The Electrolysis Of Urea 

Hi everyone! As you may have guessed, this isn't normally the kind of video that I'd even bother posting to my channel. However, things have changed in the past few weeks. After posting my latest video on making sodium metal, views across Scrap Science have increased by a factor of ten (which is awesome!). With an influx of many new subscribers and viewers over the past three weeks, I've got a new camera, and this video is kind of just here to test it out. Basically, I now have the capability to film in 4k, with slightly better audio quality too. I'm still working out a few things (you probably noticed I have some issues with focusing and exposure at the moment), but I wanted your opinion here. Is filming and posting in 4k worth it? It takes a little longer to edit and upload, but I'm very happy to spend a little extra time waiting for these things if people will appreciate videos with better resolution. Either way, I promise my next video will be more entertaining than this one.

I love the recursive aspect of a RU-vid U-tube video.

Nice experiment! it's interesting to see that ammonia can be oxidized to nitrate but in urea it only oxidizes to nitrogen.

Must admit the video quality is very good and also audio seems more distinct. Shame the cell worked so slowly but from these experiments we learn things and helps understanding. No experiment is a real failure if you learn something.

Ok. subscribed,liked,recommended Reason. Excellent audio. And the comments themselves were very useful. Your experiment has saved me performing a similar one. I regularly generate pure hydrogen and pure oxygen using a spare solar panel,and upcycled household trash,for the kids.

You tend to learn the most important lessons from it wasn't supposed to do today. Great video!

These are informative, pleasing videos. Not too click-baity, matey! Great stuff.

The experiment may not have been spectacular, but ya got style, Harry! Enjoyed and I appreciate you uploading it.

Thanks for your videos bro, I'm pretty sure that you'll have 100k subs one day!

Thanks for keeping it real, not every experiment is a success but usually we only see successful projects on youtube. It creates a false sense of what is possible and easy, people need to learn that failure is part of life and to be expected and that it should not put one off. Just keep trying :)

I've subed to your channel. It's interesting even if it was a failure in your eyes I enjoyed watching your approach and your evaluation of the procedure. Don't be so hard to yourself not any youtuber show the whole journey most youtber show only their successed experiments and don't share them experience that they made by the failed attempts that they've done , so keep the good work up pal 👍. I'm looking forward for more of your content.

This was interesting. Especially your solution for capturing the gas in the glass tubes. And I liked the surprise of the tiny amount of nitrogen after 24 hours. So definitely upload those videos please.

Congrats on the new followers (me included)! RU-vid always needs more home chemistry.

When I was a teenager, me and my friend preformed electrolysis on a concoction of random chemicals we found in his shed, including spermicide powder amongst other things xD. We took power straight out the wall into the cathode and anode and the liquid instantly started bubbling like mad, as you'd expect with that kind of power running through it. We then got what we called "lightning in a jar" where the spark was bridging the gap between the probes, again, as you would expect with that kind of power going through it. We then blew out the fuses for the whole house xD. Those were the days lol.

"I suppose my channel could do with a bad video or two..." That's the spirit Harry! Best get the bad ones out of the way while the channel is small.

Thank you for doing this video it answer some of my questions

Love your channel bro

I loved it, thanks mate!

Very nice experimentation good sir.

Rob's channel is plain awesome ❤️

Finally! I've learned what a youtube is.

Chin up mate! If experiments worked as we hoped first time, they wouldn't be called experiments ;) I'm planning to attempt a couple of your experiments later (when it's not so hot in Adelaide) - H2SO4 from CuSo4 and then some chlorate synthesis. Thanks for the videos, keep it up!

As much as you might think your voltage for dissociation is correct you also have to take into consideration the resistance. The voltage needs to be measured at the electrodes and not at the reading of your power supply ! I for one was very interested in your video.The atruggles we go through are becoming the higher veiwed videos as of late . Great Scott in electronics shows many stuff ups till he gets it right and explains what the problems were . It makes geeat real world content!

you should report the number of coulombs passed through the solution and the applied voltage. If your power supply has a const voltage mode then you need to note down the current at regular intervals.

Although not a successful project, it looks like you still learned a lot

Still useful info if remembered. In the event the techno-world shuts down, and one survives that aftermath, we will still need to have the info for the potential next future😊

nice video

got a good laugh out of this video, thanks!

Nice! 👏 Is it possible to make nitric acid by urea electrolysis?

Great video, very interesting! What was the current being drawn during the 24 hour experiment?

