Super-Critical CO2 Cola vs. Mentos - Will It Explode?

[@Beyondthepress]

I just realised from the comments that the pressure chamber should be standing up so that we could fit the whole bottle in :D I think we might need to revisit this like that and also try with glass bottle and pure water if that gives more explody results?

[@jannepeltonen2036]

Yeah... and I think if the bottle isn't completely full then you could have a larger surface area inside the bottle... on the other hand, it may not work as well when adding Mentos if it isn't full (like you said)...

[@Beutelwolf_1987]

Definitely worth a try!

[@o0xenon0o]

Didn't the ice in the water last time make the difference?

[@elephantwalkersmith1533]

Should be Diet Coke for best results, aspartane lowers surface tension.

[@johncashwell1024]

I will Watch & Like all your videos. If the experiment Fails or is a Success, does not matter... Its For Science! Love you videos!

[@robertbackhaus8911]

There are ingredients in Coke that act as surfactants - that is, they are like soap - that trap the bubbles in a foam. Diet coke has more effective surfactants than regular coke does.

[@Beyondthepress]

This was light cola, it's just branded cola zero here

[@FurryTrash_]

yeah if diet is possible it works better than zero

[@Kualinar]

So, add a few drops of dish soap in the coke before super-carbonating it.

[@beaverc2884]

Adding more surfactant may interfere with the Nucleation process. Nucleation is was causes the bubbling.

[@rtechlab6254]

Diet rather than zero. You can also get pneumatic silencers which might mean you can dump pressure faster with less noise. Some pH strips might be an interesting addition too

[@JonBrase]

7:27 BTP: Has a pressure chamber, hydraulic press, and all kinds of cool gadgets. Also BTP: Doesn't have a simple kitchen funnel.

[@mortalc13]

"There's lot of shit going on inside that chamber" - Me after Thanksgiving dinner...

[@FrisoGorter]

Mention politics during Thanksgiving dinner. It'll save you money on Christmas gifts 🙃

[@dougalexander7204]

Grandma, those brownies ain’t for you.

[@joe125ful]

Me after loots of eating hot taco...

[@arcangelv16]

Sounds like the morning after my Final Solution chili.

[@MrMartinSchou]

I think you're going to lose a lot of CO2 just by pouring the Coca-Cola into the bottle again. If you could have the cylinder standing, you might be able to fit an open bottle into the chamber. That doesn't solve the issue of surface area for the CO2 to be dissolved into the liquid, because you end up with a much smaller surface area to do it. The chamber you have might not be able to do it, but one solution might be to have a small, battery powered air pump and a small hose inserted into the Coca-Cola, bubbling the cylinder's internal atmosphere through the liquid. That way, when you're ready to do the Mentos test, "all" you need to do is remove the top and pump, and you just drop the Mentos into the bottle.

[@Beyondthepress]

We lost way more when lowering the pressure on the chamber the liquid was boiling like crazy there. While pouring it to the bottle I didn't see much of anything happening. But I think if we just lift the thing up we can have bottle in there as whole. Not sure why I get the idea now :D We could also try with just water if that would work better.

[@beardedchimp]

​@@Beyondthepress the previous glass beaker had no bubbles nucleating because it was so smooth. The plastic containers were bubbling like crazy even with the normal coke.

[@Kualinar]

@@Beyondthepress Just leave it overnight, or even a couple of days, to compensate for the smaller surface area.

[@cheeserdane]

He could try standing the chamber up vertically to attempt using a graduated beaker

[@uwepelz]

​@@Beyondthepress I guess carbonated water will work quite well! Please give it a try!!!

[@test-rj2vl]

What if you carbonate vinegar and then throw baking soda in it?

[@dougfraser77]

Baking soda is bicarbonate. Would be interesting to see what happens

[@EricDKaufman]

The CO2 would react with water to make bicarbonate which is baking soda. This would react with the acetic acid and they would neutralize. The. You throw in sodium bicarbonate, e.g. baking soda, and the baking soda would dissolve peacefully until it reached saturation.

