Back in the early '90s, I grew alum crystals for a science fair project in 7th grade. I also grew some other crystals (copper sulphate for sure, as well as sucrose and sodium chloride...but there were a couple other more exotic types...pretty sure one was chromium-based, while the other was a manganese salt). I obviously sourced the alum from the drug store, not wood, aluminum foil, and battery acid (lol, while awesome, that is a time-consuming and highly inefficient way to get alum when you can just...buy it). But aside from that, the process was the same. Super-saturate a solution, sprinkle some alum in, get the seed crystals, tie them to some fine fishing line, and grow them bigger. And over a few weeks, I did grow a couple gorgeous alum crystals. They were smallish - like maybe 6 or 7 mm in diameter, but they were perfectly clear and displayed a striking octahedral structure, just like little diamonds. It was a fun project, and I put a lot of time into it, but the judge still only awarded me a silver medal. OH, I was so mad...but I got over it.
I really love this video as alum was one of the first crystals i grew and its always been my favorite! I made a few kilos to grow a huge crystal in a bucket but never got around to it. Maybe its time 😆 I love how you made the potassium sulfate from potash that was a really cool touch!
Couldn't you use the amphoteric nature of aluminum to dissolve it directly in the wood ash solution, then dope the solution out with a really easy sulfate source like Epsom salts?
I love the giant filter paper, not only because of the absurdity but it genuinely probably filtered about as quickly as if you were to use a vaccum filter since the huge surface area and high material volume you can process in one batch.
I found it interesting that the solution had to remain at a constant rather than be buried like some methods of growing crystals calls for of which these steps that were emplioyed all viable in that process also. Good job.
At some point, can you do a simplified version of this for kids. Maybe using alum - which wr can get at the grocery store? Thanks so much. This is an awesome! video
@Amateur Chemistry If you´re interested I can tell you a way I found to purify and extract the potassium from wood, plant and vegetable ashes as pure potassium carbonate, which is better than just leaching all the potassium salts from them.
@@kerrimtthefrog1001 Oh, really? Alright! This is how it goes: Step 1: Treat the ash solution with calcium chloride to precipitate calcium carbonate and other anions that form insoluble calcium salts and then filter the mixture and save the filtrate. Step 2: If there is any excess of calcium chloride in the solution, just add oxalic acid / sulfuric acid / potassium or sodium oxalates or sulfates until no more precipitate is formed and then filter the mixture and save the filtrate. Step 3: Boil the solution to concentrate it until crystals start to appear and then allow it to cool to room temperature. After that, add the minimal amount of water to redissolve any crystals that may still present. Step 4: Prepare a saturated solution of sodium bitartrate a.k.a. sodium hydrogen tartrate by reacting sodium hydroxide, carbonate or bicarbonate with tartaric acid in the right ratio and then boil the solution to concentrate it until crystals start to form. Step 5: Mix the saturated solution of sodium bitartarate with the saturated solution of impure potassium chloride to precipitate potassium bitartrate a.k.a. potassium hydrogen tartrate. If you want, you can put the mixture in an ice bath or in a freezer to squeeze a little bit more yield. Step 6: Filter the crystalline precipitate and wash it a few times with ice cold water and ethanol, and then let it dry. Step 7: Heat the dry potassium bitartrate in a glass container like a test tube or a round bottom flask, for example, up to more or less 200 ºC until no more water and other fumes are released. It is going to char and get black, but that is to be expected. After allowing the solid to cool to room temperature, extract to resulting potassium carbonate with water and filter the solution to remove the black byproducts. Step 8: Evaporate the solution and you´ll have high purity potassium carbonate.
Can I ask why you (and others I have seen) only choose a quick pour-through form of washing the ash initially? Is it to obtain only the most water soluble aspects and avoid other impurities? This must be it - since surely a substance would normally be mixed with hot water and stirred - then filtered.
A small note, these crystals can become ugly and white with air humidity even when lacquered. Best you keep them with some drying agent like silica gel. You can add copper sulfate to tint them a very beautiful blue, I guess food colouring might also work, but I am not sure.
I understand that it isnt in the spirit of the experiment, but aluminum sulphate can be bought as a soil acidifier for changing the color of some pH sensitive plants, such as hydrangeas.
I just watch these for the pronunciations, like it's an alien from another planet who somehow learned English but has no idea how the words are meant to sound. Funny! But sometimes the subtitles are really non-optional 😅
@@Amateur.Chemistry You’re doing great! Watch more content in English and really absorb how words are spoken. I’m also a non-native speaker and we will probably never be perfect and that’s okay too!
