THIS IS AMAZING. Your work is out-of-this-world: the animations, the rate of your voice, the scientific accuracy... Can't understand why you have only 300 subs. Please don't give up! Chemistry needs RU-vidrs like you
I've found this channel just this week and I feel like every day it gets about 1000 more subs. For the record, it's 5.61K subs now, when I found the channel it was less than 3K :-D
wonderful video - thank you! just to chime in, since i don't see it in the comments yet (surprisingly) - ruby and sapphire are corundum - Al2O3 with impurities that gibe color as you say , but Emerald is a different mineral - its a Beryl - Be3Al2(SiO3)6 - its impurities make it emerald/aquamarine/heliodor/morganite/etc.
Nice catch! There's a story about sapphires that I had to leave out of the video. I wanted to buy a not-too-expensive ring for my girlfriend and settled for one with a 'white sapphire' stone. Almost as soon as I walked out the shop I realised it was just a chunk of aluminium oxide and felt bit of an idiot.
@@ThreeTwentysix Nice video. Don't feel an idiot; leuco-sapphire are indeed colorless but much less common than colored sapphires into nature. The color into sapphires derive from impurities into the leuco-sapphire (Al2O3-colorless like glass). So natural leuco is much more rare and uncommon than rubies or sapphires ;o). You can get nearly any shades of color than shine into theusual rainbown by changing % impurity for intensity and combination for some colors... Color: -Leuco plain Al2O3 -Red called Ruby is also red sapphire from Cr2O3 (emerald green); this is the same colourizer from emeralds but is shines green then and not red like into ruby. -Blue from FeO, TiO2, CoO (apart or in combination) -Yellow Fe2O3 (yeah rusty ;o) ) but too concentrated will bring orange and probably dark spots of dark magnetite (Fe2O3 or Fe3O4 (FeO-Fe2O3)) -I suspect CuO for green but combination of blue (see above) and a little yellow (Fe2O3) should bring to it too. -For orange must come from red (Cr2O3) and a little yellow (Fe2O3). -Into the nature blue sapphires display often a "sang de pigeon" tint or violet tinge due to some Cr2O3 present... so you have rubies with a little blue or blue sapphires with a little red; so violet-purple is easy to do by mixing Al2O3, Cr2O3 and FeO, TiO2 and or CoO. -If you have too much impurities; the solvent (major component Al2O3) may exclude it from its matrix when cristallizing and leave other minerals aside or display a too dark color what lacks transparency... it is a bit like painting... remember that mixing all impurities will leave you with black-brown; too deep red is black; too deep yellow is orange-then brown or black; too deep blue is black just like too deep green is. Funny property is that rubies display a pink-fluo luminescence due to the Cr2O3 into it. So this is observed with some blue sapphires and red sapphires. Of course it is possible to make artificial sapphire (via melting over 2100°C) This calls for melting over 2100°C eather with the help of 1) special blowtorch gases; because usual ones burn into air into the range 1500-1800°C); so you would need *H2-O2 burn into the range of 2100°C and exhaust H2O (maybe hotter via electromagnetic preheating >2500°C) *Butane-N2O burns into the 2400-2600°C; *C2H2-air (2800°C) *C2H2-O2 (3100°C-3450°C) and...exotic hotter flame are not for non chemical educated dumbs or newbies (toxic endothermic-explosive gases or liquid - burning like a plasma) *H-C#N / O2 (4100°C) *N#C-C#N / O2 (4500°C) *N#C-C#C-C#N / O2 (4990°C) 2)possible via microwave ovens 3)possible via solar lasers or lenses 4)With help of a "melting salt", it is possible to "dissolve" Al2O3 and impurities and cristallize the gems. Usually they are sold 1/20th of the price of the natural ones and doped with specific minerals or colorizers or co-melters to be easier to identify vs natural stones onto gemstone markets. Then they are grown. The blowtorch process has some drawbacks like its blows away the powder you use, you need a substrate to gather or collect the molten product what sticks to many things and burn it down. It unevenly heat the powder so often you get tiny beads with uneven coloration sometimes Cr2O3 green and sometime red or brown due to carbon inclusion from the gaseous fluel. In the original process (Moissan process) they use a vibrator to sprinkel the powder on top of the molten bead that is fixed into the flame jet; the powder melts or fall onto the bead and melt making layer increments; usually the "cristal" grows like a glass rod bottom to top and is called a pear; because it is a tiny bead with an inverted cone upward and then ended by a cylindrical core and a round dome on top; once cooled it easily is breakable along its axe of longitude what is "easier" to cut and facetate and is used by jeweler students to practice and train. I have some natural in my geological collection (star sapphire, rubbies, leuco sapphire) and some made from that process (ruby rod (with a side trace of sapphire) for optical laser application about 15cm long 2,5cm wide; an orange and a pink half pear; aside some personnalmy made ruby beads. Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)