[@stanleyeens]

​​@@EricDKaufman uhm actually ☝️🤓 the CO2 reacts with water to create carbonic acid so it will just make a mix of acid, acetic acid (vinegar) and carbonic acid (CO2 dissolved in water) ok... maybe it will release some CO2 when you mix it, but it wont neutralize the vinegar, because carbonic acid and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is not the same

[@Kualinar]

@@EricDKaufman You need to brush up your chemistry lessons. Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is a base. Adding bicarbonate to carbonated water will cause the bicarbonate to react with the carbonic acid, releasing more CO2 in the process, leaving sodium carbonyle salt behind.

[@angusmctwangstick4079]

If this happens, there also needs to be a fizzy vinegar taste test

[@davidfinton]

Laurie opening the CO2 release valve like he's handling the Demon's core or something 😄

[@ShawnF6FHellcat]

I honestly don't blame him.

[@gmailisaretard]

Potential for fatal failure is very real here!

[@squidcaps4308]

It's just Lauri, no e at the end.

[@berndeckenfels]

Demon core… that’s an idea

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

That is the proper way to handle the release on that much pressure. I will take my chances with the demons

[@tlniec]

For O-rings, Viton or Fluorosilicone might be good options. I think Viton generally resists acids better, but Fluorosilicone holds up better at very low temperatures.

[@cphVlwYa]

Glass bottle in the chamber standing vertically will absolutely work the best. Also let the chamber depressurize slower. You loose carbonation to the plastic containers causing nucleation points, and the quick pressure change will agitate the surface of the liquid. Also you'll loose a lot transferring if its fully carbonated already, so you want to do it in the bottle from the start by putting the chamber on its side

[@martinneuliep6133]

For some reason I thought it had to be Diet Coke

[@Beyondthepress]

We have diet coke branded as Coca Cola zero here. But it's like the black thing on the middle of the bird poop, it's the same shit :D

[@martinneuliep6133]

@ Words Of Science 🤣

[@lmpeters]

Diet Coke and Coke Zero work better than regular Coca-Cola because the sugar in regular Coca-Cola is sticky, and so it slows down the reaction.

[@JamesPotts]

Doesn't make much difference, but it's much easier to clean up.

[@stupidamericanpig7357]

Diet Coke definitely reacts more strongly than regular coke or even Coke Zero. I think Diet Coke is called Coke Lite in Europe, or at least it was like that in the UK, Austria and Hungary last time I was there.

[@Kualinar]

Liquid CO2 is routinely used as a solvent, in particular to extract vegetable oils. It's advantages are : It don't react with the oils and you can remove all of it. Repeat this, but with the pressure chamber set vertically so that you can place the whole bottle in it surrounded by the dry ice. That way, you'll be able to use a full bottle and you remove the transfer back into the bottle.

[@Ole_CornPop]

It's works really well for making live resin, its the only way to get almost 100% of the terpenes.

[@ezcreations777]

Nile red recently made some pop rocks and it seems fluids benefit from agitation in order to dissolve more co2. Maybe put a magnetic stir bar in there somehow? would be cool to also see a metal shop approach to building the machine he has and maybe make some pop rocks with it but in your own way

[@greatnate29]

I don't think the pop rocks care that much about the dissolving and it is more about trapping high pressure CO2 bubbles in the sugar. Mixing might still help though. You would need to be able to turn it off before releasing the pressure because mixing in regular air would probably knock a lot of the trapped CO2 out of the solution.

[@ezcreations777]

@greatnate29 I don't think you know what you're talking about. The sugar was hot and molten in a pressurized environment in order to absorb the CO2

[@TheVoiTube]

Well Nile had stirring in his apparatus to agitate the sugar to absorb more carbonation. More solid material like sugar candy absorbs it better than way.

[@Laugh1ngboy]

The pressurized CO2 was trapped in air pockets caused by the stirring motion. Was not absorbed into the candy like soda water does.

[@Adam-nv9zo]

The atomic bomb of Coke and Mentos. I love it. 😂

[@blue04mx53]

It's critical that you use Diet soda. I've done a side by side between regular soda and diet soda. The difference of the 'fountain' was Regular soda went about 30 cms vertical whereas diet soda went about 2 meters straight up.

[@WoodworkerDon]

"Subscribe for MORE Stupidity" I couldn't say it better myself.

