This is a reaction between Sodium metal and Potassium chloride to produce Potassium metal. Because the reaction is contained, it is safe. It is still not recommended to try though
"I can't use this fire extinguisher because I didn't want to." That's a smart decision. It's best to save the fire extinguisher for a time when you actually need it.
@@jort93z not only that. From the shape of the hose of the extinguisher he showed on video, it looks to be a general purpose powder based fire extinguisher. In my country, that kind of fire extinguisher is marked for use on A, B and C type fires. Metal based fires are classified under the D cathegory, meaning that that kind of extinguisher (probably, no idea if in Australia things are different) isn't even rated for that type of fire. This doesn't mean that it outright won't work but not only you can't expect it to work, you can even make it worse. Also powder based fire extinguishers are known to cause heavy damage to electronics, which means that his recording equipment will likely be toast and if the furnace relies on electronics to work, those are likely to need a replacement as well. If all of that wasn't enough, Considering he uses this shed for chemical storage and other electronic equipment, the economical damage would be monumental. Maybe it wasn't the safest choice not to use it, but it's perfectly understandable and it probably wouldn't have worked at all.
Suddenly had flashbacks to the Chernobyl HBO show. "How do we put it out?" "Boron. Boron and sand. That will cause problems of it's own later, but I don't see any other way."
yea im pretty sure that smoke is more toxic than "organic" fire... chlorides ozone probably a bunch more... and if it doesnt react how you think it should, its not producing the expected result and theres a reason why. and highlights you wont know whats it that smoke. i know what that purple smoke is i just cant remember what right now. iodine or something i think
I know one mixture that uses Ammonia and the fumes it gives out is harmless. And this is just to make a type of gunpowder that goes off just by anything touching it, even the light from a laser pointer.
@@OneAndOnlyZekePolaris Ammonium tri-iodide....We used to paint it on the stairs in the chemistry building and let it dry. All of a sudden you would hear someone step on the step and BANG!...then it was BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!! That is what people going for their advanced degrees in chemistry do for fun...lol
@@archuserbytheway not I did this as in I did this exact experiment and chemical reaction. I did a completely unprofessional at home experiment that was chaotic but actually yielded some of the desired product instead of starting a fire and filling the room woth fumes pike this guy
hmm, was that potassium chloride flame test color? that stuff burns lungs and has other cool side effects that might put you in the mortician's refrigerator
I've used potassium chloride(EDIT it was KMnO4, potassium permanganate salt. Lots of oxidation) in transition metal aerogel synthesis. It's a lovely purple color when dissolved in water One time, upon diluting the remnants, a drop landed on a wet [WET, not damp] paper towel. ~2 minutes later I smell smoke, and return to find a charred hole in the middle of a wet paper towel. This guy's lucky his lungs didn't burn out from the inside.
@@def-po8tu I mean over a long period it would be. But since it much more showy than dense, it would be no worse and possibly less harmful than the smoke of a campfire blowing to where you’re sitting before you move out of the way. That constantly happened to me as a kid. We made small camp fires a few times a week during summer and fall, and no matter where I sat, where the wind was blowing right before or how often I moved, I had like 5 minuets at most to get comfortable before I had to move again. Never happened to my friends more than a few times, like normal, but seemed to follow me around. It was crazy.
Confirm this for me but was his biggest mistake putting the glass in that furnace? Normally u would use a crucible of some metal or concrete or something thick right? He's using really thin glass in a very hot oven
Ironically, he couldn't have used that extinguisher to put out that fire even if he wanted to. You need a class D extinguisher to put out metal fires, and that red one was an A...
"I don't want to treat the most serious addiction problem humanity has ever had because it costs too much." -Jerks like you "I've never noticed MADD is a scheme to make it okay for bars to have parking spots." -Your even dumber mom
Our lungs are covered in a protective film, rendering us highly resistant or immune to traditional airborne toxins or deterrents. *You'll* never kill us with fumes or gasses, but *WE* will. You have been warned.
It deleted my reply because it was insane for me to joke that our lungs are immune to airborne diseases or toxins thanks to the protective film we have coated them in. Thank you RU-vid, your cowardice has saved the youth.
Thanks! I know that burning potassium emits a purple flame, but are you sure the vapour itself is purple too? I can't seem to find out with a quick google search
As a chemistry teacher I feel like yelling at you. Let’s review your decisions and experience: 1) Your pre-procedure research was lacking. 2) You worked in an enclosed space without a fume hood. 3) You evolved a vapor that surprised you. 4) You created a hazmat situation which you were unable to manage. 5) You assumed it was safe. And I bet there are 2-3 times as many things I missed! (If you were a cat NPC, you’d be down to 8 or 7 lives.)
@STEAMerBea Scientific glass blower / chemist here. As I'm sure you're aware breathing either potassium or sodium vapor would produce sodium and potassium hydroxide which would probably the lungs if he were really unlucky. I can't believe anybody would work with chemicals without a hood and in such a tiny space. When I used to make gold and silver jewelry as a hobby I was very respiratory conscious and built myself a soldering cabinet( fluoride vapors from the flux) and a metal buffing Hood( silicious powders and metal oxides inhalation hazard). Working at an inhalation toxicology research lab tends to make you very conscious about inhalation being a route for taking harmful reagents directly and irreversibly into your body.
