What is polycrystalline water?

[@leovalenzuela8368]

"showing only the successes and not the failures isnt very scientific" subscribed on the spot.

[@r0cketplumber]

Plan A always goes up in flames.

[@leovalenzuela8368]

@@r0cketplumber haha yes, very true

[@fastedeverything8555]

"this is ice" The crow in the background: "thanks captain obvious!"

[@lootgodamn5721]

" that is a loud bird "

[@kasai7272]

The timing was so good I thought it was editing at first

[@ravenna6543]

@@kasai7272 Same

[@xarin42]

The failures really are important and interesting too. I wish more channels showed them.

[@Laralinda]

I wish more scientific researchers showed them too!

[@ericlotze7724]

@@Laralinda But replicating results, or having failed studies doesn't get you g r a n t s...

[@battlesheep2552]

In science, you only fail if you don't learn anything

[@DreStyle]

They are, you don't need to see what makes it good, but bad.. In that way it's easy to understand the process

[@krumplethemal8831]

You mean like the Dude Perfect guys who lead their audience into believing they get the first attempt at a trick shot on the first try. When it probably took a hundred if not, more attempts but they always edit out the fails..

[@happyundertaker6255]

Hexagons are the bestagons.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Indeed. I saw that video a few weeks ago then proceeded to watch every main Gray video I could find...

[@stefanheimersheim]

Only outmatched by Hexaflexagons :-) [see Vihart's videos]

[@awesomefeldmanfamily]

@@stefanheimersheim ah yes, a classic

[@raziasultana5222]

Yes cgp grey makes the bestahexagons.

[@Tepalus]

200th like, take it or leave it :D

[@pyromen321]

Awesome video! Seeing the actual grain boundaries in ice was really cool! I’m excited to see your vapor deposition process!

[@samykamkar]

Super cool video! Thanks for sharing.

[@Jakub1989YTb]

Supercooled video!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Ba dum tss

[@themightyripples6582]

You're quickly becoming my favourite YT scientist. Thank you for your work.

[@Trooopetre]

Watching this video my brain was screaming about using vapor deposition. Living somewhere it is currently negative 25C, I have massive crystals like that growing on every vent of the house.

[@bdf2718]

Sounds almost like molecular beam epitaxy. I wonder where we can find somebody who knows about that.

[@Jeremyak]

I know it's getting cold where I live when I get frost developing on every screw and nail head that leads to an exterior wall. And one of the most beautiful sights you'll ever see is the massive hoar frost crystals that grow during a particularly long cold snap. 🌨

[@ГеоргиГеоргиев-с3г]

"that's a loud bird", no it's either a crow or a raven,the humble loudbird died when we stopped naming animals by description.

[@koniginator]

The anteater begs to differ

[@nomsterdude]

😔

[@nomsterdude]

@@koniginator The anteaters just built different

[@miss-sagemoon]

does this mean big bird is an endangered species?

[@ГеоргиГеоргиев-с3г]

@@miss-sagemoon yes! (That was a joke, as is this)

[@kleinesfilmroellchen]

A long time ago I made a presentation about crystalline symmetry and taxonomy. And even though I forgot everything, I still jump out in joy every time I read something like the P6cm or m3m (I hope that's a thing).

[@sophiegrey9576]

"This is ice" finally, something I can understand

[@SimulatingPhysics]

Hi! I came from the Physics subreddit. I really liked your demonstrations. What is the size of the grains showed at 4:48? I mean, how much zoom is the photo?

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

most of the columnar grains from the zoom-in are on the order of 1-5 mm across. I was using the kit 50mm sony lens with a macro tube for a bit closer focus. At the edges of the "boule" there are some large grains, like one entire side that was pushed against the edge of the container was a grain, but it wasn't very thick, and as you get closer to the middle it gets messier. The edges probably nucleated by themselves early and some of them got big before colliding

[@SimulatingPhysics]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Thank you for the detailed answer!

[@fizzyplazmuh9024]

Ooh! I have used a modified Bridgman technique to grow large naphtha crystals before. My family HATES mothballs now.🤮 I like to play with scintillators and particle detectors. Your explanations are so clear that you are filling a few of my gaps in crystalline ordering and thermal transfer and I am sure other things by the time I make it through all your videos. I once sat in prison for 15 years so I ordered and consumed books like "Geochemical Kinetics" and Pauling's "General Chemistry". They opened my eyes and mind more than highschool ever did. I get tingles up my spine when I get an idea that lets me apply this type of knowledge. I am an applied science junkie.