[@darthjeder]

Regarding the O Ring material: from what i have learned about all elastomers is that no elastomer is gas tight. Maybe you can use some soft metal like copper or aluminum. (Like the headgasket in engines)

[@WaffleStaffel]

Indium

[@Ole_CornPop]

​@@WaffleStaffelthat would be expensive as hail

[@earlwilson4385]

I'm pretty sure the cola needs to be DIET Coke, for whatever reason it tends to work better. Also, has anyone tried the mentos thing with just clear seltzer water? I imagine the results would be similar... 🤔

[@MeleeTiger]

I'm pretty sure that diet coke has a stronger/more violent reaction as well, though unsure if it would make that much of a difference.

[@yevgeno]

"Subscribe for more stupidity" I love it! )

[@alexeytsybyshev9459]

Supercritical CO2 can dissolve stuff, so I'd love to see what happens to flowers, or flavoured food like potato chips or puffed corn sticks, or just spices!

[@FrisoGorter]

@8:50 This is interesting. I would have expected the Cola-foam to be much lighter in colour due to the extra CO2 -- yet it looks darker and more vigorous after 'treatment'. Odd.

[@dougintothesunset]

I have seen this done with a chute that allows all the mentos, full pack, to be dropped in at the same time. I think the explosive reaction comes from the combined effect of all the mentos going off at once. Fun experiment, thanks for sharing.

[@deucedeuce1572]

It helps a lot to line the mentos up and drop them all in at once. Otherwise the reaction is slower if they're all dropped in one at a time. A tiny dab of glue to hold them would work good too.

[@bpop19]

10:05 "Everything was boiling like boiling" 😂

[@U.P_SCUBA]

Viton I think has a good resistance listed, otherwise; We used to use a brass impregnated Teflon as a seal for heavy duty cylinders. They are a pain to get on as you have to stretch them on ( put them in boiling water first) then you need to get them back to shape with a jig or some shim stock and hose clamps over it for a couple of hours. most good seal shops can machine them for you, it may hold up better

[@georgehubbard6876]

Diet Coke with Menthos is more reactive than regular Coke

[@BrianHurry]

Next time use diet cola. Diet cola significantly better and it makes less mess

[@Beutelwolf_1987]

The pressure chamber channel :) I love these kinds of experiments.

[@ikocheratcr]

Maybe use the chamber in vertical orientation, and put in the whole bottle without cap. This allows you to avoid liquid transfer later where you will lose a lot of CO2. Regarding the o-ring: maybe it is absorbing CO2, and later when you release the pressure "too fast" the CO2 expands and destroys it. Polymers like to absorb CO2 if the pressure is there. You can see it if you add a piece of acrylic or polycarbonate in the chamber pressurize it with CO2, leave them there for ~24h, then release pressure and let them be on the bench for a few hours.

[@howa08]

You should do a series on compressing combustibles. Make a see-through cylinder and show how diesel ignites, maybe see if gunpowder and things will be easier to ignite under pressure etc. I've been a long time fan of you guys and I feel like you've had a hard time recently finding new things to crush. Give us explosions 😎. Thanks for all the content and happy holidays

[@lagomoof]

You could skip the pouring step with a container designed to have a bottleneck added after it came out of the pressure chamber. Steel could fasten with magnets, for example. It wouldn't even need to be a pretty bottleneck, just a circular plate of a diameter greater than the container, a hole in the middle and a short piece of narrow pipe welded over the hole. Maybe also an o-ring or other circular bit of rubber glued onto it to contain leaks around the rim of the container. The main problem would be getting the inside of the container to be smooth enough to not cause rapid degassing. A glass or plastic liner might solve that though. The other problem is that it would be harder to do a fair control experiment with unpressurised diet cola.

[@theonewhowas7709]

this is awesome.. i jus hope that you are taking extra precautions to make sure theres no fatigue places or cracks forming from extreme temperature and pressure changes and all that... so we dont have another titan sub incident... all the best!!!

[@crandonborth]

That’s is a completely different situation… this would be a explosion not a implosion like the Sub

[@MikkoRantalainen]

If you retry this operating, try turning the tank in vertical and use the original bottle (switch smaller bottle size if needed) with only the cap removed. The concentration and pressure of CO2 should do the trick if you let it stay for a couple of hours. That might also reduce the amount of heating you need to do.

[@knutkleven5939]

Good utilization of your adjustable science hammer to achieve rapid controlled depressurization.

