I react sodium metal with potassium chloride at high temperatures to obtain potassium metal. NightHawk's Video: • Experiments For Isolat... Help me make videos by donating here: / codyslab
hey nighthawk, do you or cody have the possibilities to recreat nurd rages method of reducing potassium hydroxide with magnesium metal using a tertiary alcohol as a catalyst?
I've messed with the method without success. I only have finely powdered magnesium and I believe it would work better with turnings. If I get a new magnesium supply I may try it again.
NightHawkInLight actually i think it didn't work in this case because the Mg was so chunky. you need fine powder if it doesn't melt, otherwise you have low surface area and slow rate.
I really appreciate how you are so informative but relaxing at the same time. So many channels on CZcams are informative but try to be super high-energy. I like to grab some coffee in the morning and sit down by my window and watch one of your videos.
What I really love about his experiments is that sometimes they fail. And with that, he figures out what went wrong and gives it another go. It adds a sense of realism you just don't get with other channels and their videos.
Dear Cody, Most of the time I don't know what you are talking about but I try to make out some of it. It's probably because I'm in 6th grade. I'm really interested in this stuff. Not making it but just watching you do it. I really like your metal refining series I think that you should keep making more of those videos. Anyways I just came down here to give you support and that you are doing awesome and keep up the good work! Thanks for being amazing! -Sincerely, David, A Supporting Fan
I really like that you have the multiple attempts that you perform on experiments like this. I feel like I learn a lot more seeing the various ways you retry and figure out how to improve results.
In Sweden we also say Natrium & Kalium. At first I mixed them alot in English but eventually I got it right. Same weird thing goes for [W] (Tungsten in English), In Swedish we say Wolfram for the element and tungsten from the mineralrock Wolfram is mined from.
I can't believe I'm this lucky again, its just been few minutes since you've uploaded your video, I hope this time you'll reply, I've early comments on your last 5 consecutive videos, I just wanted to say much love from India, I do am quite much like you, hoping to move to The states and meet you soon, anyway great video, the best CZcams channel, just we would really love more MARS videos, Cody you rock!
Your problem is not the synthesis, it is the temperature. It probably forms NaK inside the reaction vessel, and then the NaK is distilled out. Potassium boils at 759 deg C, while NaK, depending on the ratio, boils at around 785 deg C. So it should theoretically be possible to get pure potassium, but you need active temperature control. You could see if your university has any inert gas furnaces, and do the experiment in that.
I know very little about all the Chemistry you do, but I stay glued to my monitor to watch every Vid you make. Cody, you make this science soo interesting and cool
If I remember correctly, its price is on par with gold. Also it has not that remarkable chemistry and is used mostly in special alloys. I don't think there's a reason to create a video about it.
It might be possible to do this with lithium in place of sodium. The reason K is formed is not because of an equilibrium rather that Na has a higher oxidation potential (it's higher on the activity series). Lithium has a higher oxidation potential than sodium, thus it will also displace potassium, and lithium is much harder to boil.
Hey Cody, I was wondering if maybe your reaction with the magnesium metal wasn't as successful because your chunks were so large and there was very little surface area for the displacement to take place. I'm by no means an expert on the topic, but I can't help but feel possibly grinding the magnesium might produce a better effect.
great stuff cody it brings me back to a potassium experiment that my science teacher did in high school for my class with a chunk of potassium and having it explode.
Valdez is crazy in the winter, 10-15 foot of snow and all the roads and driveways are notched out. Anchorage is where I was born, to me it's the best place in Alaska.. But alaska is shit in general in my opinion
How high is the temperature for KCl to fall apart by itself without sodium as a reaction partner? Why didn't the kork pop out of the bottle. You must have generated a huge pressure by heating the air in the tube.
How high is the temperature for KCl to fall apart by itself without sodium as a reaction partner? Why didn't the kork pop out of the bottle. You must have generated a huge pressure by heating the air in the tube.
You can get pure enough magnesium metal from a variety of sources. One is from camp fire starter kits that you can get at almost any outdoor supply shop, even at a walmart and sometimes a hardware store that sells camping equipment. Online you can also get magnesium powder. This last suggestion is far less reliable, but a CNC shop may be able to get you some magnesium filings, or scrap left over from milling magnesium parts.
