Turning a plastic soda bottle into foam 

I totally forgot to add at the beginning that the video was sponsored by Skillshare. I am really sorry about that.

" I tried jamming my thumb into it, and it seemed relatively tough. But then it just kinda exploded" Nile Red -2018

Slowly but surely becoming an arts and crafts channel.

I love how you calmly explain all the details including smashing plates, your lack of painting skills, jamming your thumb into things until they explode, and smashing things.

James Bond: and this is my mother, Bond, Ester Bond

I know literally nothing about science, but I love your videos!

"So I just resorted to smashing it"... yeah, that's usually my approach to problem-solving

For me as a polymer engineer, it really was a pleasure to watch this video. Great stuff!

Alternative title: “How to poison your friends with toxic honey”

If I might suggest an edit, kind sir: Near the end of the skillshare promo, after showing the prussian blue stick figure, "Since I have been using the art courses on skillshare..." then cut to a still shot of the Mona Lisa.

2:15 I guess you could say It was a pain in the neck

I should mention that the commercial polyurethane foams are much thinner than your gooey chemical, I don't know why, or if they added some kind of a thinner to make it flowable. But it seems like a good way to recycle PET bottles and make home insulation on the cheap. Why aren't the bottles recycled more often and ending up polluting the seas? In Europe they have bottle deposits where you get your deposit back by turning it back into the shop.

I just spent the last 2 months doing research on polyurethanes. Good work

“I added some boiling chips I got from smashing a porcelain plate.” 🤣

I've been bamboozled. Just 2 days ago I was thinking to myself "NileRed should do a video on recycling plastic" and now I see this.

1:40 I'm jealous that you get to have blackberry ginger ale. That sounds delicious.

12:22 NileASMR

Can you use the prussian blue that you made previously to colour the polyurethane foam?

I'm so excited for more videos about recycling like this! The thought that I might be able to reuse my plastic waste to mold polyurethane foam that I use for puppetry and art is highly appealing. Not only would it be a fun gimmick to say "Yes, this puppet was made possible because of my addiction to Dr. Pepper!" but if it is possible to mold, than it would be much easier to get the shapes I want this way than from attempting to sculpt (because cutting soft foam is a pain).

Thank you for posting your videos with as much detail and labeling as you do. I love the precise and methodical thought that you can tell goes into your process. Cheers!

After i noticed a new video i got so happy! This sweetened my horrible day at work

NileRed: "I thought that it looked like a really thicc honey." Me: pays closer attention

"TDI is toxic especially by inhalation" Nice VW burn there :)

I have to remove thick oil from Rotovap flasks all the time. Instead of using the heat gun, which I used to do, simply use a heat lamp and patience. That way it gently works by itself with no one to attend.

Aww yeah new NileRed video! Honestly I wanna be just like you when I'm older. There's nothing I want more than to be a chemical engineer working in a lab

@12:45 "This isn't even my final foam!"

I have a PET plant in my back yard. I can always tell when they're running. It produces a very distinctive odor. Kind of a mix between sulfur and vinegar. It's not terribly strong or offensive. Depending on the stage of the production it can even have a fruity smell.

*when a youtuber makes more sense than your actual teacher* -teacher, you have failed me- Literally

I'd love to see more pigment chemistry

0:01 most plastic water mmmmmhhhh Plastic water Yes I know he was talking about the bottles

PLEASE DO THE "HARD RESIN" VERSION! Many people in the boating industry would love you.

Try dampening your silicone moulds before you let the foam expand in them. When insulating lofts with PU foam, there's a general procedure of spraying them with water to encourage expansion and this might help help getting it out of the container at the end too.

As I understand it you can use a simple cotton candy maker from Walmart to spin out threads from recycled pop bottles. Just chop into little shreds and run it instead of sugar. I've never done this however apparently it is being done to produce synthetic fibers in 3rd world countries.

You could totally make an ASMR video with that foam.

When working in plastic production we made ABS foam by adding sodium bicarbonate into the rotation moulding chamber where the molten plastic was. It was actual store bought baking powder used for the first run. Worked like a charm.

