Making Bakelite - Periodic Table of Videos 

I nearly died there when the professor said the molecule would end up looking like his hair. XD

It's funny to watch people make Bakelite with equipment made of various later polymers. You were protected from the flying bits of Bakelite (1907) by a layer of Plexiglas (1933), for example.

We need a shirt that says. "It squeaks... but that's not part of the scientific explanation."

A moment of silence for our lost friend the magnetic stir bar.

"Baekeland was spelled in a quite complicated way" Professor Poliakoff, you're really one to talk! :P

The change of that solution from clear to completely opaque was so abrupt, I thought it was a jump cut at first! It looks like it happened in the "fast-forwarded" part of the slow motion footage, but I was still able to catch a bit of the transition there. Really interesting to see this stuff happening at different timescales.

Doctor Poliakoff (and the wonderful crew), I just want to let you know that every one of your videos makes me smile, and the joy you clearly have for the field is completely infectious. ❤️

bakelite is still the primary material used in marine driveshaft bushings that are exposed to salt water and most other bushes and bearings that are exposed to water and other reactive fluids just a fyi :)

Can you make an episode about aerogel?

Poliakoff really enjoys his chewtoys.

I have several pieces of Bakelite jewelry from the 1920's. I love Prof Poliakoff AND his hair.

I have a Bulgarian am 47 that has Bakelite furniture on it I also own a a couple Bakelite ak magazines

Very interesting video! I know that many AK-74 (5.45X39mm) magazines are made of bakelite. The bakelite magazines made for the AK-47 (7.62X39mm) are quite rare.

Thank you! I've been looking for this reaction for quite some time.

both my dogs jumped up and ran over.

These guys could fund their chemistry lab selling bakelite AK magazines.

Would have liked to see the exact moment where it turns pink in slow motion - since it seemed to happen almost instantaneously. I felt like the fast-forward part ended just a little too late. Still great video though!

I once picked up a book on polymers at the library. Holly molly. There are plenty that I had not heard of. I learned about kevlar for the first time. There was one resistant to 500 C or something like that and also transparent.

I went to a course in UCC, In Ireland a few months ago. It was a school trip for a few students invited from a few school but regardless, they showed us how they made nylon and it blew my mind. At the time I understood it but after a while It slipped away, you should make a video on that too. Such a cool experiment.

I have an awesome old radio with a bakelite case. Good stuff!

His hair makes these videos 10 times better.

They list multiple things made from bakelite but, the only thing that came to my mind was Russian AK mags lol

So the name "bakelite" is not very common anymore (I think it's owned by Sumitomo) but the condensation reaction of phenolic compounds with formaldehyde is still an important and industrially relevant bit of technology. While most plastic products are composed primarily of other plastics, phenol- and cresol- based resins are still some of the best adhesion agents available to formulators of adhesives, sealants, and coatings of a variety of chemistries, and it is a virtual certainty that phenolics are binding the pulverized friction material into a cohesive units in your car's brakes and clutch. They are also still the preferred bonding agent in the manufacture of plywood and particle board. It's interesting to note the proteins used by many simple sea creatures like barnacles and bivalves also use a large amount of aromatic moieties to achieve a strong bond (all while constantly immersed in sea water, no less) to whatever rocks or boat hulls they choose to call home. There is actually a lot of very interesting chemistry to study with them. Or engineering, as the case may be. Regardless, I would relegate the phenol-formaldehyde condensation reaction history no sooner than I would with Goodyear's vulcanization reaction. It is every bit as important to the course of human development, and every bit as still-relevant to modern industry.

Radio knobs! And casing, Some reason it reminded me of my sisters cooking, that's why I had to do the cooking growing up!

Why oh why was chemistry not taught in such an interesting manner when I was at school? These videos make it fascinating.

Distributor caps and rotors, interior components, Phones, Ashtrays, Fans and shrouds, Steering wheels shifter knobs, Jewelry boxes, Lamp shades, Radios, toys ect ect ect..Its amazing how much stuff was made with Bakelite.

If only i had teachers like u at school. Imagine where i would be now? Fantastic videos. Love the hair!

More Organic Chemistry please, and while your at it, Non-Organic Chemistry too. Thanks.

That's a very fascinating reaction, the way it just flash-foams, expands, contracts, and THEN explodes.

I've read about this reaction a few times and now finally I get to see it. Didn't know it was that violent :-) Thank you for sharing!

Bakelite is still used in applications where rigidity is important. If you have a desktop CNC, it sides may be bakelite. It has no give, it holds its shape very well. Instead of wood dust, glass and carbon fiber can be used, which is the kind that you are most likely to see these days.

It's the best plastic ever for so many rigid purposes, it machines well and feels like polished ebony. Very aesthetically pleasing.

Bakelite is also a great insulator I have a intake manifold for a motorcycle machined out of some to prevent the carb from heating up so much. That idea came from using a slab of it to make an adaptor for a Webber carburetor to an "incompatible" manifold, the plus side was it kept the carb temperature much more stable.