What if you used magnesium powder and a small amount of sodium in with the potassium chloride? I have little experience in chemistry, but is it possible the reaction with sodium might kickstart a reaction with the magnesium? I really don't know how this stuff works, but I'm fascinated.
***** It will also act as a surface cleaner, since magnesium is covered by oxide layer even if it's melted, when it's not moving. I'm pretty sure Mg in MgNa alloy will be more reactive. Also it's may help to have a good mix of Mg powder with KCl, because they have different melting points and densities, they probably separated too much in your experiment.
But the general community may not be too happy with a super radioactive substance thrown into a lake. Hell I don't even think Cody would be too happy with such an idea. +OtterTheDave
I've made a video about the reaction of potassium carbonate with magnesium metal. That would work perfectly in your apparatus. You can also heat up potassium hydroxide until it's red hot, then it is anhydrous and forms potassium metal with magnesium in a quite smooth reaction. You can find a whole paper about it online called sth. like "Alkali metals from salts".
Why can't you electrolyze molten potassium chloride? It would produce chlorine gas, but you could probably deal with that by directing the vapors through a tube to react it with something like hydrogen gas
But just barley a gas because it vaporizes at 1400F and will condense way before the Chloride does. Have the top of the pipe below 1400 and the potassium will condense back.
Why is this age restricted? Who tries to censor science?? Unbelievable. I would have loved to be able to see this kind of chemistry when I was a kid. No wonder society seems to be in intellectual decline
Education itserlf has the goal of keeping the kids, i meant, the humans, away from knowledge. How do you think they are gona stablish the whole monopoly otherwise?
Oliver Jelinek No, it doesn't make any sense. The increments of measurement have no pattern, and are hard to visualize. Once one becomes used to the metric system, it makes far more sense.
Great video, I always learn something new from you. I haven't had a chance to look at the numbers, but maybe consider using potassium nitrate instead of potassium chloride.
Cody - love the way you go as you go, showing mishaps, mistakes, and unexpected results. It's the one channel I can always count on; the video always reflects the click bait so to speak. You're confidant Grant Thompson is another. Thank you!!
Cody'sLab-- Love your channel. Been watching it for years. I was thinking it could be interesting to see an alkali metal + h2o reaction but with the water under higher than atmospheric pressure. it seems that these reactions are limited by the amount of steam produced limiting the surface area exposed to the water as well as the time its exposed. perhaps putting the entire reaction under pressure could yield some interesting results?
Hello Cody, very interesting video. I do have 2 suggestions to improve this setup. The first would be to put the sodium in first and the salt on top, using more finely crushed salt. This should help keep the sodium with the salt, also use the sodium as the limited reactant. This should help you get more pure potassium.
Hello Cody, first congretulation for your channel, i love it! Second, i have a idea to making directory potassium or sodium metal, why dont make a soap with NaoH or KoH, mineral oil, or olive oil then distille the soap. hydrogen will leave, still only oil and K or Na. Let's them colding, maay be repeat twice time the process. What do you think about that?? Thanks to answer
I used to make Potassium by igniting a mix of Potassiumhydroxide and Magnesium powder. After it stopped reacting I dumped it into mineral oil, broke up the clumps and poured in a bit of water. The Potassium drops will start to react with the water, flow to the top and go into the mineral oil layer where I would grab them with some pliers.
does Cody reply to comments? if you do and you see this, your doing an awesome job and have rekindled my love for science since I first started watching your videos.... thankyou!.
the problem here is that since the beginning was a null result it caused a nullpointerexception to be thrown, to fix that try putting a try, catch statement around the pipe or doing a null check
You might have seen this allready, but Nurdrage has an old video on making potassium. He removed it/made it unlisted on youtube, but it can still be found on a website called transcriptvids. His method involves reducing KOH with magnesium metal. It needs a tertiary alcohol catalyst to work, tho.. And it doesn't really make large pieces of potassium, unless the reaction is carried out in a solvent that's denser than potassium. But worth looking into =D
"Age restricted,"
CZcams - "Chemistry is scary, oh no!"
mike pk666 oh thats why its restricted
I'm kinda pissed
Probably because of the pipe....looking....device.....
lets be honest they dont want 13-15 year olds attempting anything cody does
I know right for I know enough to get me in trouble
You've done what I could not. Great job! Very cool to see a positive result.
hey nighthawk, do you or cody have the possibilities to recreat nurd rages method of reducing potassium hydroxide with magnesium metal using a tertiary alcohol as a catalyst?