5:45 Forbidden beer

I was waiting for a new video!

Pretty nice video! I actually did my thesis about chemical recycling of PET, but we used aminoalcohols. Keep up the good work.

Doing a college project on recycling, chose this video as the basis for my project. Worked pretty good! I started with some slightly colored PET and it ended up in a green foam lmao

1:24 *sigma bottle* Respect 💪

Polyurethane is pretty good stuff for a lot of uses, but it sure does make terrible condoms.

Your crushing it! I would love to see your approach recycling the different plastic and maybe some enzyme reactions for less landfill waste.

What an excellent video! I have always been curious on how polyurethane foam was made! Now I know how to make it!

These videos are so chill and calming, plus i get to feel like i learned something

Great video, I worked a year in PU foam development and because of you I had to dig out all my old paperwork... Feeling really nostalgic now :) If you want a few tips for the foaming process, just let me know!

Nice video! I was somewhat scared when the isocyanate was added. After I made a few of these foams back in the lab, it seems very reactive to me. Imagine the fast polymerisation within a round bottom flask and its small neck...

Yeeeeeeees! While you're at it, could you also do cost comparisons at different scales of productions against commercial products like Smooth-on?

Hello, watching this video reminds me of something that I once witnessed while I was in high school. Some people from General Motors came to our school and put on a presentation in the auditorium that as far as I can remember was all science related. The thing I remember most vividly though was them putting some chemicals in a clear beaker or possibly just a bottle of some sort and then just holding their thumb over the end as they walked around on stage a couple of minutes shaking it as they described what was happening in the beaker. In the end the guy tipped the opening towards the audience and pulled his thumb off as one would if spraying some one with a shaken carbonated beverage. What popped out of the bottle / beaker though was a pretty good size chunk of a soft white foam that was instantly formed and able to handled with out any stickiness or anything. Whoever caught it was prompted to bring it up on stage and they proceeded to demonstrate how energy absorbing it was and I think at one point even throwing and egg at it without breaking it. I think they may have said it was or was similar to what the padding in padded dashes was made from but I may be wrong. I am almost 70 now so this was long ago, probably about 1965 or 1966. It might make a cool video if you have any idea what they did. Best I can remember the liquid in the bottle was clear to start out but the color might have changed as the guy was walking around and shaking it to a grey color.

6:16 I just noticed that this looks like a really thicc light beer.

That foam seems like it might make decent modeling foam. The long cure time is actually kind of nice, so it's more workable for a decent amount of time before you've settled on the final geometry but then hardens to be a more durable product if you want to use it for a mockup or something and don't have to worry about moving it around. I'd be curious about further dimensional changes over the entire cure cycle.

Thank you for saying where you got the stuff, it's always annoying when someone says "you can get these from your local chemistry shop" like that's a normal thing that people live near

Incredibly complex and detailed. Gold work as always sir.

nile red: an amine group me: aN aNimE gRouP?!?

Are we going to get to see "fiberglass" resin? I have a lot of bottles lying around the house if the procedure is cost-effective id really like to turn them into resin!

Your experiments are at a totally other level!!. Good job

I really like that you are finding your inner artistic self!

I know nothing about plastics, that’s one thing I learned from this video... Interesting video!

6:10 tasty beer 7:59 yummy honey 12:30 puffed rice cake

I watch this and ponder what it would be like to make a front lining to a shield out of a softer variety of this. Perhaps a layer of metal, a layer of the foam, and then a layer of wood with a handle to make a shield that could perhaps absorb a blow from a blunt object.

To cut pet in really small pieces to be easy to process, heat it in mild heat (120c) to harden, then grind it in a coffee grinder. Heat may degrade it somewhat.

8:07 and he we witness what could've potentially become the second pitch drop experiment

"Then it just kinda exploded" *lightly falls apart" I was expecting an explosion (I'm not good at chemistry, don't judge me)

Please explore the sponges!!! So interesting using wasted plastic to clean up other potential plastics

As an injection moulder for PU (hard PU using an MDI based pre-polymer), you can use something like Ambersill PUR 400 Silicone Mould release which means you'll get clean removal for PU.

