Okay boys and girls, curious people of all ages, let’s break down what this madman did this time. First of all, I am not an expert in arthropod exoskeleton chemistry, even with seven billion people on earth there’s probably not more than a handful of such weirdos. But I have a decent understanding of biochemistry and can read wikipedia. So what is Chitin ? Long story short, it’s like cellulose, a long polymer of sugar that plant cells use to make walls. But unlike cellulose chitin is made by animals and the sugar monomers are slightly modified for extra resistance (= lighter for equal strength) because animals have different issues than plants. Anyway, chitin in its pure form is supposed to be translucent, so he’s trying to clean the crab shell from anything that is not chitin to at last have a decent see-through crab. never thought i'd say that one day. How will he do that ? First he presents to us his magnificent ozone machine : ozone is chemically speaking O3. You know that oxygen from the air (O2) tends to oxidize stuff right ? Well O3 is the much more aggressive version of that, don’t breathe it I guess ? As far as I know the main way to obtain ozone is to generate an electrical arc, like with a Tesla coil or something, I don’t know how his machine works but I assume it generates the ozone in its casing and then just bubbles it in the water, pretty sure it is not made _from_ the water. Now, generally speaking in the living world, color is obtained through pigments : small molecules that often have a cyclic structure. An other possibility is through the use of metallic ions (like in your blood, provided you have some) but then the color is rarely the obective. Anyway, those pigment molecules are somewhat fragile and a good way to destroy them is to use an oxidant. That’s what he demonstrates when bubbling ozone in the orange water : the color disappears. So he does that with the crab shell, there’s no before/after picture so it’s hard to tell how effective that was. As an added benefit, the oxydation probably helps destroying some unwanted organic trash on the shell. Next he takes some magnesium metal and puts it in water. From its native state, Magnesium needs to get rid of two electrons to have a nice smooth outer electronic shell, and it will gladly give them to water. So the reaction is Mg + 2 H2O → Mg2+ + 2 OH- + H2. Thankfully magnesium metal is not as angry as sodium or Potassium, that straight up explode in water. Kiwami gets to live an other day. The important part here is that this makes the solution extremely basic (the OH- part), that would be pretty aggressive for your skin and that’s the point : boiling the crab shell in that stuff will completely ruin most proteins and whatever else is in the shell. Being basic also will saponify any oils and fats that may be present (long story short : make them water-soluble) for extra cleanliness. Chitin is largely unaffected by that because of complicated reasons. That worked pretty well, anything that had a color was completely destroyed, now the shell is a nice clean white. But it’s completely soaked with caustic soda, so he boils it in clear water to wash it. By the way, the reason he boils it is because that makes it easier for things to diffuse in and out of stuff, you could cold-cook pasta if you really wanted, the water would eventually find its way into the noodle but it’s inefficient and kind of gross. He then checks with the pH paper which returns neurtal. He then prepares a bath of citric acid to clean the shell even more. Citric acid is kind of “mild” with a pH around 2, in a way it is the opposite of the previous step, except boiling something in strong acid would dissolve pretty much the entire thing by attacking the O links that binds the sugar monomers. I don’t know exactly what he hopes to get rid of with that, there is some sense in assuming that was wasn't destroyed by the base may be sensible to acid, but I don’t think hot lemon juice constitutes a proper acid hydrolysis. however I wouldn’t be surprised if the exoskeleton of a crab was calcified (CaCO3) at some extent. I guess that would explain the white color. If that is the case, yes, an acid bath would dissolve the calcium carbonate. That sort of works, whatever the point was, but is not enough. So he prepares this time an hydrocloric acid bath, that is chemically almost the same but stronger. I checked online and while boiling acid would definitely dissolve cellulose, well... chitin as we said is slightly more resistant. Also time and temperature are important for this type of reactions, note that he doesn’t actually put the thing to a boil but "only" at 80°C (176°F for people who can't have proper units). This time the shell it is much clearer, I don’t know exactly why there is almost an entire layer worth or crab dandruff detaching, maybe it’s made in layers in the first place. The issue now is that the crab shell seems extremely weak and soft. The beige-ish thing is collagen powder to make gelatin, he cooks it as intended and then coats the crab with it. That will both reinforce it structurally, and give it some sort of polish because rough surfaces are not compatible with being see-through. I’ll skim very fast on the sodium alginate part to make the eyes of the crab, calcium causes sodium alginate to turn into a gel, so if you have drops of that stuff fall in a high-calcium solution, the outside of the drop will gellify, giving you a nice round bubble of alginate, it’s a pretty well known food chemistry experiment, typically to make fake fish eggs like caviar. He puts the eyes in place, puts the shell back on the crab and behold ! The most beautiful crab in the world ! But no matter how magnificient of an abomination he just build, that is not even remotely as see-through he had hoped, so it must be crushed, destroyed, annihilated, and tuned into a “knife”. it is thus blended it to a powder, and boiled. Now remember that chitin is a polymer, therefore it makes strands. Blending it like a maniac will at best give you slightly shorter strands that regular blending but you will still have strands of chitin swimming in that soup. If you put that in water and heat it, this whole mess of threads will tangle and form some sort of gel, and if you dry it hard enough this will result in a very strong material (that is always the same basic principle that allows him to make knifes from wacky shit). So he makes a pellet out of the shredded-boiled purified crab keratin and sharpens it into a better claw for the crab. Too bad he doesn’t have a shell to protect his brain now ! Ha ! Lol, no I’m joking ! arthropods have their brain and spinal chord on the belly side.
