvideos.com/
Follow us on Facebook at / periodicvideos
And on Twitter at / periodicvideos
From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: bit.ly/NottChem
This episode was also generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: www.bradyharan.com/
Brady's Blog: www.bradyharanblog.com
Join Brady's mailing list for updates and extra stuff --- eepurl.com/YdjL9
MEL Science (our episode sponsor) is not affiliated with the University of Nottingham.
ad #melscience #melchemistry

[@periodicvideos]

Episode sponsored by MEL Science and their monthly science boxes - get 50% off your first box at melscience.com/s8o/ and use promocode PV50

[@cmdrcrimbo]

What happened to the chicken leg?

[@sudazima]

a few notes, normally you keep all the three beakers/chems in an ice bath when making pirhana solution so it doesnt heat up to a boil, and slowly pipet in the peroxide or acid. i used to neutralize it at the end by adding the bicarbonate to the pirhana solution not the other way around, this gives a bit more control. doing this itself it quite interesting as it takes a surprising amount of solid before it stops bubbling.

[@ArtDeGuerra]

I bet Neil talks more after. Few beers. Hahahaha he'd be a awesome person to drink with haha.

[@dilerkofeina]

Make video about super acids

[@CraftyF0X]

@@cmdrcrimbo That cliffhanger man...

[@MaddAddamx]

Neil sacrifices his banana. Is there anything he won't do in the name of science and our entertainment? Also, Neil was probably the one who had to clean all the mess up, so huge thanks to Neil! Technicians are the real backbone of science and research.

[@m.h.6470]

It was Brady's banana... 6:35

[@MaddAddamx]

@@m.h.6470 Conflicting information, it says Neil's banana at the start of the video. Perhaps we'll never know...

[@DragoNate]

Don't worry only quite a modest piece was chopped off.

[@asshattery]

I lost it when the music played

[@drew6017]

Neils not a technician though right? I thought he was a professor.

[@jackalovski1]

Poor Neil having to clean up all that mess, but we're greatful for his efforts, that was impressive.

[@onkelpawel]

I'd use a plastic bowl or large Petri dish under the beaker for such messy and unpredictable experiments because I'm lazy.

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

@@onkelpawel plastic bowl is maybe not your best option when it comes to piranha...

[@onkelpawel]

@@mmmhorsesteaks Sure, it always depends what you are working with. When in doubt just test it before you use it.

[@jonniepalmer7802]

All hail Neil!

[@MadScientist267]

@@onkelpawel No no and NO! Piranha attacks *everything* organic. There won't be any plastic left to contain it, and if it is a fresh batch and other conditions are right, you may even be risking a nasty fire starting. No plastic ever.

[@buschmann1]

“Including a magnificent experiment with Neil’s banana” This has all turned a bit Carry on Chemistry!

[@BoomBrush]

Step professor im stuck...

[@Reynsoon]

Ooooh matron!

[@andrewduhan]

this caught me completely off guard, and I firmly exhaled through my nose.

[@sonifer7692]

"there was mayhem - frothing everywhere"

[@kjsud5546]

I always assumed Neil's banana would be salty not sweet

[@lohphat]

Skittles have a wax coating so that may have played a part in the delay.

[@m.h.6470]

my thought as well

[@mathis8210]

RIght, thats exaclty what i thought immediately aswell. They should have tried cutting a few of them in half before throwing them in. Sadly it seemingly didn't cross their mind to try this out to confirm or disprove their theory of the reaction evolution... :(

[@TheMrbunGee]

They also have hard sugar shell, which took some time to dissolve.

[@BrickfallOfficial]

your mum has a wax coating

[@yohoyoho13]

​@@TheMrbunGee Sugars readily dehydrate to carbon in the presence of sulfuric acid. The candy shell does not matter.

[@RobFulcher]

I wonder if the relative (initial) resistance of both the rowan berry and the Skittles might be due to surface waxes? Candies like Skittles are coated with carnauba wax to make them shiny and not melt so quickly. Might it take that wax some time to melt or hydrolyze before the piranha can get to the gooey center and really do its thing? :) I love these videos where you all are clearly having great fun. Thanks!