[@takumi2023]

I think someone mentioned this too. You should just bubble co2 into the cola directly with a hollow tube(with holes on the sides) and pressurized co2 into the bottle. Make sure you know how much pressure the bottle can handle. This way, you dont have to pressurize and unpressurize the system. I think that pressurization is the cause of your problem.

[@greatnate29]

I think on high vacuum systems they have a copper gasket and the two sides of the chamber squish it together with a little ridge that cuts a bit into the copper ring making a completely air tight seal. I think they are single use so that probably isnt helpful for your situation.

[@jasonadkins8300]

Use diet coke the reaction with the mentos is larger due to the aspartame in the diet Coke

[@logitech4873]

I don't think many people in Europe know about the american specific coca cola versions

[@eric81872]

Thank you for the video ! ☺👍♥

[@patrickvolk7031]

Temperature is key for the soluability of the CO2 in water. The colder the better. If you have the temp close to 0C, vent slowly (dropping pressure cools, freezjng will squeeze out CO2). If you put a valve on it that doesn't shut on slow release, but will if you dump it quickly (towards the end where you have some bar left), you can seal the bottle before opening the chamber, and cool the liquid down to like 5C (so it don't freeze when you open it). You can also use the dry ice for jacking spirits and things like cider.

[@henryisnotafraid]

I'm only a few minutes in but I'm really excited to watch the whole thing but something occurred to me and that is that I thought this worked always best with diet soda and mentos. Something about the amounts of dissolved solids is less in diet so it can hold more carbonation

[@jacobsteele2929]

Can you stand the chamber vertical? You could open the cap on the bottle and not need to pour it out. Stand the bottle up and drop the dry ice around it maybe, if it is long enough and fits inside? If pouring back and forth is the problem, that could fix it. But like you found out, the water worked much better. Hard to say.

[@jacobsteele2929]

Just saw your comment, lol 😂🙃

[@Screwloose10]

Capture some air, within plastic wrap, making a plastic membrane around the mentos. NEXT, Submerge the mentor within the soda bottle with the lid of, and pressurize the chamber, you should see the liquid push through the plastic

[@teardowndan5364]

Much of the noise from the gas release is turbulence around the ball valve. A ~50cm piece of pipe threaded on there should quiet it down by a fair amount.

[@stewgjeff]

I feel like it's the sugar in the coke. Diet coke is what works the best for the mentos and coke thing

[@josephgauthier5018]

The plastic surface of those containers definitely contributed to the loss of a lot of CO2. Glass storage containers and a funnel could help a lot in the future. Though other people in the comments have some lower effort and likely better ideas

[@yamakaku1]

Make a vertical chamber to make it in the bottle!!! And do Diet Coke!

[@boogerzekesweldingemporium4833]

Thank you!! I’m pretty surprised that it wasn’t dramatic. But everything you do is fun and hilarious no matter what.

[@UnbeltedSundew]

I think diet coke is supposed to be more powerful, but who remembers. You might also want to increase the surface area of the Mentos, by crushing them. It'd be even better if you put them in that dissolveable plastic stuff they use for dishwasher pods and you could let the mentos sink to the bottom (although they might float which would suck.). Or a tube maybe which you could shoot the mentos dust into the bottom?

[@Geoffr524]

Years ago, when they tested several different sodas including Pepsi, Coke and Diet Coke, they found that Diet Coke with Aspartame sweetner, gave a larger geyser. I don't know why for years, People used regular Coke instead of Diet Coke. A much higher geyser results.

[@Beyondthepress]

This was light cola, it's just branded cola zero here

[@RingTuned]

Thats not diet coke thats coke zero totally different ​@Beyondthepress

[@MCDreng]

​@@Beyondthepress In the US at least diet coke and coke zero are two different products. Coke zero tastes like original coke and diet coke has nothing to do with it.

[@JoshWebb]

I'm thinking aspartame sweetener used in true "Diet Coke" is illegal in much of Europe.

[@Geoffr524]

@@JoshWebb Now I understand the situation. Not being able to use it there.

[@bassiclymike]

Would be cool if you had a bigger chamber and could fit a whole bottle in there, but you gotta work with what you have. Still very cool.

[@John_Morton]

Was the orng problem chemical or thermal? Did you exceed the upper or lower temperature range of the oring, or even the chamber? In much of the US, if you exceed the design high or low temperature of the chamber, you can no longer use it, or your insurance could be cancelled.