So I’ve been subscribing to glass tubes all this time? That explains a few things.

nice 👌

12:45 _is this video even worth uploading to my channel?_ Yes, it is and thanks for uploading this. I actually wanted to know *the opposite* of the electrolysis of urea. I'm planning of separating impurities from urea through the use of electrolysis. The plan is as follows: Carboxylic acids are the impurities in this solution of urea. Through Kolbe electrolysis, they'll be combined with each other, slowly making hydrocarbon molecules with few or no polar groups. These molecules, lacking polarity, should separate out from the aqueous phase as an oily layer on top of it. Your video gives me confidence that it will be hard to break down the urea in this process (which is what I'm hoping to happen), so I'll experiment. I think this process might be more energy efficient than boiling the water (which does takes a lot of energy), thus it might be an interesting approach to separate carboxylic acids from other things in an aqueous solution.

si se libera nitrogeno y nitrogeno no deberia liberarse monoxido de carbono tambien ?

Hello, do you have any calories for sale?

How is urea converted to liquid ammonia?

Can I use KAN for electrolysis? Could I get N2O from it?

I hope you can make video about HYDROLYSIS

3:17 I don't think I've ever seen anyone use a glass rod like that

I think this is what's used as a gas generator in some variable rate automatic lubricators. And a battery and you can change the rate of gas generator by choosing a resistor.

Nothing wrong with an experiment that gives results different than what you were hoping for. I think that it is a real problem in the current system for people to publish results that "unsuccessful" experiments never get distributed.

What is that power soucrce contraption in the beginning? Is it made out of a multimeter?

Hi I need your unswer ...Nickel electroplating (brightener) solution additive Polyethylene Glycol + choline cloride or KCL ..correct ??

the RU-vidr uses a U tube to electrolyze a unit of urea

Supposedly somehow there is a way to get hydrazine from the electrode where ammonia/nitrogen comes out. The addition of nickel or iron powder to the electrolyte supposedly draws the carbonyl component to even make iron or nickel carbonyl, but idk. If you build an electrolytic hydrazine generator you will have TONNES of viewers!!

cool

I really like your videos and I'm currently trying to get a chlorate cell running but all I could get my hands on is a power supply that has a max. output of 3 A. I haven't found any videos about what you are using so I would be really grateful if you would share what you use and where to buy your kind of power supply.

Was your solution saturated with urea, just thinking of reasons for low gas production.

tbh this was actually interesting

what an interesting coincidence, he has a U-tube and I'm watching it on U-tube 🙂

Ha I like the hint on the bag of urea soluble nitrogen suits with your electrolysis 😅

Looking at efficency. If the voltage urea starts to break down at is .37 and one applies 1.5v then you 1.5v supplied - 0.37 breakdown =1.13v over bolted to push amps. If a cell has one amp flowing through it at 1.5v then your feeding it 1.5 watts, while 1 amp × 1.13v overvolted = 1.13 watts making heat, while 1 amp × 0.37v 0.37 watts of power overtime doing the actual chemical work of breaking urea to H2 N2 and CO2. 0.37 watts/1.5 watts consumed = 24.6% efficent. Of cource the hydrogen has much more energy when oxidized to oxygen.

H2SO4 via SO2 + 03 + U.V(c) >SO2 + O > SO3 + H2O = Video suggestion ???

2Min30, those are also handy to upload Videos to, you may give it a try.

do you use deionised water

Now I'm wondering what kinds of garbage would be created with thiourea and lots of current

The experiment may be tricky in the paper they state urine and urea aside of each other. But urea is non conductive at first...it may become a bit conductive if hydrolyses occurs and that is what happens if you put a huge excess like 5 mol/L KOH vs 0,33 mol/L urea (putative average content of human urine is 33g/L what means 0.55 mol urea/L urine)...then there is a lot of K(+) and OH(-) and less CO3(2-) and NH3 as NH4(+). But there is more into urine than urea... there are conductive salts of chlorides, sulfates, carbonates, phosphates of ammonium, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium...so why the need for external hydroxides? To my feeling...the process to convert urea to hydrogen and nitrogen via the use of nickel is not really interesting on a production scale because it consumes a lot of KOH, energy and some Nickel...Ok it generates H2 gas as a potential fuel and N2 (but that is also cheap and findable into the air) ...but NH3 and urea are much more valuable because much more handlable and reactive...NH3 can be used as a fuel too on its own. If I was to make a no cost H2 generator...I would use Aluminum waste and a little NaOH...(or a little HCl). The Aluminium would be scrapped of its protective oxid layer to naked metal and react with water to make Al2O3, AlO(OH), Al(OH)3 (or AlCl3 and Al(OH)3+HCl) and a lot of H2...aswel as heat if needed. Al + 3H2O --> 3/2 H2 + Al(OH)3 + heat 2Al +3H2O --> 3H2 + Al2O3 + heat Al + 2H2O --> 3/2H2 + AlO(OH) + heat Al + 3HCl --> AlCl3 + 3/2H2 AlCl3 + 3 H2O --> Al(OH)3 + 3 HCl (HCl is thus simply a kind of corrosion catalyst here)+ heat So we get hydrogen, heat and with the Al oxides and hydroxides we have some extra money when making microwave rubies, sapphires ;o) and we clean up all those Aluminium wastes :o) ;o) As a plus the destruction of urea to make H2 and N2...generates one equivalent of CO2...what is absolutely not eco/evironmentally friendly while everybody on Earth tries to get CO2 emissions as low as possible...Right ;o) PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from Science Madness forum)