[@TeslaMaster2]

I was thinking the same thing. The outside of Skittles is at least tough to get through, even for the acid.

[@MadScientist267]

That's my guess

[@jayodea503]

wax. the sweets are coated in a thin layer of wax and the berries are also protected with natural waxes.

[@bp_iyarea]

Not enough peroxide

[@bp_iyarea]

Also yes

[@FHBStudio]

"We've been experimenting with acid, things got weird and at some point we were playing with Neil's banana" I was not expecting that on this channel... carry on.

[@kennarajora6532]

and that line came from the professor too.

[@thomaselliott7745]

the editing was perfect too

[@bskull3232]

"And Neil chopped off quite a beast."

[@Oldtanktapper]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert…

[@burpleson]

"Neil was persuaded to put the entire banana - skin and all - into the solution." The Professor's understated delivery is fantastic.

[@loberd09]

The “worst” chemical burn I ever got was from a cousin of piranha solution. It’s an alternative to chromic acid and I’m blanking on the oxidizer I think ammonium persulfate. Anyway I had a large bucket of it to clean an apparatus. I’m leaning over the bucket and my safety glasses slid off and into the bucket. As they were sliding off I knew I couldn’t get them or get away from a splash so I shut my eyes immediately. So safety glasses splashed down into it and it sprayed up. A few very small drops hit my face, one on my eyelid. I either made it to the sink with other eye open or both closed. I was washing it off with in 30 seconds but had 2-3 very small chemicals burns that took a few weeks to heal. Recollection is a little fuzzy as this wa about 12 years ago.

[@Treviscoe]

That must have been terrifying.

[@RobinTheBot]

Safety equipment should not only be right for the job but right for the person. Tight goggles are safe goggles! I'm glad you thought fast. Saved your eyes the.

[@ManoredRed]

@@RobinTheBot Ye. If your safety googles can slide off, you need new ones.

[@bowestbrook6527]

since then i am sure you have learned that safety glasses are a ballistic protection and never a chemical one. always use goggles.

[@TheDeadOfNight37]

@John Thomas nothing ever happens

[@dex3r12345]

WHERE IS THE CHICKEN LEG?? I NEED TO SEE IT!!

[@Thermalions]

Piranha II: Fowl Play - coming to a KZbin channel near you this Summer

[@veryboringname.]

Never skip leg day.

[@Blak2blue]

I know right!!!??

[@piotrarturklos]

I was also confused by this. It turns out there is a "TO BE CONTINUED" caption in the bottom-left corner of the video when they start showing the chicken leg.

[@M4RC90]

@@piotrarturklos I thought it would be continued after the sponsor.

[@storyspren]

Professor: "Don't try this at home" Sponsor segue: "if you wanna do your own experiments..." :D

[@sofa-lofa4241]

Sending bottles of sulphuric acid through the postal system to 10 year olds.... What could possibly go wrong?

[@blindsniper35]

I'm assuming they won't send you anything too dangerous. They took all the fun chemicals out of chemistry kits a long time ago.

[@puppergump4117]

@@blindsniper35 Dang now I have to make my own uranium 32 plant

[@WireMosasaur]

The rowan berries are probably designed to be somewhat acid-resistant, considering they're supposed to be eaten to spread the seeds!

[@herrbrahms]

Evolved, not designed, but otherwise yes.

[@pustota7254]

@@herrbrahms are you sure about that?

[@puppergump4117]

@@herrbrahms What's the difference anyways

[@luminoustedium]

"I've never seen such destruction from such a small amount of solution" almost sounds like a challenge for Ex&F

[@MadScientist267]

Oh no. Please. No.

[@sofa-lofa4241]

Yeah, wants a bit of S4N4 to liven things up a bit!

[@obst3085]

My mind was like "may i propose... Literally any liquid explosive, like nitroglycerine? Some RFNA? Diethyl zinc?" There's much more destructive stuff out there than piranha, but nothing better for cleaning up the most resistant tar seizing up your joints.

[@dale116dot7]

Maybe dioxygen difluoride could give this solution a run for its money?