Impurities may cause crystal formation inhibition, especially if part of their molecule is similar to the desired product. I once precipitated an oil which I could not get to crystalize. My main product was an organic acid, so I added NaOH solution to dissolve the acid and then steam distilled the solution, thus removing all volatile neutral molecules. Neutralization produced an immediate formation of crystals with a very narrow melting range.
Literally my favorite science educator now. Really love the topics you choose and the way you deliver them. Thanks for putting this out there for us. Been super useful and inspirational as I review my chemistry knowledge for future work.
Wonderful visualizations of the properties discussed, it really helps to paint a clearer picture. I'm sure this will blow up, it really made things easier for me to understand. thank you.
i like growing crystals from wood using string and the generalized principles of synergetics, effectively growing tensegrity structures in whatever arrangement i like
All in all great I just have one objection on the comment statement of crystals not having energy or special properties I must argue that quartz piezoelectric properties and it's capacity for resonate harmonizing as used in watches for precise oscillation and use as tuning fork are quite spectacular
The knocked over vial story reminded me of an attempt to grow crystals for my thesis. I work with ruthenium complexes and the neutral species tend to take a couple weeks to crystallize and my labmates kept accidentally knocking then over while in the freezer. Unfortunately, they didn't cristallize correctly bc of it
Thanks for clear and good explanation about the crystals , I'm new to chemistry and this video helped me alot to understand some basics about this field of chemistry
Arround minute 22,00 what you describe as "dillution by evaporation" we called it " crystallization by migration of solvents"... the two solvents are fully miscible, but the solute is soluble into one and much less into the other and the exogen clean solvent is more volatile. In fact you observe a "gradient" of concentration of pure ethanol (volatile and weak solubilisator for the glucose); so ethanol evaporates faster than water solution (solution decrease their volatility vs pure solvent due to the solute present - what increases the boiling point and the freezing point); then pure ethanol condenses and fall into the water-saturated glucose vial; because it is more volatile and less dense than water (and even less dense than water-glucose) it remains on top of the water vial. The ethanol there diffuse little by little downwards and mixes with water making a steady increase of water concentration at the bottom and another steady increase of ethanol concentration to the top. At a certain point of mixing the solubility of glucose reach a point where it has to cristallize with its surrounding media and since cristals are denser, they fall down and allow for a little more ethanol to go deeper into the tube. The cristals now into the bottom are in ("super"-)saturated glucose media and grow more solid glucose; this growing makes the water solution less rich at glucose and less dense; so water diffuse more into the upper ethanol and the upper ethanol diffuse deeper allowing more cristals of glucose to form and decant. It is a fascinating purification process to watch. There is another cristallization process that uses a temperature difference between the top and the bottom of a tubular reaction where they hydrothermically dissolve quartz or sand cristals into water; the water dissolves the SiO2 (or Si(OH)4); the hot water carries the now "concentrated" solute to the top upper part where tiny pure quartz cristals are positionned (and hanging). The cristals grow slowly and increment by atomic-molecular deposition onto natural starting cristals that can become quite hurge; afterward the grown cristals can be cut, polished into specific lenses. Into such reactors they have even incubated rare cristals or mixed color cristals that are unfindable in nature. Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)
This is genuinely interesting! I'm here due to the information from the Study in Kyushu Webinar today and decided to check this out. Looking forward to expand my study at the university next year!