[@IanGrams]

I've always wanted to learn more about material science, thank you for sharing your knowledge of it! I've been hooked ever since that amazing bubble demo. Also thank you for sharing the things that didn't work. Totally agree that's an important part of science.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

It's a fantastic field at the intersection of so many others!

[@IanGrams]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel much agreed! I'm especially interested in all the cool stuff going on with 2d materials like magic angle graphene and this work I saw back in October: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201012115949.htm The TL;DR is that by stacking a monolayer 1 degree twisted from a bilayer and supercooling, an applied electric field could switch between it behaving like twisted bilayer graphene or twisted double bilayer graphene. And in the latter case it exhibited electrically tunable ferromagnetism 🤯 If you're ever trying to think of a video topic, definitely would be interested in something on graphene or other 2d materials.

[@hasanhas00n1]

As a material science graduate thank you for simplifying polycrystalline and single crystal in a way normal people can understand.

[@peteoconnor6388]

Came over from Steve Moulds channel and I'm so glad I did!

[@Jeremyak]

I really appreciate this channel, it seems somehow more genuine than a lot of the over-produced "I heckin love science" content out there.

[@Justus_Patrick]

i just saw your "plan a" quote. That's so inspirational because its so true. Don't quit after your first failure, your first plan is supposed to fail.

[@SpiritOfHugs]

If the subjects weren't incredibly interesting, I probably would still watch your videos just because of your energy. It's so fun listening to people that are truly passionate about something. You're cool.

[@thefipster]

KZbin is weird. My first thought was: Cool a new science channel that is actually interesting... let's check the videos.... wait this channel is already seven years old.... why did youtube hide this from me for all these years... at least now I can binge watch everything. Very informative channel with clear explanations, thank you sir, I will stick around!

[@klausnielsen1537]

Looking forward to that vapor deposition video. Great video and great explanations. TY 👍

[@MalcolmCooks]

dude why am I only just finding your channel, these videos are really interesting, informative, and the production value and editing is off the charts

[@SoulDelSol]

Same

[@TheBookDoctor]

Hey, you're on the cusp of 2^14 subscribers! Awesome!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

haha yeah I'm going to be a bit late on that video this time around

[@heinzehrhart7142]

I saw your gerrymandering video first and thought okay that's kind of cool and now I'm bringing this channel. There are so many videos alone about f... Ice but every video still gives new info.

[@RTR-py8wg]

This channel needs more views! I love learning from this channel!

[@TheJunky228]

I almost want to share this vid with my materials sciences professor! lol thanks for the extra articles and some great visualizations and explanations ^_^

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Haha please do! Glad you liked it!

[@ericlotze7724]

Just discovered this channel ! I didn't know any of the "odd ice-es" were possible at home/makerspace scale, neat to see all this !

[@scottwilliams895]

I have two degrees in materials science, and was impressed by your video! Keep up the great work, and I'll keep watching

[@scottwilliams895]

Now I'm just watching through a bunch of your videos, and I realize you degree is also in materials. That explains why you're so good at explaining it! Cheers, MatE!

[@MarcusLucena2010]

i was mesmerized throughout the whole video, incredible work man!

[@joshhickman77]

Yeah, I'm always surprised that ice is a good thermal insulator, but I guess the igloo idea is pretty solid. The aluminium idea was really good though.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Yeah - it surprised me too. One sentence that got cut from this video also pointed out that the seed crystal was oriented with the C axis up and down, meaning that all of the heat to freeze had to go through the slowest direction

[@adamlevesque3090]

in polarized light one can easily see the grains

[@ravenna6543]

That bird saying "No shit sherlock" at the beginning was such perfect timing. LMAO

[@xenofurmi]

This video is so good x10. The Material Science education is so on point.

[@maeday8839]

Thanks for sharing your process! I love seeing the fantastic and amazing things that can happen in this world but I also love seeing the 'failures' (any time when an outcome is different from a prediction) because that's where we get to discover something we didn't know before and expand our knowledge of the world. Achieving the goal is like chocolate sauce and the stuff you learn along the way is the ice-cream. Ice cream on its own is alright, but chocolate sauce on its own isn't that great. So thanks for giving us the ice cream!