[@blindsniper35]

Chlorine trifluoride I think it would have it beat. That stuff is legitimately terrifying.

[@takeshikovacs02]

It is possible to "revitalize" the solution by adding more H2O2 in small amounts. This allows the reaction to continue without putting too much peroxide in at any one time. KZbinr NileRed is a chemist who has a few videos showing this.

[@FHBStudio]

When he said he'd cut of quite a big chunk from the mars bar, I expected him to grab the left part and toss that in lol.

[@The_Red_Scare]

Same, lol

[@wouldntyaliktono]

I sprayed coffee all over my keyboard when the Professor mentioned Neil's banana.

[@mathis8210]

3:00 - Another factor that plays a role in the timing of these reactions could be that the coating of the skittles is a lot more stable than the interior. What would happen if you cut the skittles in half before you throw it in?

[@BackYardScience2000]

Waking up to a Periodic Videos notification? Yes please!

[@Muck006]

2:05 There are probably two reasons for "nothing happens": - the skin of the berry is very thick and designed to "not let water get inside" - the bubbles created at the surface of the berry minimise the reactive area quite a lot.

[@smiggyballs4100]

rowan berries are also covered in a waxy cuticle and wax doesnt tend to react with acid

[@icybrain8943]

also the thing that came to mind for me is that seeds in the berries need to survive the digestive process in birds in order to be spread around - so it makes sense that the berry would be resistant to acid

[@whazzup_teacup]

@@icybrain8943 It's just the seeds that would survive digestion. Otherwise there wouldn't be a reason to use berries as nutrition. My guess is that the skin protected it a little but some of the solution got under it as we can see it lost the rigid round shape when they took it out.

[@icybrain8943]

@@whazzup_teacup that makes sense

[@MadScientist267]

The first part is closer to spot on. Piranha ultimately doesn't care. If it's still spunky enough, it will go after anything with carbon in it (and a lot without carbon). Let the berry sit there long enough... Same thing will happen that happened with everything else. Far as the bubbles, no, they add to the mayhem. By agitation. Toss in the heat generated and nothing stands a chance.

[@ryanwaege7251]

Thank you, Neil. Big fan of your work throughout the years.

[@marcusviniciusdoprado7508]

“Experiments are very dangerous”. Dude, in our lab, we use this for glassware cleaning

[@kieronparr3403]

Important word there is lab

[@KonradTheWizzard]

Dude! What do you do for the actual experiment? Fluoride Oxide?

[@BackYardScience2000]

@@KonradTheWizzard we used piranha solution in the lab that I used to work in as well to clean glassware. It's actually quite a common practice to use this to clean stubborn stains from glassware. When I worked in a lab and then when I owned a lab we used it, I would estimate probably once every couple of days at both places. It's especially decent at removing tar from the inside of flasks. Tar, the chemists bane of existence.

[@INT41O]

I used it in university at a lab course on nanoelectronic device fabrication for cleaning up organic residues

[@AvyScottandFlower]

Acids are SCARY! Bases: Hold my beaker

[@JustinKoenigSilica]

Bases:what beaker?

[@emperortgp2424]

Neil: Hold my banana

[@mytech6779]

This is an oxidation reaction not an acid base situation.

[@magnetsplace]

Dear Professor, excellent experimentations as usual and much fun to watch, but would it be possible to do a short video showing how the fume cupboard works to handle the vast range of gasses given off while you are "cooking up" so many different reactions? All the best and please keep the videos coming.

[@emilywein8956]

Fume hoods vent to the atmosphere.

[@MrAwesomeSquad]

Remember not to eat any Skittles or bananas before drinking piranha solution.

[@sofa-lofa4241]

Drinking it? I've been snorting it for 6 months... Did I do wrong?

[@vmxkarelyn_0842]

Ok

[@physicsisawesome696]

​@@sofa-lofa4241Wait, I thought you were supposed to inject it.

[@maxximumb]

With the Skittles, I think they have a thin film of wax sprayed on them as the last step of their manufacture, so make them look nice and shiny. I'm guessing that the delay is caused by the wax decomposing rather unimpressivly. Then once the sugar in the outer shell is exposed, the reaction takes off.