In university, when we were required to precipitate a crystal from solution, our tutors recommended that we use the glass stirrers to randomly scratch the glass inside the beakers, to provide extra nucleation sites. We never had any problems producing crystals, even when using clean* glassware. * = even the cleanest glassware retained trace amounts of what I suspect was silicon from previous experiments, based on the way the water would form beads...
Yes, scratching with a glass rod is a classic trick. Undergraduate experiments are tried and tested for producing crystals easily. In research, however, it can be much tougher.
What I still find amazing is until you get into the duality of particle/waves of uncertainty, atoms and molecules particularly when you're trying to predict how they stack act just the same as puzzle pieces only on the nano scale. It's generally a lot messier than that with grain boundaries and slip angles but the analogy still applies. Which makes me think that it should be possible to construct with lithography, channels perfectly suited to growing carbon nanotubes in a regular atomic arrangement assuming the temperatures, pressures and impurity environment is very tightly controlled. Or graphene even but a planar monolayer of atoms is considerably more difficult until something interesting like a graphene friendly capacitive surface is imagined which can be turned on and off at will. But for nanotubes, you'd only need resolution of what we have now when it comes to silicon and copper. Keeping the apparatus producing continuous nanotubes extruded into whatever destination without gumming up or anything getting stuck. That's the deal breaker in my head for the idea. That and scaling it up is stupendously expensive even if it did work. But for small parts for the time being like carbon nanotube based sensors or MEMs which require very predictable properties and shapes. Hell, heat sink interface surfaces. Seems expensive but entirely doable.
At 21:35 the vid says that an organic solvent will evaporate too fast. Surely the rate of evaporation could be slowed down as needed by covering it with a a gas tight cap with a hole in it whose size can be reduced, or with an adjustable valve in it? Also, Google has never heard of "dilution by evaporation" which the vid said at 21:50 is the way to get around the supposed problem of too fast evaporation.
I would love to see something like silver purification with the sodium hydroxide and sucrose method explained in the same depth you go into with this crystal video! I had quite a bit of fun growing iron sulfide crystals a few months back by taking steel scraps from work and letting them sit in 50% water-50% sulfuric acid. Twas a lot of fun to find them after a month of growing, huge teal colored crystals 😁
Crystals ... gateway to a crystallography addiction... Awesome video, beautiful and also informative at the same time. Readers interested in organic crystals may like to investigate 'Photo 51' and crystallography's central role in determining biological molecule structures, including proteins, and which is a large part of the underlying knowledge for Alphafold's 'intelligence'.
Bismuth forms pretty crystals on its own, which is non-toxic. At least to the touch. It's likely not intended for consumption, though... If you do a search for "Bismuth Art," you'll see how beautiful such things can be and can also buy many of them.
About cristallization of usual salt (kitchen salt, table salt or sodium chloride), it may be tricky to get the desired cubic shape of table salt. Because when saturated solution is used; it is dense; the only escape for water vapour is by evaporation upwards a cup; thus making the solution behind more dense and concentrated; at a certain point the concentration of NaCl become high and solid tiny cristals form but are left on top of the supersaturated solution by capilarity forces and the cristals (what are denser than the fluid) float and grow in a special disposition of tiny cubes that make kind of boats. If you take a closer look, you will notice that the cristals doesn't grow like a solid cube that would sink; but rather as an hollow inverted pyramid made out of concentric cube and steps...a bit like an inverted maya temple. Like boats the hollow maya temple structure even if big floats because while growing the cristal emerges onto the side but not upside or inside; only downside. This effect is known by sea water salt scavenger in the case of "sel de Guérande" (Guérande salt) with its product called "fleur de sel" (flower of salt) that they collect from the top of sea water trapped into large low dephts canals exposed to the sun and air. That salt has a low apparent density and a large surface area, making it dissolve faster into the mouth or aliments giving a more salty effect than conventional table salt in tiny cubes. Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)
That's a really good question. Firstly, yes, crystals do have a relatively low entropy. And secondly the different arrangements of crystals do have a different entropy. For instance, iron has a hexagonal close packed structure at room temperature but changes to a face centred cubic structure at higher temperatures, which is directly a result of the entropy of the system (it then goes back to hcp at even higher temperatures, which is very peculiar but I bet quantum mechanics is directly involved).