Bakelite is a very utile material still. It will make a comeback someday. The smell of a bakelite phone is nostalgic for some of us.

Fun Fact: Bakelite was used in aviation engineering as some planes were still largely made of wood. Coating the wood components of the airframe prevented it from rotting and reduced its flammability.

2:23 notice how all the scientists are holding their cameras in landscape mode.

I remember the window handles in my 1948 Plymouth. They had very fine cracks all through them and looked great.

From what I've read, the glue used to manufacture plywood used to be phenol-formaldehyde (Bakelite), which was very successful because the resin is water-resistant and immune to rot. Nowadays, it's apparently only used for outdoor or marine plywood. Indoor plywood is now made using urea-formaldehyde. I think Formica (commonly used for kitchen counter-tops) also used to be made by gluing sheets of paper together using a phenolic resin, with melamine used for the decorative top layer (because it's transparent).

Make more materials! This is fascinating!

I love the solid and smooth cold heavy feel of bakelite. So shiny, too. Way better than other plastics, but I guess it has it's drawbacks, if it'a brittle. Most people like lighter plastics, too.

They're like hovering parents, I love the passion chemists have for demos.

Some bakelite used to use asbestos fibers I believe instead of wood flour. Something to be aware of if working with it in a way that creates dust

Im a bio-composite student, this is great! I would make this as my final year project! thank you so much for making this video!

Very cool. I'm a modern user of early 20th century shaving methods. There are quite a few people in the online community that seek out Bakelite razors, and razors with Bakelite handles.

Holy balls. I am currently learning about aldehyde and just finished phenols in school. This is wonderful timing. Thanks!

that's so funny my dog ran over to me.

Awesome,mind blown. U ppl really put great effort . Finally the words in my book make some sense thanks to u ppl . U really try hard to make chemistry fun.

It must be very durable as I have stayed in many old pubs over the years that still have old light switches and fittings made from Bakelite.Also the Red Rattler trains in Sydney which ran from the 1920's to the 1990's all had Bakelite electrical fittings.

I didn't realize the actual polymerization happened so fast. I'd love to see more polymer chemistry on here.

1984. I was six. My family moved to a farmhouse in Devon that had been built in the late 19th century, and extended by successive generations of the same family. The whole house was filled with light switches, power outlets and wall sconces, all made out of Bakelite. I loved that house.

I made phenol formaldehyde in the lab, but I definitely did not use either acetic or hydrochloric acids. We did use hexamethylene I seem to remember as an accelerator or modulator, I can't remember exactly, this was over 40 years ago, but then we used the resin after polymerisation, mixing it with wood flour and various other additives and we made ash trays out of the stuff. I also made some fibre filled resin ( a bit like Tufnol) and even paper filled, but wood flour was definitely the preferred filler.

brilliant lads, cheers :) looked like a lot of fun

Reichhold Chemicals in Houston Tx used to make phenolic resin in the early 1980's. The stuff exotherms as it is mixing. One day the heat in the reactor got away from the operators. Rather than have it harden in the vessel the shift supervisor opened the bottom-out valve and dumped the whole batch on the ground. It looked like a huge pile of afterbirth and took days to clean up.

GREAT EPISODE! Some applied chemistry! This is what it's all about: making stuff! Now, if UofN still has an industrial engineering school (my alma matter doesn't, which is outrageous), then it'd be great to see what could be done with that plastic. I am surprised that wood "flour" was part of the manufacturing process, using Bakelite. I do know the Bakelite plastic, though. It was still very much in use when I was a little kid. I was born in 1965. I remember those ashtrays and telephones. Moreover, I remember quite well the special placement of the one phone in the house. This episode took me back for just a moment... THANK YOU!

Just finished working with Bakelite today in my Materials Engineering lab. We used it to mount a metal sample so we could grind, polish and etch it so we could observe the crystal grains.

This was interesting as i have a few bakelite items mostly fishing reels from a brand called Alvey in australia and its a interesting material in the sense as it can hold fishing line and a fish going everywhere but if you drop it or impact it hard enough it just breaks.

Bakelite was commonly used in US home light switches and power sockets well into the 1980's. It's high electrical and thermal resistance made it a nearly perfect material. The development of less brittle heat resistant plastics left Bakelite to niche products.

And Prof. Poliakoff had an epic model of a molecule handy, as usual. :)

That escalated quickly.

Could you show the *full* polymerisation of PET (polyethyleneteraphtalate), so starting with the melting polymerisation and continue with the solid-state polymerisation. This leaves a lot of room for explanations, and it looks pretty nice at the end!

As much as the science was great (as always.) For some reason I was mostly just captivated by the magnetic stirrer. That things a marvellous invention! :)

Nile Red gives a better explanation on how to actually make Bakelite and the different methods for doing so. But these videos are still fun and educational. I enjoy them.