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

I love this channel! It’s like watching a British mad scientist version of Mr. Rogers. Completely charming and somewhat disturbing, simultaneously.

[@seth7437]

This Reaction has also a very practical use in Chemistry in the formation of certain organic Peroxides like tert.Butyl hydroperoxide, Di(tert.butyl)peroxide and others. They are widely used in polymer chemistry. Would love to see Organic peroxides covered at this Channel.

[@-vermin-]

I thought it was just handy for cleaning tars off of expensive glassware.

[@neovictorius]

When you said, you didn't know what it was, I was not that surprised actually. An organic chemist would know, because it is primarily used to clean glass in organic labs. Though it is a last resort.

[@robmckennie4203]

I was very surprised that neither Martyn nor Neil knew what it was

[@neovictorius]

@@robmckennie4203 Well if I recall correctly, they are both inorganic chemists. They probably haven't encountered it since they were students themselves - if they ever did

[@robmckennie4203]

@@neovictorius I don't think Neil is a chemist per se, I believe he's a lab tech, so i would definitely have expected him to know about most methods of cleaning glassware

[@matthewsermons7247]

Terms like "Piranha Solution" are some of the reasons we chemists have a dark sense of humor when joking about disposing of bodies....

[@domramsey]

It's been a long time since I've seen Neil's banana react so vigorously!

[@Aztesticals]

Our organic chemistry professor said that he once made piranha solution and wanted to make it even more effective so he added in fuming nitric acid. Supposedly it reacted with itself to the point he had received disciplinary action as it damaged the floor beneath the fume hood.

[@fryingdutchman8921]

Impressive how the solution clears up after a while. I hate the cliffhanger with the chicken leg. >:) Props to Neil for his efforts (especially the clean up). Please try magic acid next. xD A mixture of fluorosulfuric acid and antimony pentafluoride. It is supposedly able to dissolve candle wax.

[@Pretermit_Sound]

They have an older video where they test a bunch of different acids, and magic acid was one of them I believe.

[@leviben7394]

There are some more interesting acids that come to mind. Hydroiodic acid, perchloric acid, dichromic acid, and peroxysulfuric acid. Quite nasty. But what liquid i want to see most? How much damage liquid fluorine would do to the chicken leg

[@alexoftheway8169]

More awesome chemistry videos! And it's always great to have an explanation of what's going on. Absolutely professor! That's the beauty of your content, we get to see all this stuff without having to risk burns and the like! I also really liked your content on the exotic radioactive elements, notably Technetium and that really interesting purple oxidation state of Plutonium! Always a pleasure.

[@lunarology9158]

I love your KZbin channel i keep coming back to it over the years ive been watching on and off for a while

[@CanalTremocos]

Not Neil's banana again! How is he going to get his daily potassium?

[@BalticLab]

I am sure Neil can eat pure potassium metal just like a Candy Bar without anything happening to him.

[@Nefville]

I have learned so much from this channel, I wish I had the passion for learning when I was in school that I do now. Also this one reminds me of why you don't make a lot of that zinc, ammonium nitrate, sodium bisulfate mix that burns blue when you put a drop of water on it. If you make too much it will absorb the moisture out of the air and spontaneously catch fire. Better if that doesn't happen lol

[@alexoakley226]

Why are chemists great for solving problems?... Because they have all the solutions!

[@quiggsy8571]

I love the editing in this video already Neil's banana...

[@roybm3124]

Amazing! Thank you for performing this request.

[@marktomlin5484]

Always good to see the professor and his team . Well done.

[@TeslaMaster2]

Some say that his banana was already structurally weakened before the experiment, and that the piranha solution is made from his sweat alone. All we know is: He's called Neil.

[@ivartillotson835]

Neil: the John Cena of chemistry.

[@lordfarquar9215]

This is the best ive seen in a long while, i love you guys and the jokes in your videos are cunning and hilarious.

[@praveenb9048]

Enter tried dropping a piranha into piranha solution?