"Not organic vapor, so it was safe". Nitrous vapors aren't organic either, and they definitely aren't safe. That fume could just be vaporized NaCl, so definitely not THAT dangerous, but if it was vaporized metal or quartz, dude is DONE for.
Good thing you didn't use that fire ext, that one is for Class A fires. Would do nothing but ruin your furnace, not put out the fire whatsoever and make a bigger mess. Could even accelerate the alkali metal burn.
I didn't use the fire extinguisher because I didn't want to. Famous last words. edit: I'm not talking about this scenario, I'm just saying that this quote could be famous last words.
@@jakx2ob That furnace isn't made for burning alkali metal. It will dissolve the firebrick in no time, but that's the least problem here. Cognitively challenged people are incompatible with this kind of experimentation.
Yeah I did find the product to remain a liquid with a sodium flame. I might try again (with a metal still) and redistill the product to see if that purifies it
@@mrgreenguy Repeated distillations probably won't get a pure product. If you can use a fractionating collum you could get fairly close but for amuature scale better to use a metal with a very low vapor pressure like lithium or calcium to do the reduction.
Holy shit! Its Cody! Wow I’ve been watching your videos for a long time! (And by the way, THANK YOU for all of your hard work and… extremely interesting videos of extremely interesting things! Oh and to the creator of this video! Thanks! That was cool! I’ve certainly never seen anything quite like that before! 🤔🫣😁
"The smoke doesn't affect my lungs", lol, right. That's why you never have to worry about ventilation when you're forging metals or combining highly reactive elements
@@TheRealMycanthrope The real issue is that you clearly didn't understand that I was making fun of your sarcasm. Not that I owe you any explanation, but you sarcastically implied that this smoke was indeed harmful to inhale, when in reality it is not. The guy in the video said absolutely nothing about "never" having to worry about ventilation when forging metals. It is just not necessary in this specific case. There is a gradient regarding the toxicity of smoke produced in metal forging; and you made yourself sound like a buffoon by sarcastically implying that he needed ventilation for this smoke, when in reality it was not harmful in any way.
A few pointers from a CTA working with high risk material: The Temperature was too high, 800 °C would have worked and been safer. At the risk of metal fires keep a few Buckets of dry Sand in reach. Sand contains the reaction and cools it without Explosion. Good call with not using the Fireextiguisher, burning NaK like Magnesium will rip CO2 apart and even burn encased in Dry Ice. Research the risks of your experiment in advance and then have fun. I have seen too many people with missing body-parts caused by little accidents. please don't get on that list.
Burning Glass... Wouldn't be countered by pouring Sand over it! Feeding Glass to a reaction that's eating the Glass is a circle jerk! Ventilation was way to low!
As a welder I can confirm that metal fume poisoning is not fun. Mind you sodium and potassium fumes aren't that bad and he would be fine with this level of exposure. Zinc is not nice cobalt is pretty nasty and hexavalent chromium is potentially deadly. I've had zinc poisoning a few times and metal fume fever once from zinc and cobalt but never had chromium exposure. Lots of older welders develop mild parkinsons like symptoms.
Love how people will pick segmients to complain about acting like nothing ellse was said past the topic of complaint like (the metal fumes) he was talking about... didnt say "all" metal fumes are non-toxic.... just what he was working on "was".... not "all".... but ok ken, what ellse you wanna cause problems about today unessasarly? 😂
@dismo021 he didn't say that, he isn't stupid. ALL metal fumes ARE toxic but the concentrations at which they're actively dangerous are sometimes higher than organic smoke. Oxygen and Alkali metal fires produce hydroxides. In this case that smoke is mostly sodium hydroxide. It is true that his exposure was low enough to be unlikely to pose a serious acute risk. However inhaling what is effectively drain cleaner is not harmless or safe. Try it and prove me wrong if you like lmao.
All molten light metals have the potential to eat through glassware, quartz or not, and there are videos out there showing lithium doing the same thing your reaction did. Not sure why, but I'd guess at a high enough temperature, it becomes a thermite reaction, stealing oxygen from the silicon dioxide in glass. It's also self-fueling, as you discovered, so the only way to handle it is to bury it in inert material like salt and wait until it burns out.
yeah it happens because the quartz salt is ionic, however since sodium and potassium are more reactive than sillicon, at high temp if they are not bound in an ionic lattice they will yoink up that oxygen from the silicon, better to use a crucible than a flask next time.
God it feels good knowing I'm not alone in this mind fuck comment. It's smoke lol That's LITERALLY all it does It gets everywhere!!! It will leave a residue Residue is the number 1 cause of blebs in lung tissue.