This was more of a chemistry lesson than I was expecting. Was very interesting even if the particulars of esters and glycols might require repeated mentions in other videos to really sink into my knowledge base.

I really like your videos, I'd love to see a video on how these processes are achieved, I imagine a chemist trowing stuff into a beaker and heating it up until something happens😂

You are my favourite channel on RU-vid and this video highlights why . I am so engrossed by things that I would otherwise completely overlook awesome video

Neat seems like you made a closed cell foam. I'd love to see you make the open cell variant, possibly memory foam.

I love how the caffeine molecule looks like a sun. 😂

Try a mold release agent next time, before filling.

I love this dude, he has some very interesting videos and also educative. Nice job

5:50 the forbidden beer

At 6:39 I read the lower part of the diagram as anime group. I had to do a double take 😂🤷‍♂️

is it possible that in future you could use a mold release like people do when casting with resin or do you think it would react in an odd way?

Yippee another NileRed video!! Makes me happy :D

You could add a release wax/agent to the mold to get a better quality impression. Also this could be great insulation, test thermal conductivity if you want.

"Into a flask, I added some boiling chips, that I got by smashing a porcelain plate." Well, that's one way to do it...

could you make the kevlar syntesis?

bro this is wild, you really think outside the box with your videos. great stuff!!!!!!!!

The kids and I love watching even if we dont understand all the chemicals stuff. We get the gist and its fun to watch. We also love that you show your mistakes and how you learn from them.

Just curious, what do you do while waiting for the various chemical reactions to happen or the temp to go up or down?

6:30 I read “An anime group”

8:17 "forbidden honey"

THIS IS THE VIDEO I WAS WAITING FOR will you please try the other reactions I am very curious about breaking down different plastics THANK YOU

FBI: Did you say RICIN?

A few years back, someone threw out a beer brewing barrel, and it got blown out of their bin, it was made with PET, so I threw it in our recycling bin, the bin fairies refused to empty the bin stating that the barrel was "not recyclable", apparently they need educating in what PET is, I did get them to take it though, I just buried it at the bottom of the bin so they didn't see it when they emptied the bin... :P

I’ve done similar reactions. Polymer chemistry is pretty cool.

I'm looking forward to the mentioned follow up video on turning PET into fiberglass resin

For a higher PET level would you need more Diethylene Glycol? Is there a specific ratio of DG to Plastic? I'm an amateur so i don't really know, sorry

"I also tried flattening it, but that didn't really work either, so I just resorted to smashing it." You sure are creative in applying violence :v

Thank you !

I LOVE THAT MERCURY--ALUMINUM "SCULPTURE" - IT LOOKS LIKE TASTEFUL MODERN ART

Ah that’s how Adidas makes ultraboost

You never covered the other form of recycling

These ASMR vibes while cutting the foam 😍

Nice editing in the hand-mixing part!

I ordered some lab stuff and chemicals from amazon and during my first experiment the FBI raided my garage. ;/

5:43 looks like beer lol

The ricinoleic acid triglyceride ester in castor oil, having 3 hydroxyl groups, contributes to formation of crosslinks (unlike the PET derived diol, which would only make a linear thermoplastic polymer when reacted with the toluene diisocyanate). The foam thus prepared is a thermosetting polymer which is rigid and cannot be melted by heating. The long chain structure of the ricinoleic acid triglyceride ester in the castor oil probably also prevents the foam from being too brittle. I think that's why castor oil is added. Of course, it being a renewable resource only helps. Polymer chemistry is fascinating af.

I sprayed Rhino Linings for 14 years, and researched urethanes and polymers a few times over the years. Good video. I have been subscribed for a bout a year and watch every video. I can't grasp most of it, but I'm learning and experiments are always fun. Keep it up. I wish my channel would grow as fast as yours has. :D