[@chemomania927]

You must have a 3:1 ratio of H2SO4:H2O2 so as to have the maximum reactivity..and cotton pulverises instantly in this solution

[@kdawg3484]

That makes sense. Pure cellulose with high reactive surface area. Now I want to see the comparison of reaction speed between cotton and cotton candy. Cotton candy fibers are apparently 4x the diameter of cotton fibers--something that could be checked with a micron-scale microscope--so they'd have 1/4 the surface area. Presuming that pirahna solution doesn't care that much what form your sugar comes in, we might expect the initial reaction to be 4x as fast for cotton, and then it would probably take off exponentially faster a solution temperature rose quicker. Testing cellulose vs. sucrose separately would also be interesting as well to see if pirahna solution cares that much what form your sugar comes in. Easily could make a whole video exploring this very important area of research.

[@chemomania927]

@@kdawg3484 nice idea man👍

[@mytech6779]

3:1 active ingredient? H2O2 is avalible in anything from 3% to 100%. 3% 10% and 27-30% are most common, over 40% becomes a hazardous material for shipping and storage.

[@chemomania927]

@@mytech6779 i know that..but what do you want to say..can you pls explain

[@aidenhill1897]

This was really really well edited!

[@DanceySteveYNWA]

Bushy part of the year for the Professors ' magnificent barnet.

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

It’s his winter coat

[@joshuarosen6242]

@@user-wu7ug4ly3v Curses, you beat me to it.

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

@@joshuarosen6242 😉

[@silmarian]

thank you for taking one for the team, Neil!

[@henrikpersson5420]

Sponsor at the end of the video, commendable advertising! As always the content is top notch, an invaluable source of chemistry.

[@stoatystoat174]

Great that Periodic Videos are getting to see new exciting reations too.

[@DragoNate]

"This berry, obviously, was being attacked."

[@randaranatunga7259]

Acids as a whole have some of the scariest, most interesting and beautiful reactions in my opinion There are quite a few combustion reactions that look way more mesmerizing though. I’m so happy y’all are doing a video on the Piranha Solution

[@ZeroRyoko]

Acids can be bad, but not as bad as, say, Mercury Azides! Here, see if you’ve ever seen an experimental procedure quite like this one: "After a few minutes, the deposition of needle-like crystals starts at the interface between the nitrate and the azide layer (β-Hg(N3)2). After some time, larger crystals tend to sink down, during this period explosions frequently occur which leads to a mixing of the layers, resulting in the acceleration of crystal formation and the growth of a mat of fine needle-like crystals. . ." Explosions are definitely underappreciated as a mixing technique!

[@OnlinePhenome]

Search chlorine trifluoride.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

@@ZeroRyoko Ethyl perchlorate... Explosions during distillation, terrifying!

[@mytech6779]

Pirhana solution doen't work via an acid mechanism, it is a strong oxidizer. I forget the precice chemistry but the H2O2 converts the -SO4 into something else and that is actually the reactive bit.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

@@mytech6779 some acids are oxidizing acids, nitric, and perchloric acids come to mind.

[@nancymencke503]

So glad your back

[@richinoable]

I love that you acknowledge not knowing the tree species. But there it is, foliage, in situ, and finally, labeled. Enough for me to discover. There was an ash tree in my front yard, as a child 🤔

[@Neumah]

What a cliffhanger.

[@jocax188723]

I’ve made it into a Periodic Videos video! Nice!

[@abrahamlincoln9758]

Tell your grandkids someday!

[@tlCLOUDS]

Can you try/explain this: years ago in VIth form, after an S-level chemistry class, I was rather naughty and made up ~150 mL of either crude _aqua regia_ *or* HNO3 + H2SO4 (I really can't remember which but much more likely the former) then added half as much acetone. Nothing much happened at first, but then the mixture started turning brown quickly followed by bubbling and belching clouds of out dark-brown fumes. I was just about sensible enough to have performed the 'investigation' in a fume cupboard luckily.

[@FarooqiVL]

The berry sorbus aucuparia you reffed to is probably Gondni as it is called in indopak region, 'gond' means glue and because the berry has some sticky fluid inside which is recommended for diabetics as it has little suger content.