[@br6768]

This is a cool channel im so excited to sift thru the videos. I haven't been this excited since I found Applied Science channel like 3 years ago

[@atomatopia1]

Might be a cool idea to explore using a ThermoElectric Cooler (TEC) connected to a liquid cooled heat sink . That way you can literally control the flow of energy out of the freezing water

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Haha check out episode 3

[@atomatopia1]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel oh sick I’ll do that rn. Right after episode 2, of course!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

@@atomatopia1 haha this was 2. 1 is the found of freezing. I don’t remember if I bothered to make a playlist at the time…

[@YootSnoot]

Hey, I recently found your channel and I love the content you are making! I am thinking of going to graduate school for material science so seeing the experiments you do with crystal growth and grain structures is really inspiring. I am excited to see the next video, and in the meantime I am going to look into the Bridgman method and other ways to control crystal growth.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Awesome! MatSci is an amazing field at the intersection of so many others. What are you studying in undergrad? The Bridgman method is how most of our substrates are grown - they make a big cylindrical boule of something like Gallium Arsenide, then slice it into thin round wavers we can grow on. To be specific, I think they use a "horizontal Bridgman" technique, and I don't know what their growth rates are - certainly a WHOLE lot faster than our MBE growth rates!

[@YootSnoot]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel I studied mechanical engineering in undergrad and it wasn't until this last year that I realized I wanted to continue learning about the atomic properties of materials. When I learned that the reason metals have elastic deformation is because the atoms are literally stretching the bonds before they slip and plastically deform, my mind was blown! I've always thought the way metal boules are cast is fascinating. The level of purity we are able to achieve nowadays is incredible!

[@TheSpiffingSangheili]

hey, I think your channel will blow up, keep up the good work!

[@7177YT]

You got a pretty brilliant channel here mate! Subscribed!

[@KOWspazed]

A few TECs on a container and a bigger one on the aluminum bar would allow you to grow the crystal without needing to be in the freezer. You could also very easily monitor and control the temperature.

[@Pscribbled]

Have you tried growing monocrystalized ice by growing icicles in a controlled setting? I found some papers that some icicles are single crystals

[@SWATforseen]

love your videos please don't never stop sharing and passing on really amazing knowledge an hard work that you put into this I hope and continue to see your videos shine and progress!!

[@robbiekeen2644]

What a great science communicator. I don't generally like science shows (in the sense that I don't enjoy them), but the algorithm has fed part 1 and part 2 to me faithfully, and they've both kept me long enough that I've made it to the end, so I guess take a comment and like and let's hope this channel grows. I don't particularly want more of this content, but I think this is a great niche that deserves to grow.

[@ericlotze7724]

One crystal related project area: Doing the same process of crystal growing + refining that is used for silicon or similar materials, but with sugar or something easier. So the "Molten Drawing" and "Float Zone Refining and all that. (Granted i just read some wikipedia pages! So all those terms may be wrong idk)

[@ericlotze7724]

Essentially those "Sugar Growing Projects" in elementary school science fair, but cranked up to 11, and used to teach modern crystal growth techniques, instead of "crystals are a thing".

[@coffeecup1196]

Could you supercool the water without freezing it, then introduce a single-crystal seed? Kinda like how you can put a bottle of water in the freezer and every now and then it will stay as metastable liquid below the freezing point.

[@Some_Awe]

This is the stuff i needed with chemistry, i had a hard time thinking of it as a seperate subject from physics, but its just physics all the way down

[@SoulDelSol]

Yess, physics is at root of chemistry and chemistry is at root of biology

[@999bmxbandit]

Found you from Steve Mould. Great channel, great science, great speaking skills. I’ll definitely be back.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Thanks! Glad you found here!

[@truegret7778]

As I recall, single-crystalline silcon ingot growers rotate the seed in one direction (say clockwise) and the molten silcon in the cricible anti-clockwise, and slowly pull the seed upward at a rate that defines the diameter of the ingot. Could the same be done with the water "seed" and chilled water "ingot"?

[@carlosreyes1278]

Excellent, excellent video!! I thoroughly enjoyed it!! You've got a new subscriber!!

[@sciencoking]

I collect rain water in barrels in my backyard. When the temperature is just right, the water forms a thick ice sheet which crumbles into long approximately hexagonal prisms

[@J-678hdj]

10:46 for like 20 secs I did not understand a word he said but just the way he speaks with the Pauses and tone for some reason I feel like I understand him.

[@scheelescorvid1597]

What about hypercooled water seeded with a single grain crystal after it's been hypercooled, assuming you don't have nucleation sites for the water to crystalize on its own, can that work?

[@SoulDelSol]

Good idea, cooled below freezing point

[@bytesandbikes]

Great to see the process! Thanks

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

SCIENCE!