@@ModerationLabsalso because as many people mentioned most fire extinguishers aren't actually rated for metal fires which means in some cases it would make things worse
Although it looks chaotic I'm pretty sure it's under enough control since I'm also the kind of person who does stuff like this and goes oops that wasn't a good idea but still knows the limits of safe enough
After observing the thrilling quandry that @@mrgreenguyfaced, I could safely research and learn that smothering with sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate is the thing to do. Learned that my first impulse of using quartzy sand might be counter-productive.
@@alexbouchard3880 Decomposition isn't a switcheroo. Neither is something like oxidation with oxygen, where stuff just combines without swapping anything out.
I'm not certain chemistry is the most appropriate way to summon metaphysical entities. Good to know the reaction completed without a visit from the Dark Lord though.
You haven't ingested the right chemicals, it seems. I can assure you, chemistry can help you do everything from see the face of god to open a portal to Hell. For a few hours, anyway.
There's an extremely specific fire extinguisher class for metal fires, class D. You can remember it by this mnemonic: A: Ash (flammables that make ash) B: Barrel (stuff from barrels) C: Circuits (electrical) D: Da metal. K: Kitchen
The reason the argon was making things worse was probably not because of the argon itself, but because the gas flow was pulling in ambient air deeper inside. I think the only way you could have injected argon was... yes, with a quartz tube shoved in the bottom of the furnace lol.
You definitely need to invest in a class D fire extinguisher if you’re going to be doing experiments/reactions that reach the ignition point of the metal reagents you’re using.
This is very scary. To do this reaction you need a steel still. Iron is fairly resistant to alkali metals. You can use calcium lithium or magnesium despite being less reactive than potassium the potassium will boil out as the metals combine with the chlorine. Can do this with sodium rubidium and cesium too. In a nutshell the thermodynamics overwhelmed the reactivity.
I was surprised how many comments I had to scroll through before I found yours mentioning the necessity of a metal still for this endeavor, was planning on stating as much myself if Noone else did but ya beat me to it lol but yeah op could easily make a steel still with brake lines and any number of steel vessels
Will this reaction really produce pure metal, like K or Na tho? I have no experience with reaction like that. I always assumed this was a method to obtain NaK alloy.
Remain calm think rationally and don’t panic. Perfectly handled that situation wish more people could carry themselves like this in a “scary” situation
It's more that this is an alkali metal fire and that kind of extinguisher probably wouldn't do anything-- it could even make it worse by adding oxidizer to the reaction if it's a common CO2 extinguisher and turn the furnace into a bomb
Uh.... Potassium ions react with silicon dioxide. Thats a known issue. You could probably run that reaction in a steel container as you're purifying by distillation.
Damn Mr. White! Dat new crystal is Fire! 🔥 forget about that blue stuff! Edit: You need a Class D fire extinguisher. They are not cheap, but neither is a new house 😅
Im polish so sorry if I mess up the translations, but the reaction didnt work becouse this kind of reaction requires the Na to have a smaller (more negative) potential then the K in KCl and it doesn't (V for Na=-2,710 and for K=-2,931)
It does work better that way as it's the preferred reaction, but it's a reversible reaction that can still produce potassium metal if you remove it as it's formed. Cody's lab explained it on one of his videos a while back, called "Cody's Alkali Metal converter" on RU-vid
I used to think "don't use it, I might need it for something worse" but you have to ask yourself if the $20 fire extinguisher is worth more or less to both your safety and the items your working with Stay safe and use any safety item, you have it for a reason
Yeah, glass reacts with reactive metalls like sodium, potassium or magnesium at high enough temperatures. You should use vacuum destillation for potassium to keep the temperature lower.
Yeah it's weird, I did some searching online to see if quartz glass is resistant, and all I remember finding was that it reacts with lithium metal, and hydroxides. I couldn't find much on Sodium or potassium at higher temperatures
@@mrgreenguyIt is not that prone to react with sodium or potassium. But already from a electrochemical pov it should reduce SiO2 to Si. But it is totally possible to work with Na and K (And even Li) at elevated temperatures with glass. But not 1000°C. Look at the channel Advanced Tinkering. He actually did synthesize K (and even Rb and Cs) from Li and the metal salt. But the key was always a vacuum destillation.
@@mrgreenguyyou could try and combining vacum with a more resistant glass, borosilicate glass is comonly used in labs due to its high chemical resistance, we use it at my workplace to do various redox ractions. One of our reactions litterally uses a thermite mixture as an oxidizing reagent to convert amoniumnitrate to amonia. Although we dont use temperatures even close to what you did here. I would definitively look up the potential viability for it. I also would recomend using either a vacum chamber or try doing the reactio. In an innert gas chamber. Having access to excess oxygen from the air can help fuel the reaction and kickstart it to become self sustaining by eating at the oxygrn in the glass. Its also worth mentioning that all the alkaline metals are absurdly reactive with oxygen, so you should always asume that they will try and "steal" oxygen from any available source in the area of reaction.
Got a chemistry set when I was a kid, mixed some up and started shaking it up, and what was in the beaker started roiling and exploded the cork and contents to the ceiling. Feel you buddy.