[@mihalydozsa2254]

If you would like to maximize the effect you could put the chamber vertically and put it with the bottle.

[@wadewilson524]

Next time: DIET Coke works far better. No idea why, but it does.

[@Thingstest-rl8xu]

Maybe Try Viton for the O-rings. They work better then rubber or Nitrile on some chemicals. Often Viton is Tan color so users can ID it in cars etc. There is a Green seals to work with other chemicals but can't remember type of materiel.

[@veryberrykeri]

alot of these comments are very good, and i would also posit that the water held more carbonation because it had more room for holding dissolved gas-- whereas the cola has more other things dissolved in it already and can only hold so much extra.

[@bradley-eblesisor]

I believe you are supposed to be using Diet Coke. I may be incorrect.

[@sdspivey]

Couldn't you place the pressure chamber on-end? Then you'd be able to place the bottle in upright and shouldn't loose any soda. Being upright will also keep the o-ring from getting "messy".

[@hmalbet]

"I didn't die...it should be fine" should be the moto for this show

[@krazyphucker369]

Where I work we have a 30000 lb co2 tank for injecting co2 in a water tank to lower the ph when a tanker was filling it it over pressurized and popped the prv valves but someone installed the prvs on a t fitting for dual 3inch prvs so it turned and spun off the t fitting and both prvs went flying it was extremely loud

[@rbrucecarter]

You need Diet coke for maximum effect! Regular coke barely works at all.

[@astromarky123]

should try going mentos water, for comparison. but put them in glasses so you dont have the plastic box problem. I also think if you freeze it by mistake taking the pressure out too quick, that gets rid of a lot of carbonation.

[@Sunlight91]

If I remember correctly Mythbusters got an over 10m fountain with diet coke.

[@nameless5413]

i am just guessing that this releasing of preasure basicaly left the soda in normal level of carbonisation, this whole segment would need to be done under the preasure of chamber if you are aiming for oversaturation with CO2, but that would also mean risking the precious candy surface effect that aggrevates the carbom dioxie ... hmm. well anyways try under full preasure is my best guess, have the dry ice topped with like 3-5 candies and it may do something wild.

[@chrisprobert6]

We found viton o rings very durable in three hundred bar hydraulic systems. Great video,👍

[@jennycox4463]

Would it be possible to build a pressure chamber out of one of those isolation chambers with the gloves? So you could super-carbonate the coke, then screw the lid on, before depressurising the chamber.

[@matsv201]

You could probly put the chambour upside down and have a pipe directly down to the bottle having it turn from super critical to normal when it hit the bottle. Could probobly presuize it a bit to.. but that may be a bit damgerus

[@julian3bk]

Thinking about Nilered’s aerogel video, I am wondering if you can make aerogel with this chamber

[@gsurfer04]

It would be cool to carbonate some water with universal indicator to get an estimation of how acidic it gets under supercritical pressure and how much is lost under depressurisation.

[@jmetjmet]

stand the chamber on its end and leave the coke in the bottle and try again should be a better result as for the oring you can use a ptfe wiper infront of the oring

[@deucedeuce1572]

Instead of compressing the co2 and then heating it to make it supercritical... can a substance become super critical by means of a chemical reaction, creating the increased pressure?

[@RuslanKashyrtsev]

Looks like a new subgenre of the show is emerging- "supercritical fluid science video"! This can have many prospects for sure.

[@JimJimmington-e8i]

The mentos trick works better with diet cola.

Cola zero is diet coke.

[@JimJimmington-e8i]

I didn't notice it was zero. Thought it was regular coke. Thanks.

[@JonBrase]

What happens if you bring the chamber to well beyond supercritical pressure, let the CO2 dissolve, back the pressure off to a lower, but still supercritical pressure, and drop the mentos in without depressurizing the rest of the way to ambient?

[@dimBulb5]

DIET Coke instead of regular gives a stronger reaction.

[@logitech4873]

This is the zero sugar one, not regular. What's "diet" coke?

[@BrianJensen-ym5gk]

Could it have something to do with PH? Water starts at neutral, Cola is around 2 (as memory serves). T-shirt idea: "PRESSURE - IT WÖRKS!" Thanks for the video.