NightHawkInLight you're really annoyed Cody beat you to it.
I've messed with the method without success. I only have finely powdered magnesium and I believe it would work better with turnings. If I get a new magnesium supply I may try it again.
Nighthawk you should try catalytic decomposition of potassium chloride!
NightHawkInLight actually i think it didn't work in this case because the Mg was so chunky. you need fine powder if it doesn't melt, otherwise you have low surface area and slow rate.
I'm glad you show your failures. It's very instructive, too.
Sodium to potassium. Honestly i though i was about to see some alchemy.
He did.
Also another quick question, what vacuum pump to you use ( I'm am going to buy one soon and so would you advise and brand ? )
you know, i've not taken chemistry yet and don't fully understand everything you do; however it's still extremely entertaining to learn from.
I really appreciate how you are so informative but relaxing at the same time. So many channels on CZcams are informative but try to be super high-energy. I like to grab some coffee in the morning and sit down by my window and watch one of your videos.
What I really love about his experiments is that sometimes they fail. And with that, he figures out what went wrong and gives it another go. It adds a sense of realism you just don't get with other channels and their videos.
Dear Cody,
Most of the time I don't know what you are talking about but I try to make out some of it. It's probably because I'm in 6th grade. I'm really interested in this stuff. Not making it but just watching you do it. I really like your metal refining series I think that you should keep making more of those videos. Anyways I just came down here to give you support and that you are doing awesome and keep up the good work! Thanks for being amazing!
-Sincerely,
David, A Supporting Fan
Can you try to cold weld in your Vacuum Chamber? I already asked this but I just want to make sure this has a bigger probability of reaching you.
he already knows about it, he said so in one of his videos,
oh cool
Lehtaan check his Q&A je said he'll do it
in case you never heard, he recently made a video of him trying to ^^
How do you manipulate the objects to test for strength of the bond inside a vacuum chamber
I really like that you have the multiple attempts that you perform on experiments like this. I feel like I learn a lot more seeing the various ways you retry and figure out how to improve results.
your channel is awesome! i love to watch your experiments with different elements. keep up the awesome work man!
Loving the recent increase in the frequency of videos :D
Took me a while to recall that sodium = natrium and (even longer) potassium = kalium
In Sweden we also say Natrium & Kalium. At first I mixed them alot in English but eventually I got it right.
Same weird thing goes for [W] (Tungsten in English), In Swedish we say Wolfram for the element and tungsten from the mineralrock Wolfram is mined from.
its awesome seeing a channel like this blowing up. well deserved
Very creative and imaginative, Cody! Definitely a thumbs up!!
I can't believe I'm this lucky again, its just been few minutes since you've uploaded your video, I hope this time you'll reply, I've early comments on your last 5 consecutive videos, I just wanted to say much love from India, I do am quite much like you, hoping to move to The states and meet you soon, anyway great video, the best CZcams channel, just we would really love more MARS videos, Cody you rock!
Your problem is not the synthesis, it is the temperature. It probably forms NaK inside the reaction vessel, and then the NaK is distilled out. Potassium boils at 759 deg C, while NaK, depending on the ratio, boils at around 785 deg C. So it should theoretically be possible to get pure potassium, but you need active temperature control. You could see if your university has any inert gas furnaces, and do the experiment in that.
I love your videos. Make as many as possible!
I know very little about all the Chemistry you do, but I stay glued to my monitor to watch every Vid you make.
Cody, you make this science soo interesting and cool
Hey Cody, can you do a video on scandium? Nobody ever talks about it :)
Probably the rare supplies and the price
Jason Box Nobidium, Vandium, or scandium.
If I remember correctly, its price is on par with gold. Also it has not that remarkable chemistry and is used mostly in special alloys. I don't think there's a reason to create a video about it.
Make a couple pounds of Francium.
Coleman Christy There's only ever a few grams of francium in the world at once.