[@Ziraya0]

A long time ago I saw a tv show, maybe how it's made, where they covered how blocks of clear ice are made for ice carving. The process is simple, get a big ole vat of water, make it cold, and move the water constantly with a pump. The main goal of this is that it takes more energy to form a crystal with contaminants, so with the temperature held at about 0C, and the water always moving, it's too hard for contaminants to freeze into the crystal, and it's too hard for voids to form. Only good pure water can join the crystal, and it does so evenly. This method may be able to increase the margin of error with your technique even as the water cools off, by lowering the temperature of spontaneous crystallization just a little bit further below the temperature of monocrystaline growth. I imagine though that it will also make the tank more efficient at conducting the heat in the water to the walls, making it cool off faster.

[@telperion3]

what about adding a peltier cell coupled with a heatsink on the top of the aluminum bar, in room temperature?

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

wait a couple weeks =)

[@MrMcCoyD4]

Thanks for a great video! Looking forward to the vapor one :)

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

me too... trying to get one more timelapse...

[@fmdj]

Awesome counter-example of publication bias, thanks! Always interesting.

[@noorahmadshinwari4053]

When you pipetted water on to the seed crystal on the aluminum block, some of the water was in direct contact with the aluminum.(it was not all on your seed crystal) That could be how you ended up getting new crystals.

[@PabloRomanelli]

Could a Peltier module on the aluminum work? To keep the water outside the fridge and only cool it through the cristal touching the aluminum and the liquid water

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

absolutely! the problem is keeping the cold side of the peltier cold if it's outside the freezer. that's a problem addressed in the next vid!

[@falpsdsqglthnsac]

"that's a loud bird" this is the educational content i come to this channel for

[@DackelDelay]

09:03 is it possible that water from the reservoir below or the original seed crystal evaporated/sublimated, attached itself to the aluminium or the rather the small ice crystals besides the big seed crystal fast enough to outgrow or match the crystal formation from the seed, thereby growing additional crystals unalinged with the seed? (which eventually stretch out as far as the original crystal), touching the liquid water below, forming the additional dendrites seen?

[@KamilK3]

Well thats awesome, that bubble demonstration and dislocations. The same applies to steel! I did know that, but thats a great way to visualize that, and that explains different properties of welds epending how hot it was and how quick it was cooled. Great channel! I'm happy i got here, you have a new sub ;)

[@jazzdirt]

This is the same I learned in the first year of Material Science engineering... But accessible and fun!

[@JanBabiuchHall]

Maybe try adapting the Czochralski method. It's used for growing silicon crystals for semiconductors and also uses a seed crystal lowered from the top. The difference (in addition to what you mentioned about temperature control) is rotating the crystal / bath, which I sus suspect helps prevent dendrites.

[@TheZombieSaints]

Wow who knew ice was so complicated... Great video

[@ericlotze7724]

If you did something similar to that "Supercooled Water" or a v e r y close thermal gap between the water and air, could you pull/draw an ice crystal from water?

[@autodidact7127]

God dude you are just so intelligent. I will learn so much from you in the coming years. Subbed.

[@jacobhinchliffe6659]

Milo

[@muntyvalera998]

Wow such an awesome video bud, how have you not got more subscribers, I cant wait to see the video where it worked,

[@vitorschroederdosanjos6539]

I told my friends that dendrates form in a perpendicular direction to the axes they wouldn't belive me

[@X_Potato]

I feel like this channel will blow up soon.

[@jessicamann684]

to make large blocks of clear ice for ice carving, they use a technique involving bubbling air through water while it is in a giant chest freezer.

[@tophan5146]

I love the hand-drawn animations

[@adcaptandumvulgus4252]

Do you think if you use the silver plating on the aluminum the extra degrees of temperature that would drop would make a difference?

[@yallprettysus]

The Awesome science rabbit whole won't end! Off to 2^19 Subs with you

[@brocksamson3282]

your explanation of the defects melting first explains how long vertical crystals of ice can form on frozen lakes as they begin to thaw. Look up "candled ice".

[@paulweidler2117]

Perhaps you could use dry ice to cool the aluminum plate. You could keep the apparatus about the same, with a box of dry ice on top in thermal contact with the bar. Then either turn down the freezer or put it in the fridge.

[@Physicist981]

Great video mate really informative! Subscribed

[@jfischer507]

Can the water be held still in the refrigerator, at 2-3C, instead of the freezer? Maybe alcohol could be pumped through the heat sink below 0C to encourage crystal growth and discourage dendritic growth. Then you can go really slow.