[@u.e.u.e.]

4:03 Oh nooo, you must throw an entire package of Mentos into the Coca-Cola! 🤭

[@bobmcbob4399]

It was not the expected result, but a nice journey all the same. Thanks for the videos.

[@nonna_sof5889]

5:08 Snowing inside in Finland. Yah, that checks out.

[@stevenwillie2782]

Try a Viton O ring, they're much more durable. I used them a lot in shitty areas when I was racing Porsches and it was an important piece of the system. Way more resistant to temperatures and chemicals.

[@jgrenwod]

Do you ever magna flux the bolts on your chamber?

[@davidjernigan8161]

Maybe super carbonating pure water or club soda. Something with less things dissolved in it. I was thinking there would be fewer nucleation sites might react more violently when the mentos are added and possibly hold more CO2 in solution.

[@dcheek2]

if your o-rings are nitrile, try silicone... might hold up better to the heat and chemicals

[@phonotical]

For O ring material, maybe a metal one would provide the best result, copper or tin?

[@zachreyhelmberger894]

What is the solubility of CO2 vs temperature? Assuming it is inversely proportional to temp, lower the temperature to most you can go while still being liquid and then drop in Mentos. Otherwise, try a chamber big enough and tall enough to hold Coke bottle upright and drop Mentos in air at the same PSI as the triple point of the CO2. Then compare to Mentos at the triple point. Could also try replacing the CO2 at pressure with air at pressure and then drop Mentos.

[@Carlpinding]

I haven’t read this yet. Is it possible that the water has no nucleation points for the gas to form allowing it to be supersaturated…?

[@halesworth01]

Anya is soooo pretty!

[@potatosordfighter666]

This is not a sodastream, it's a soda-xtreme

[@wademiller8090]

The most explosive reactions are created with lots of Mentos quickly dropping into 2 liter bottles of warm Diet Coke.

[@augustgames6502]

I want to see the pressure chamber explode. Maybe fill it with water and put it on a super hot fire? What ever could make this beast pop.

[@williammontgomery312]

Would a firecracker under pressure be less ?

[@Frank-o2e1s]

In your entire work shop, you don't have a funnel ?? Love the video ! 🇺🇲🇺🇲🪖🪖👮👮🚓🚓

[@htomerif]

Butyl rubber. Supercritical carbon dioxide is VERY good at dissolving and leeching out the plasticizers in pretty much all rubber while regular carbon dioxide is not. You probably want something vulcanized and crosslinked, so probably butyl rubber or CSPE if you can find it. Nitrile rubber, PVC (rubber) and urethane are probably chemically fine, but they use pthalates (usually) as plasticizers (the thing that makes them flexible and not hard) and the pthalates get dissolved in supercritical CO2. That's my best guess anyway. Its also why you can use almost anything as a window for supercritical CO2, acrylic, polycarbonate, doesn't matter much. in the hard material there's no plasticizer matrix for the CO2 to permeate. -edit keep in mind I haven't actually tried this. Its just an educated guess.

[@imchris1978]

You could put an empty body spray can inside and see if it will refill or implode

[@Nobe_Oddy]

You have to remember that Carbon Dioxide is ACIDIC so you have to use an O-Ring material that can tolerate ACIDS

[@jansenart0]

DIET coke and mentos. The sugar interferes with the reaction!

[@markedis5902]

Plastic containers are a big no. You need very clean glass so there are fewer nucleation sites.

[@JoeVanGogh]

Drop the Mentos into the Coke while it's super critical! I thought you were going to do the whole experiment inside the red tube you carbonated the Coke in. Like use magnetics to drop the Mentos from the ceiling of the tube into the Coke while it was super critical. (I don't know how magnetics would work because it's a metal tube. Maybe a super strong magnet on the outside to repel the Mentos on a magnet inside.)

[@darrinrebagliati5365]

We, a bunch of dismantlers in an auyorecycling facility, found warm diet coke worked the best. Like left in a car for 4hrs in 35°C warm diet coke.

[@torala]

I would like to see super fizzy water vs. super fizzy coca-cola compare

[@juckis]

could you test with all different COCA-COLA's without anything done to it, witch one shoots the fountain highest and then use that one on your next super-critical carbonation test? could test with PEPSI too?