I have no clue about chemistry... but I Iove it!
Sweet! Great job Cody!
Thank you for explaining your theory and hypothesis! I totally get how it is all supposed to work. Thanks again!
ROAD TO A MILLION SUBS~!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is that road paved with bricks of potassium?
louis tournas Hope it doesn't rain...
that would be quite dangerous
I would love to see a million subs on the hour of new years eve; that would be special...
Camid Daveron I like that
It might be possible to do this with lithium in place of sodium. The reason K is formed is not because of an equilibrium rather that Na has a higher oxidation potential (it's higher on the activity series). Lithium has a higher oxidation potential than sodium, thus it will also displace potassium, and lithium is much harder to boil.
TheGinginator14 exactly what I was thinking
TheGinginator14 HA NERDDD..jkjk
You should actually be able to just make potassium via electrolysis if you have a solid chunk of Lithium since it's oxidized easier than K.
He said it at the end lol
sodium has higher (less reactive) electrode potential than potassium so it is due to equilibrium
I have been looking for this for a long time. I have only found how to make potassium nitrate. Thank you mate!!!
loving these regular uploads
Great video Cody!!
ALCHEMY!!! SORCERY!!! WIZARD!!! STONE HIM FOR THIS HERESY!!
Nah, just kidding. chemistry is freaking cool.
Idiot
Slarty , don't talk about your self like that.
what a goober!
smh
Burn him! He's a witch!
GalaxyOfWaffles # please stop. not all of us are religious.
Awesome job Cody!!
holy cow Cody, you have come so far! you're nearly there to 1 million subscribers, keep up the amazing content!
Hey Cody, I was wondering if maybe your reaction with the magnesium metal wasn't as successful because your chunks were so large and there was very little surface area for the displacement to take place. I'm by no means an expert on the topic, but I can't help but feel possibly grinding the magnesium might produce a better effect.
How can we help you get a better chance of getting to Mars on Mars One?
I love this guy. He's got me so interested in chemistry and I'm mainly watching historical documentary on chemical discovery for fun. I enjoy it
Love the videos, man. You deserve the success.
Why didn't you grind up the potassium chloride into a powder? Does it work better in large chunks?
Well it will be a liquid any way.
But maybe it would have more surface area to react faster and evaporate less sodium?
Rihards Rožāns negligible difference, not worth the effort.
So success is a negligible difference to you? Would hate to see how you live.
I don't think it would make a difference, but powder form would probably be the more efficient method.
For some reason this whole thing screams "Pipe Bomb" to me haha
Kinda small for a pipe bomb...
You would know :D
Cody'sLab savage
anonymous you can get argon gas from a welding supply store
Ethan Knight so true
cool vid cody your metal vids are always interesting
great stuff cody it brings me back to a potassium experiment that my science teacher did in high school for my class with a chunk of potassium and having it explode.
why do you look more like a viking in every video?
What's wrong with looking like a badass viking?
Cody I plan on visiting Alaska. Where did you stay during your visit? I'm thinking about Valdez.
Thanks.
I stayed in anchorage.
Valdez is crazy in the winter, 10-15 foot of snow and all the roads and driveways are notched out. Anchorage is where I was born, to me it's the best place in Alaska.. But alaska is shit in general in my opinion
Nice work cody. Thanks for converting the temperature and for showing the chemical equasion. Many european viewers were hoping for it.
How high is the temperature for KCl to fall apart by itself without sodium as a reaction partner?
Why didn't the kork pop out of the bottle. You must have generated a huge pressure by heating the air in the tube.
How high is the temperature for KCl to fall apart by itself without sodium as a reaction partner?
Why didn't the kork pop out of the bottle. You must have generated a huge pressure by heating the air in the tube.
this is just one of The coolest channels there is
put a bath bomb in water, in the vacuum chamber
I'm liking the idea, an alka seltzer tablet may be more doable though..
Cody'sLab sounds good!!! 👍
Do it. Also, are you using a cold trap bud?
what was the magnesium plate like thing you where cutting up?
Cody'sLab yes for sure definatly 😀😀😀😀
What the hell is that magnesium sheet from?
Iron Bridge where*
Iron Bridge
Google "magnesium plasterers hawk"
No, what.