[@nigeljohnson9820]

I was under the impression that Piranha solution is commonly used to clean laboratory glassware, particularly to remove the carbon residue often generated by organic chemical reactions. It was surprising that you were unaware of this. So the question is: how do you clean your glassware?

[@hammerth1421]

Piranha solution was used historically to clean glassware. These days chromic acid made from concentrated sulfuric acid and a dichromate is used instead. It is a bit less effective but also far less dangerous.

[@nigeljohnson9820]

@@hammerth1421 less dangerous? Doesn't this reaction produce highly poisonous chromium VI salts.

[@jpdemer5]

@@nigeljohnson9820 Chromic acid is less immediately dangerous - it's not going to explode on you, and it doesn't foam up out of its container and all over your bench. You do have to dispose of the waste chromium properly, which is quite an expensive proposition these days. For ordinary flasks and beakers, it's much cheaper to throw out the glassware and buy replacements - the days when every lab had a big bucket of chromic acid are long gone. When doing experiments that require *extremely* clean glassware, chemists still use pirhana solution.

[@hammerth1421]

@@nigeljohnson9820 Yeah, it does produce heavy metal waste but it doesn't have the risk of boiling out of control or straight up exploding.

[@jamescaley9942]

You can use HF (or dilute HF) but that is potentially more dangerous. Dilute sulphuric peroxide can be "spiked" with HF, almost like homeopathy.

[@TimpBizkit]

I was wondering whether it would get into the scales and dissolve the circuit boards.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

this is probably why the wall at one of the labs I worked at was gone when they removed the fume hood for maintinence. they used sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a similar mixture to digest composites. now I know what we were actually doing and why it was able to eat through solid cinderblock

[@donovanborja2663]

absolutely AMAZING! SCIENCE ! THE LEARNING NEVER STOPS !!

[@camilohiche4475]

The piranha is the solution to all of our chemistry problems.

[@ArtDeGuerra]

I miss you're videos. I been a viewer since the first videos!!! Keep it up.

[@jugheadsick13]

i wish you would explain the reactions that are going on and how peroxide interacts with sulfuric acid to make something so powerful

[@candidranger9110]

"...experiment with Neil's banana" * upbeat music starts playing * I dunno but this had me rolling

[@ThePeterDislikeShow]

Does it work with other strong acids like sulfuric or nitric acid? What about hydrogen peroxide with a weak acid like vinegar or carbonic acid, does peroxide work better at disinfecting if it's carbonated, for example?

[@DerangedScout]

How does adding an acid and a base make it more destructive? Wouldn't that cause dilution?

[@AsbestosMuffins]

I guess I was accidentally using this at a lab I worked at. we used boiling sulfuric acid with composite resin part inside, to which we added hydrogen peroxide to cause it to react. once the solution turned clear the part was completely digested and we could then filter out the matrix and determine the percent of resin that had been impregnated into it. Never really knew what the chemistry was doing because nobody there knew either. Reading on this, that's exactly what we were using, and we should have been trained on it. At least I had a healthy respect for it since it was eating the fume hood up

[@fredfarrell]

Ah .. Where is the chicken leg????

[@thend4427]

Next time?

[@tomtom4633]

What do you do with all the waste solutions from these experiments? Obviously you can put it down the drain and some liquids you could mix so do you have lots of containers for the waste solutions?

[@Jonodrew1286]

Awesomeness!!! - I guess as Conc. H2SO4 & C12H22O11 = Dehydration / Carbon Snake Reaction is super strong on its own….. without H2O2 - Persulphuric acid in the mix - chemistry is an amazing subject - love the videos..

[@joshtaylor6911]

Hey guys! Thanks for showing us these amazing experiments with these unique chemical solutions! While I'm fascinated by these reactions you can not only see how reactive and dangerous these liquids are I can almost smell it! Definitely not one to be doing at home under any circumstances so thanks again for showing us the wonders if Piranha Liquid on the safety of our phones!! I only thought an acid that can consume matter like that existed only in movies...like Alien...who remembers that scene huh... This stuff?????.....wow!!!!!😀😀😀

[@marshmallowblaster]

I want to see some chemistry with chlorine trifluoride (ClF3)! It's another ultra-destructive liquid and you're probably the only chemistry channel on KZbin who would be adequately knowledgeable and equipped to work with it.