@@ThreeTwentysix My immediate expectation would be that the increased energy of the system causes the change in crystal structure, but that this change follows a sine-wave type of curve. Meaning that you could predict the type of crystalline structure, if you mapped out the curve. Though I'd be curious to know if the oxidation states of Iron affect its crystal structure, too.
Well the structure change is caused by a forced local decrease of entropy, which makes sense since the atoms are being forced into a more regular arrangement by the pressure, but the puzzle is why more pressure would make them return to the previous structure. You absolutely can predict the crystal structure using complex computational methods, but nothing beats hard, experimental evidence. And oxidation states do indeed affect crystal structure, but then you will have counter ions and possibly ligands too, so it's a much more complex situation in general.
ive tried growing sythetic saphire in my microwave but only after a couple attempts i figured out i needed titanium(III) oxide instead of titanium dioxide
It's really weird that this, and a video on growing large crystals showed up in my feed. All I did was wonder about growing a single large crystal to myself yesterday morning. I never said it out loud, typed anything on my phone, or did anything else that would let RU-vid know I've been considering growing large crystals. I have a half pound of sodium acetate and need something to do with it.
Some crystals ABSOLUTELY have special properties : piezoelectric ones. Every digital clock and every computer has a crystal controlling the frequency it operates at.
i made some crystals that were supposed to be colorless, but ended up slightly blue. then i did my best to increase the purity, but the blue color only became stronger. ended up smoking them. god, what a feeling :)
I laughed my arse off when he said "If you don't know the difference between atoms and molecules..." Not because there's anything inherently funny about such a sentence, but because I once had an argument with one of the dumbest people on the planet. He tried to pretend that he was well educated, but when I pointed out to him that DNA was just a long molecule, his response was "That's ridiculous!! Where is DNA on the Periodic Table, then? Is it after Hydrogen, or before??" Again, I need to point out that this person tried to pass themselves off as an educated person!! I can't help but wonder what this person thought DNA was made up of. Did he honestly think that there were little English letters floating around inside the cells? Little A's and C's and G's and T's?
Yeah, that kind of 'discussion' is always tricky though. It's clear the other person was in the wrong, but these situations always work out better if you keep your calm and gently move them along with questions. 'Well, what's the difference between a molecule and an atom?' would be a good example in this case. Give their brain time to catch up and, if you haven't been rude and insulting to them, you'd be surprised how often they climb down. Some of them even apologise.
@@ThreeTwentysix I don't doubt that you're right, however, I think that this might only be the case when talking to someone reasonable. The person I was arguing with was a _Reality-Denier._ Specifically, he thought evolution and the Big Bang were nonsense and yet he didn't know anything about the Big Bang theory of cosmology, OR the theory of evolution. He had an infantile level of understanding of these scientific theories and yet he was absolutely certain that they were nonsense. I don't think such people are able to be reasonable, at least not when it comes to scientific realities that conflict with their religious delusions...
@@Raz.C Did you end your post with three dots? If not, for your information, that's what I 'm seeing: "that conflict with their religious delusions...", and, if so, why would you do that? I see a lot of posts that look like yours and I often wonder about it. I'm sincerely curious about this.
Question: growing salt crystals in a jar produced a odd effect. When the salt was left for a long period of time. The salt started growing out of the jar. Crystals started growing on the jar rim. What is going on?
Maybe is not even related but now cocktails use clear ice. This can be done if you buy a kind of cooler inside the freezer and now the ice start to grow in one direction I think. Could you try to explain us this phenomenon? Is this clear ice a crystal or not?