I want to know what it was he got it from.
Masonry supply store
You can get pure enough magnesium metal from a variety of sources. One is from camp fire starter kits that you can get at almost any outdoor supply shop, even at a walmart and sometimes a hardware store that sells camping equipment.
Online you can also get magnesium powder. This last suggestion is far less reliable, but a CNC shop may be able to get you some magnesium filings, or scrap left over from milling magnesium parts.
Almost to 1 mill cody u have came a long way. :)
I subbed Cody nice vids btw that was flipping cool
What if you used magnesium powder and a small amount of sodium in with the potassium chloride? I have little experience in chemistry, but is it possible the reaction with sodium might kickstart a reaction with the magnesium? I really don't know how this stuff works, but I'm fascinated.
Humm like a catalyst? might be on to something.
*****
It will also act as a surface cleaner, since magnesium is covered by oxide layer even if it's melted, when it's not moving. I'm pretty sure Mg in MgNa alloy will be more reactive. Also it's may help to have a good mix of Mg powder with KCl, because they have different melting points and densities, they probably separated too much in your experiment.
you have a random plate of pure magnesium? or am i the only who finds it odd
Phoenix2079x it's a plasterers hawk
Knaks G oh
Ferro rods are magnesium. You can buy them at walmart for like $5
Phoenix2079x Please, that's not weird for cody. XD
Ferrocerium rods are only 4% magnesium, what you want is something purer
Love u cody! Great vids!
awesome streak of videos lately
Cody, can you make a video on cesium?
It's damn expensive. 100 eur+ per gram soooo
cesium salts are cheaper and you can displace/distill it off to obtain cesium metal.
Did u see that on the brainiac show or whatever, in the tub? it's fake just fyi. very exxagurated
Yeah, not denying that. But a gram wont blow ur hand off
Cesium is indeed more reactive but it has much fewer atoms per gram so a gram of cesium would release less energy than a gram of sodium or potassium.
For your 1mil subscriber special You should toss some Francium in a lake
Positive Traction francium is so unstable that you can only get it by synthethes in a lab and it is super radioactive :/
joao diogo queiros delille I'm ok with that :-)
But the general community may not be too happy with a super radioactive substance thrown into a lake. Hell I don't even think Cody would be too happy with such an idea.
+OtterTheDave
TheFinisher0 well, who cares about the general community. I think it's illegal
Fine, Caesium, then.
seriously impressive cody.
you are living alot of peoples dream.
I've made a video about the reaction of potassium carbonate with magnesium metal. That would work perfectly in your apparatus. You can also heat up potassium hydroxide until it's red hot, then it is anhydrous and forms potassium metal with magnesium in a quite smooth reaction. You can find a whole paper about it online called sth. like "Alkali metals from salts".
Didn't look like magnesium looked more like zinc
When will the next cody mine video be out?
he is not going to do any more actual mining
CAPT. PHAMSA he said he might do more mining but don't expect to many mining videos soon
CAPT. PHAMSA it's getting very cold outside
His heavy metal blood concentration is plating out in his liver and veins, so he has to ease off so he stops setting off metal detectors
love your youtube videos keep it up!!
beautifully done.
Why can't you electrolyze molten potassium chloride? It would produce chlorine gas, but you could probably deal with that by directing the vapors through a tube to react it with something like hydrogen gas
Potassium would also be a gas.
Cody'sLab Oh
But just barley a gas because it vaporizes at 1400F and will condense way before the Chloride does. Have the top of the pipe below 1400 and the potassium will condense back.
Why is this video age restricted
because chemistry = terrorism
Well Cody, I guess if your CZcams stuff doesn't go well you could always break bad... great and interesting vid as always
I saw you attaching the tube to the pipe cap and I'm like "THAT'S BRAZING, NOT WELDING!" Good video, as always :)
... AGE RESTRICTED .... ? REALLY ?? THIS VIDEO ???
hey cody could you give me a link to your twitter account. there are a lot of fake ones.
I dont have a twitter
/thread
Cody'sLab hi
I really enjoy your videos. I feel like I'm just here for the entertainment, but I think I'm learning something.
cool and fascinating. You mentioned in an earlier video something about no more mining videoes. I would still like also the mining videoes.