Thanks for all the efforts and the info I still don't understand all of the science shit but it's good to have some more info alongside the vid Also the eyes of the crab part, he actually showed that part in the fake egg kitchen knife before!
Cool analysis! I'm no chemistry expert, but my guess for the reason he gave it an acid bath after giving it the Magnesium Hydroxide treatment is to neutralize any additional hydroxides hanging around. If you know NileRed's videos (a youtube chemist), he will often dissolve something in a strong acid or base, and then neutralize it with a base or acid so just the desired product remains. I forget why he usually does it, but I believe it is often part of the process of washing impurities.
@@greenbnna This person said "It's been a long time since I became a viewer, but I still don't know what I'm doing and I don't know why I'm watching it."
@@mepops7231 it's just an interaction between Rei (Sailor Mars) and Minako (Sailor Venus) from the anime Sailor Moon, I'm not sure what season it's from tho I'm assuming it's from one of the earlier seasons :D
This man is a real life mad scientist. I feel like his real life job must be high school science teacher and this is how he gets his students interested in science.
@@fluffycritter it would make sense if he was a computer engineer or software engineer. Any kind of engineer really would learn everything needed to learn the fundamentals for how to do this stuff. Might not expect it but half of any engineer's degree is taking ~3 years worth of STEM course credits, nearly enough to qualify for a minor in chem, phys and math for any other degree ^.^
I honestly have rarely seen such a beautiful illustration of green chemistry. From the solvents used to the raw materials to the techniques, this is truly art!
there's always wild stuff happening in kiwami's videos but the wildest part is always the times when he puts a ton of time and effort into something and then just destroys it
It's a common practise in Buddhism, like zen gardens which are constantly meticulously made and rearranged and remade. Or a complex and beautiful mandala and when you're done making it you just wipe it all away. It's a liberating experience when you can make your peace with it ^.^
i’ve been watching his videos for 2 years now and it was just at this right moment that i realized that many of the knives he made (if not all of them) can pass through weapon detectors carefree... i don’t know if this information will let me sleep peacefully tonight
I would never break into this mans house. Who knows what I'll be stabbed with. "Yes officer she was stabbed with a banana. No sir thats not a joke. The banana was very sharp."
I knew I wasn't the only one who felt some uncanny vibes from the video. It is something a kin to the existential horror of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. Still a dope video.
I want him to create the sharpest Human sperm knife in the world. Imagine having a knife that has the ability to produce another human being? with 1 million souls embedded inside it.
Word going around in the Japanese comments is that he's a materials scientist. This would certainly explain how he has this knowledge as that would require a bit of information in chemistry, machining, physics and math algorithms. To suggest he has a degree in all of those while far from impossible would be incredibly time consuming and difficult so the sort of "jack of all trades, master of some but not all" middle ground makes sense.
This man must have degrees in biology, chemistry, engineering and basically every other field. The videos have got to such a point now it seems it'd be insane if he didn't.
He's a materials scientist, apparently, so he would have to dabble in biology, chemistry, and engineering. I'm just not sure if he dipped into psychology or not.
This guy must have a PhD in Biology and and is a Blacksmith as well.. A Deadly combination no doubt. His equipment he uses is all made in Japan and you know they make the sharpest blades on the planet. i have been watching him for a couple years now and every time i see him making another knife i am wondering what prompted him to make it. Did he just wake up one morning and he said to himself, ' i think I'm gonna make a knife today out of a potatoe or a box of finger nails..his imagination is way out there.. he is a master of blacksmithing..
I have no clue whats going on, in my head chemistry is throwing things together inna pot with a large wooden spoon, but I love the fact this channel has become a chemistry knife channel.
HOLD MY MANIQUINE HEAD ..............then hold my cucumber as I cut it with a air knife ........U KNOW WHAT HOLD MY FIRE AXE I MADE FOR NO REASON I WAS BORED