I do! As a 13 years old, we did the usual crystal on a string experiment and a girl won (by size) with a strange looking crystal. I realised years later, because of the unusual shape of the crystal, she had most likely by accident introduced contamination.
Well, they often grow with weird shapes for reasons I explain at the end of the video. The ones we're used to seeing are usually selected because they look nice or they're cut into nice shapes.
at the end you say crystals arn't interesting... but then (the morning after watching your video) I vaguely recall my high school chemistry teacher saying that crystals can be used to reason about the form of organic molecules. It's easy to know that a molecule has this many C that many H, and couple of N etc but with a crystal you can shoot xrays through it and learn about the internal structure, which depends on which of the many ways the molecule might be assembled... in fact wasn't xray crystals somehow essential in the discovery of the helical structure of DNA???
Yes, you got me there. Crystals are essential for correctly determining the structure of most molecular compounds. But I'm a systems chemist, which means I'm interested in how they work in solution. So I'm biased on that topic.
@@ThreeTwentysix ha okay! Love your videos btw! The best i have found on yt! Interesting, doesnt feel dumbed down, and humourous bits too! The only problem is that ive almost watched them all!
I just fell upon this, but there wasn’t much for context, is this essentially elicited by the number of orbs that seem to be flying through our atmosphere and oceans? I get that it’s theoretical. Regardless, I’m just wondering what it was brought up for it. Maybe RU-vid shoved it in my face for that reason I don’t know.
...Silicon crystals aren't pretty? IDK, those big logs of silicon that they cut wafers from are really neat-looking, and finished IC dies without the covers look awesome too.
"We don't say white in science. It's just the light reflecting off the surface". Isn't that true with all the colors? That the light is reflecting off the surface?
You're absolutely right. We always say 'colourless' in chemistry. But these videos are to include a general audience, who might not get that distinction.
Is there any good salts for Crystal's that have larger heat of formations so the thermodynamics would help control tempe r's nature change once it starts forming? Like for example, I find growing MgSO4 (I think that's the one) quality large ones is difficult, since the Hf is backwards where dissolving them cools the solution, getting a true saturation point at eq. w room temperature is challenging...and once they grow the heat raises temp which raises the solubility, thus dissolving your seed and this oscillation will make ur crystal cloudy. Getting a perfect crystal of MgSO4 very large and very clear is quite challenging I think, but I got one once reusing the same hanging crystal in carefully saturated and balanced solutions to be bigger than my thumb, about 4.5 in" long and it was all but perfect. Tiny imperfections were slightly visible deep in near tied wire for first hanging, and layers were stepped a bit toward very ends but it had an excellent prism shape, perfectly smooth straight faces and very crisp, sharp corners. One day after weighing at 57g, I rehung it but forgot to get out of window...the slight warming dissolved it some which set off a thermo driven oscillation that ruined it! Eh, live and learn. I grew semi precious stone once, very long process and fairly expensive to maintain environment needed...but it was worth it. The AlO based complex crystals u were referring to whose color varies mainly on type of metal ion impurities. I had a jeweler cut and polish it for me it's very pretty, perfectly clear as glass with a yellow-green orange hue, not sure what ud call that color (like ruby red emerald is green etc) but after cut it was 19.4 ct. stone. Really tricky to grow tho due to the multiple step process since it's a complex of multiple smaller piece subunits arranged in final lattice but Al2O3 based. I'm a chem. Engr. MS, I've always loved crystals. If only I could afford to set up equipment needed for diamond growing....but that requires conditions a bit out of reach for home setup lol. Really liked this video man
I’m or I mean my friend is attempting to synthesize a medical compound of the ephedra plant and then crystallize that, could you do a video on that? I’m asking for a friend the friend that’s doing that not me.
LK-99 is fake? But is it possible to build pressure inside the crystal in order to make super conductor? Oh, and how crystal in external high pressure make the super conductor work? Thx