[@brocksamson3282]

along with wrapping your ice chamber in foam and a towel, add an electric blanket (very low wattage) so the outer parts don't freeze inward. That way, the "coldness" is only coming from the crystal you want to form.

[@je_tai6276]

Do you think the convections movements in the water could create dentrites? Some convection cells would appear and cool the whole water recipient and then, because the thermal isolation with the outside is not perfect, some dentrites could have been created somewhere else. I would suggest to try the same experiment but with the aluminum bar at the bottom of the recipient. Might be a very tricky setup though...

[@wilafau]

I once left a water bottle on the porch and when I went to get it the next morning it was liquid but the moment I touched it the whole thing instantly froze from the top down. Very cool effect. I wonder if this creates a polycrystalline structure or perhaps it produces a single crystal structure as the ice builds from the top down very rapidly? Sadly I was not able to repeat this phenomenon after several attempts. I read somewhere distilled water works best, the fewer contaminants the better.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

It’s almost certainly polycrystalline and dendritic - my last video about “hearing ice freeze” is exactly the same process you describe, just with a bit more control over the process!

[@8ank3r]

did you consider dipping sort of in the manner of candle making?

[@labboc]

In the video you mention that ice conducts heat anisotropically. Would the seed crystal conduct better if rotated?

[@paulcowhig9449]

Could you create a single seed crystal by vibrating a block of water inside a freezer whilst it was freezing?

[@CaskStrength777]

I found the shaped container idea intriguing.

[@AluminumHaste]

Well, what if you put the water container under pressure, like high pressure, then dropped the temp to -30C, then very quickly released the pressure? Wouldn't the water flash freeze immediately before the grain boundaries formed? Edit: kind of like when you leave a water bottle on the cold porch, then when you open it, it freezes almost instantly.

[@KeithOlson]

My first thought was to, instead of using an aluminum bar, use an aluminum flask that you then pour liquid nitrogen (or w/e) into. That would make the ice attached to the bottom of it the only source of heat reduction for the water. Does that make sense?

[@Jagjamin]

I wonder if it supercooled because the phase change lowers density, so it having sealed at the top, the water below cooled without freezing as it couldn't expand.

[@geoffgeoff143]

Can you vapourize the inside of an ice cube with a laser causing it to explode? Would the preasure increase stop change of state? Would it find a point of equilibrium? Would the latent heat effect stop anything happening at all other than slowly melting the whole cube?

[@berto606]

I use a water distiller for all my cooking and drinking water so naturally I also use it for ice cubes. There's a really strange thing that happens. The ice cubes grow spikes on them. Not all of them, but I've never seen it happen with tap water. What is it with distilled water that would cause it to freeze with spikes growing out of the top of the cubes? You should try it.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

There’s a fantastic Veritassium video about that! They’re called ice spikes

[@6754bettkitty]

Crystals are fascinating!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

So much!

[@JohnTrustworthy]

I don't know about others but seeing experiment failiures and explanations for them is more interesting.

[@emilyrln]

Very interesting! Ice crystals are so pretty ❤

[@Q269]

12:00 best reason ever to upload a video

[@woosix7735]

Nice! Exited for the next one

[@Inertia888]

Would a TEC thermoelectric module work, if it was set up to pump the heat way from the metal block, and to the water> Maybe with some heat pipes from on old laptop? I really don't know, I don't really have any intention of trying this myself, since I am already investing my time too thin on my own experiments and projects. Just thinking out loud. It is fun to think. Looking forward to the rest of the experiment. Maybe one day I will give it a try.

[@yourikdean1167]

Could a contributing factor be the fact that there was, what looked like frost, that had formed on the aluminum block?

[@DennisGentry]

Besides using the dendrites to see the crystal grain domains and orientations, you can probably use polarized sunglasses and/or polarized light. (Not sure because I haven't tried it.)

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

I've tried it, but only on polycrystals (didn't realize at the time) so they just kinda glowed...

[@CheeMengAuYong]

Impurities in the water could very well be the reason you are getting polycrystals in ice, (dissolves gasses, salts etc). You can try with ultra pure water or vapor deposition like you had done, which deposits the pure material, relatively

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Very good point - I think this was tap water. Distilled or RO would have been a lot better

[@trstmeimadctr]

COuld you get a single crystal if you super-cooled the water and then dropped the seed crystal in to begin crystallization?