Use a carbon or lead dioxide anode and add a small amount of aluminum potassium sulfate. You will get nitrate if you stir the cell.

I would like to know how a commercial device for medical use of hydrogen works without the electrolyte. Can you show and explain that.

A U-tube on RU-vid! HAHAHA! And you said that this was going to be boring!😅

Short videos pls

Actually this is really interesting! Hydrogen without oxigen could be used for a lagmuir torch. A Kind of torch that has the hottest Flame of any known chemical reactions. IT s also used for atomic hydrogen welding. The single H Atoms Düring recombination create a very very very hot Flame. Could you try making a Lagmuir Torch?

Could you make another video of making nitrogen gas? A different method.

Thumbs UP for the little bubbles of GAS!!! ....you know it was you anyway.

GOD I LOVE SUFFERING!!!!! BRING IT ON!🤬🤯☠️🙅

Yeah.... 🧐😍

So you could make a solar Urea electrolysis setup. If it only used ~0.37V to work.

I was kind of expecting this to make a bunch of side products that are essentially a random combination of N, C, O and H. Maybe it still does?

Could this accidentally make cyanide?

How often do ya get a You Tube video featuring.... A U-Tube

Is there a way to remove medication from my urine? I live in the states, and medications are stupidly expensive. Can I just pee in a cup, and do some science, and tada, whatever percentage of my medication is back, so I don't have to buy them again every month.

Woah. U-tube on youtube. U tube. RU-vid. Woaaah.

I'm pretty sure nobody has used RU-vid as an electrolysis container before you did :D

If sodium hydroxide is not easily available, you can substitute sodium bicarbonate. The solution will off gas CO2 first and then sodium hydroxide will form once the bicarbonate has been broken down. Not to contradict you, but sodium carbonate is not stable in solution, esp once the pH has been shifted from neutral. It will form carbonic acid at one electrode, and once the concentration gets too high that will decompose into co2. The opposite electrode will form the sodium hydroxide as coordination ions and will thus not absorb your co2. It should definitely assist in the breakdown of the urea though.

Hello Nile Green :)

"put your urea in the youtube". Subtle.

Glad you warned me. Only watched a few seconds.

Electrolysis in a U tube on RU-vid. 😁 If you think of the U tube like a wire then it should become readily apparent why theres very little current. Ionin flow is being restricted by the cross section of the tube much the same as electrons flow is restricted by too thin of a wire.

barely? infact i cant see the nitrogen at all!

Hello

Holding two test tubes with electrodes in, inverted in a beaker of solution next to eachother is a far simpler setup.

You probably know this already but if not just put the electrodes closer together.

Calcium amoniom nitreat next time

and here i was told electrolysis of urea wouldn't do anything

:)

If you provide free Beer I can produce all the free Urea you need😁

"U-tube..." 🤭

Why not let it go a week? Just pop in on it during the week, what effort? It runs in the background lol

Why did I click this

Yo man. The fact of the matter is that the voltage used in this process is too big for the volume and shape you are using. You need a bigger (at least 2l) container and the same process as where you produce hydrogen and oxygen. Instead of nickel, try using stainless steel. It should do the correct math of what you were speaking about in the video.

I would not touch robbert murry smith's channel...not much to see there... anyone subbed to channels like this won't get much from him.... though there might be a few videos worth watching. Just saying lol

Murry Smith just want to make batteries, not even good ones.

Mmmmm pee science. I wonder if this can be used on urine after you distill it to remove it from solution. Doing research on purfying urine into drinking water, and using the leftovers for other stuff lol.

U-tube 😅