I say Bring back Bakelite.

Did you capture slow motion fotage of the solution turning from clear to opaque? That looked interesting.

I loooove bakelite! Used to eat on bakelite dishes as a kid... somehow I love the sound they have when you cut, or pick up food from them. Weird probably..

I actually made a little toy from Bakelite in my middle school shop class, it came in granular pieces about the size of a normal BB. We used heat and a hydraulic press to make pretty much anything we could imagine, though it is rather brittle.

if you ever wonder if people are interested in your business, well let me tell you , knight hood , global fan base, people wanting pictures taken with you guys , school teachers using your videos.......... amazing, love you guys , thank you professor pliko😉 , Neil , and gang

That was a very satisfying reaction.

Brady I really do appreciate the slow motion replays, just wondering whether you are going to upgrade your kit to get better footage?

It is still used in metallography to mount metal & alloys for polishing.

Here in the states a remarkably large number of things are *still* made of bakelite, I suppose on the "don't fix what isn't broke" principal. Many components of a completely operational electric home fitted with "knob and tube" wiring were bakelite, especially junction boxes and the round ceiling mounted boxes for supporting light fixtures. Those bakelite components remain in widespread use, tho newer 'blue plastic' alternatives are also available. And other things... I suppose the fact that it is durable, cheap and easily molded, and that production facilities are already 'tooled up', makes folks reluctant to demand other materials.

It was pretty cool... we used to have some BAKEKITE stuff at our house when I was a kid.. I'll bet you a lot of it got thrown out where my brother sold it for pennies at flea markets knowing him

Explosive foam ! Nice reactions !

I remember a time when the only common plastics were Bakelite and nylon. Our phone and radio were Bakelite . Always a grotty brown or black. How does it get from pink to those colors and how is it moulded . I remember being excited when the first polythene buckets and basins were sold.

If you run the reaction slower at a lower temperature do you get less gas holes and a more solid Bakelite?

Here's my hypothesis about why the reaction from the previous day sprayed bakelite further. It looked like there was less liquid in the beaker. The gases generated from the reaction could immediately fling the bakelite out of the beaker, whereas when there is more bakelite in the beaker, the gases have to build up to a higher pressure to fling the bakelite, giving more time for gases to escape around the sides of the bakelite.

itd be cool to see more videos of the synthesis and explanation of materials used in everyday objects

“And it squeaks...but that’s not part of the scientific explanation.” 😂😂😂

It’s quite satisfying to see scientists grinning when things explode and splatter. I grin, too.

Yay Brady's greyhound!

Amazing.

at 5:40, "when you write down the formula it quickly looks as my hair! " Classic :-)

How about a video on casein? It's a another early plastic made out of milk protein and formaldehyde. I used to have a fountain pen made of it.

Bakelite is also used as a pan handle, so you did own bakelite, unless you don't have pans at home. My uncle had a factory in Brazil and the odor was very characteristic, you could feel blocks away.

Would it be possible to do a video on Graphene? Or would it be to difficult to acquire enough of it?

I need a chemistry set any idea where I can buy stuff cheap or used?.

Can we get an episode about cleaning up chemistry equipment? What do u guys use?

Crazy how suddenly the mixture shifts, it looks like a jump cut

I have heard the ortho and para state described in the storage of liquid hydrogen in dewars and the change of state would generate heat. How does this work and why.

Was Walsh able to extract the stirrer bar from the first batch?

I think the grip panels on the Colt 1903 pistol were Bakelite.

It's impressive that his hair can be remembered in many sort of chemical things shown on these videos. The ultimate chaos model lol

To this day I remember the distinctive smell of burning bakelite. It's unmistakable!

😅 I still have an old functional bakelite phone.😉

When I think of bakelite I tend to think of the hard brown substance, normally I find it in old control knobs or insulating me from the high voltage coils in vintage violet ray units (which would make your geissler tubes glow very nicely) What makes the bakelite I know of brown and not pink?

When you squeaked the toy my dog heard it from the other room and came running to find out what it was. When he got here and sat down I looked at him and said "But the professor needs his dog toys to explain chemistry." He glanced back and forth, looked down at the ground, stood up and sulked away.

How do you mold it when it reacts and seems to harden so quickly???? Can you heat it up to melt it into a shape?

Bakelite and its relatives still aren't obsolete, either -- in addition to having seen quite an assortment of knobs made of phenolic plastic on equipment that is still in service (and even manufactured within the last couple of decades), I think the handles of some cookware are of a similar substance, and screw caps for media/chemical bottles with 35 mm mouths are often phenolic (although another type of plastic is also used for these -- the phenolic caps are slightly less dark, and definitely less flexible; either way, the limit on durability usually isn't the plastic of the cap itself, but the binding to the interior seal).

I'd love to see a video of you guys cleaning this fumehood up :)

Not sure if it was explained in the video, but what was the purpose of the acetic acid in the reaction?