Why is this age restricted? Who tries to censor science?? Unbelievable. I would have loved to be able to see this kind of chemistry when I was a kid. No wonder society seems to be in intellectual decline
Education itserlf has the goal of keeping the kids, i meant, the humans, away from knowledge. How do you think they are gona stablish the whole monopoly otherwise?
285,945th view
Always a pleasure Cody I think you've got a NaK for this
love these vids
Why do American scientists still use Imperial measurements. It's so wrong
nah m8 .... until u measure me one in cm or dm
It drives all other scientists crazy, and that is very amusing. What other reason do you need?
they are not wrong
I like imperial it makes sense
Oliver Jelinek No, it doesn't make any sense. The increments of measurement have no pattern, and are hard to visualize. Once one becomes used to the metric system, it makes far more sense.
I like pizza
Tristan CF me too
Tristan CF pizza with sodium topping
BMAN488877 I always burn the crust on my turtles.
Pizza made you turn brown and hairy!
What's pizza gotta do with this? Lol
Cody you're awesome, you deserve a 10 million subscribers! XD
I just learned about single replacement reactions in chemistry, cool example!!
Great video, I always learn something new from you. I haven't had a chance to look at the numbers, but maybe consider using potassium nitrate instead of potassium chloride.
Cody - love the way you go as you go, showing mishaps, mistakes, and unexpected results. It's the one channel I can always count on; the video always reflects the click bait so to speak. You're confidant Grant Thompson is another. Thank you!!
4:00 "OK, it exploded" - I love it when things work out well
Thanks my friend for this video
Cody, your Awesome!
Judging by the color of the flame. That’s why Cody’s a badass you can’t just slip anything past this dude!
It's amazing how easy (said in the loosest possible meaning!) it is to extract metals from everyday stuff... :)
love your intros cody
great video Cody, may I suggest turning out the lights for one or two of those reactions?
Awesome (still Aluminium is my favorite).
Just dropping the NaK into water while Na bottle left open next to it was a thrill to watch :P
Cody'sLab-- Love your channel. Been watching it for years. I was thinking it could be interesting to see an alkali metal + h2o reaction but with the water under higher than atmospheric pressure. it seems that these reactions are limited by the amount of steam produced limiting the surface area exposed to the water as well as the time its exposed. perhaps putting the entire reaction under pressure could yield some interesting results?
Great job.
I love your videos
Hello Cody, very interesting video. I do have 2 suggestions to improve this setup. The first would be to put the sodium in first and the salt on top, using more finely crushed salt. This should help keep the sodium with the salt, also use the sodium as the limited reactant. This should help you get more pure potassium.
Making science accessible to the rest of us. Thanks Cody!
how did one of codys videos get age gated this is one of the most educational channels on youtube and entertaining
"it's all melty" - Cody you crack me up.
Hello Cody,
first congretulation for your channel, i love it!
Second, i have a idea to making directory potassium or sodium metal, why dont make a soap with NaoH or KoH, mineral oil, or olive oil then distille the soap. hydrogen will leave, still only oil and K or Na. Let's them colding, maay be repeat twice time the process.
What do you think about that??
Thanks to answer
i dont even know what he is talking about half the time but his videos are still really cool.
I used to make Potassium by igniting a mix of Potassiumhydroxide and Magnesium powder.
After it stopped reacting I dumped it into mineral oil, broke up the clumps and poured in a bit of water.
The Potassium drops will start to react with the water, flow to the top and go into the mineral oil layer where I would grab them with some pliers.
does Cody reply to comments?
if you do and you see this, your doing an awesome job and have rekindled my love for science since I first started watching your videos.... thankyou!.
Grant and Cody synced their uploads. So happy :D
the problem here is that since the beginning was a null result it caused a nullpointerexception to be thrown, to fix that try putting a try, catch statement around the pipe or doing a null check
You might have seen this allready, but Nurdrage has an old video on making potassium. He removed it/made it unlisted on youtube, but it can still be found on a website called transcriptvids.
His method involves reducing KOH with magnesium metal. It needs a tertiary alcohol catalyst to work, tho.. And it doesn't really make large pieces of potassium, unless the reaction is carried out in a solvent that's denser than potassium. But worth looking into =D