[@antrumkfpsalatschleuder8768]

Once I was bored during my job in a laboratory and I had a Glas of concentrated nitric acid left and I put a 20 Euro cent coin in the acid it dissolved immediately like a aspirin tablet and the acid was turning green. It was just a fun experiment during work.

[@OdditiesandRarities]

Nice to meet you at the train station the other day by accident professor! haha love your videos!

[@ongbonga9025]

First time watching this channel. Suddenly hears Brady's voice. Feels like an old friend!

[@periodicvideos]

Nice to have you watching

[@Macieks300]

Interesting to see a proper demonstration of Piranha solution. Recently there was a KZbinr in my country who thought he could make this solution and he was very lucky he didn't die.

[@Shit_I_Missed.]

Funny that a week ago Adam Savage talked about Piranha Solution in reference to some myths that could not be done on the show Mythbusters, and here we have Piranha Solution in the laboratory with one of the best professors on youtube! Boy, if Neil's banana doesn't show the dangers of this solution I don't know what will. That stuff looks like an antagonist's money shot in a splatter horror film.

[@pablothestoner9716]

Good show!

[@TheKopakah]

Does the induction period mean that if you got it on your skin, you have a window of time that you could wash it of without any effects? Do other solutions have an induction period like this?

[@comradepickles7607]

Wish we could get an exact temp on that mixture... Looks to be over 150c?

[@metern]

Awesome. Im one of those who suggested to try out piranha solution, in one of your other video 😁. Dint see my nickname in the video tho 😉

[@EPMTUNES]

Great video.

[@pickledbreadproductions]

What kind of chemical reactions are necessary to get a small cloud to be on his head like that?

[@jannikelspa8511]

I did this experiment several times. If you mix the piranha solution and heat it a little you can decompose flowers or other plants completly in seconds

[@dogedog2447]

I want to say this before it’s to late but you are such a amazing and cool professor and good luck

[@user-gf7zf9sx7w]

My favorite solvent was ethanol saturated with potassium hydroxide. This is the only substance that dissolves silicon grease used for glass joints.

[@joetuktyyuktuk8635]

"A magnificent experiment with Neils, banana..." cue chessy 70's special genre music...

[@stargazer3424]

Darn, was hoping the berry would act like the mistletoe in Nightmare before Christmas

[@ilikemorestuff]

Why did the chicken cross the road? Neil was mixing more chemicals!

[@thechemist3787]

What ? Two experienced chemists who didn't know what piranha solution was? We were using this solution to clean potassium permanganate stains from glassware in our very first undergrad lab. Anyway, it's always fun seeing piranha dissolving stuff !

[@majiddehbi9186]

hi thx for all u done just a question what's Ptrana solution?

[@Jesus_paid_it_all]

Great to wake up to an upload! Piranha solution is frighteningly powerful...

[@franknblunt]

Possibly collect the gases? Does this refer to calorimetry? Any non-organic rxns attempted?

[@dr.feelgood2358]

I'd bet the different composition of the hard shell vs interior of the skittles, might have something to do with delay in reaction. Maybe if you cut it in half, you get a faster reaction?

[@Theploof]

Just started. Gonna say, Love the fro. Envious in fact.

[@Imdor]

That solution doesn't need a Mars bar, it needs a Snickers.

[@Jordy120]

At 0.31, is that from the Debbie Does Dallas sound track ?

[@davidrenton]

I have a question that might make an interesting video, what do they do with all the used chemical's , are they processed offsite, recycled, or just dumped.

[@hammerth1421]

Acids and bases can be neutralized/diluted and dumped down the drain, for other chemicals there are 5 different standardized waste containers which are sent of to a processing company to be properly dealt with there.

[@davidrenton]

@@hammerth1421 thank u

[@LunaticTheCat]

There are many different procedures for all sorts of different types of chemical waste.

[@Nihtglom]

That banana was properly Quatermass level science.