Which one? Or just all of them in general? If all of them, is it strictly animosity towards the current governments of the word, but not the construct? Or do you find issues with the entire prospect of governmental hierarchy?
@@theoldantleredmyth And yeah I just kind of hate the idea of a government. We should just agree that some things are bad, some aren't bad with good reason, and others are good. Basically the only reason a government exists is to make a specific group of people a lot of money for literally no work.
Hey, when's the video of growing meth crystals for people who just want to enjoy making crystals and don't spend most of their time hoarding random chemicals in their garage?
i made some sodium acetate to play with and it really looks like dirty cheap meth. (uh, from Breaking Bad! I would never know what cheap meth looks like for real uh huh uh huh). I've got all these coffee filters with little yellowish crystals in my kitchen now :P
we have good saying in croatian, putting water into acid is VUK (voda u kiselinu) VUK - wolf (dangerous animal) Voda - h2o, U - (to put something in, into) Kiselina - acid pozdrowienia dla polskich braci
Aluminum dissolves much easier in potassium hydroxide to form the aluminate, which could be made beforehand from calcium hydroxide (availble in every hardware store) and potash by a double displacement reaction called caustification. Adding sulfuric acid will convert the potassum aluminate into potassium sulfate and aluminum hydroxide, which redissolves again in an access of the acid. The resulting clear solution contains the desired alum then.
No, calcium hydroxide reacts with potassium carbonate to form potassium hydroxide and insoluble calcium carbonate which is easy to filter off by gravity filtration (of not too concentrated solutions were used), before aluminum is added to the potassium hydroxide solution to be dissolved in there.
@@experimental_chemistry Whoops, sorry I somehow thought you were making calcium aluminate. But still, I wouldn't call calcium carbonate easy to filter either. That stuff really likes clogging filters.
@@chnhakk No, not when letting the precipitate chill for a while until the gelatenous mass breaks down into a fine crystalline powder, which is easy to filter off by gravity or using a glass frit while doing vacuum filtration. But don't forget to rinse the frit with dilute hydrochloric acid and distilled water afterwards to clean the pores for the next use.
Sulfuric acid: He gets it from a car battery. And I instantly know he's not living in north America. Fun fact: While in north America Sulfuric acid drain cleaner is pretty common, you'll never find it at all in Europe! Here there's only alkaline drain cleaner made of concentrated sodium or potassium hydroxide! So in north America it's so much simpler to get concentrated sulfuric acid as an amateur! European amateur chemists struggle with that 😅 And while it's an inconvenience for us knowing chemistry, I absolutely understand the reason concerning normal people: You don't want to give a normal person the same product, just different brands, with concentrated acid and base in each other. People are... People... So they'll mix them. No matter how many warnings you put on the products, they will do it! So someone decided which one is better. Base saponifies any proteins, especially hair. The main reason for most plugged drains. Sulfuric acid does catalyze hydrolization, but that's way slower. So base it is 😅
@@Amateur.Chemistry if you can achieve that, then you will be a rich man, pal. Google search for Optical great doped KCrSO4 crystals or KTiOPO4, hack even the KAlSO4 has intresting Laser properties. If you go down that rabbit hole😂
I remember as a kid seeing a classic cartoon like bugs bunny or something. In it, as a prank to someone in the cartoon he got a spoonful of white powder out of a container that said ALUM. Stuck it in the guys mouth and it made his mouth like retract in like instant cotton mouth or something. Years later I saw it as an ingredient in grocery stores where spices are. Don’t see it any more but always remembered that cartoon. Seems like another bad idea type challenge that kids would try now a day. lol
It's a very good chance for true potassium and fructose gas I think it was the fiscal year of my life I remember it was in my experience as a young man I was amazed of different kinds of Crystals which could be used in gas states essentially have a carbon substrate that forms autonomously in liquid state and added higher temperatures this is a Tallow flow crystal clear glaze and steel stainless steel coating is a heat resistant stainless with the surface densities high enough to make defense of corrosion
I think you're doing it great. one tip to do it even better is to place a smaller pad of wood under the blocks you chop so you can dig a hole in your patio bricks and plant a tree to chop down later.
Aluminum comes with an oxide layer. Expect a rapid reaction once enough acid cuts through it. I think that solution suddenly got cloudy at the point there was just enough reactants of each specie molecule-to-molecule (stoichiometrically)
You started talking about it being non-toxic but then you mentioned using battery acid. I hope you meant unused sulfuric acid used for batteries. Otherwise your non-toxic crystals will have toxic Lead. Please avoid using Lead acid.
