in today’s video we are going to be
showing you some experiments using
gallium aluminum and acid we’ve done
some fun experiments with gallium in the
past including making some little Lego
men full gallium copy of my face and
we’ve just melted it down and played
with it today we want to look at a
little bit more of some of the chemistry
behind gallium and how it reacts with
some other stuff here’s the basic idea
we are going to be taking our gallium
and we are going to be putting it
through a few basic tests to show you
just how difficult it is so gallium is
the element 31 and it’s actually in the
same family some metals that you may be
familiar with like aluminum but there
are some vast differences and we want to
show you what some of those are most
famously gallium has a melting
temperature that is way lower than
aluminum and lower than almost any other
metal this cast of my face is probably
about 60% of all of the gallium we have
maybe more and we need it for some
experiments so this unfortunately is now
going to get destroyed
my face is now melted so we’ve got
plenty of liquid gallium to play with
let’s see what we can do with it
gallium melts to a liquid at about 85
and 1/2 degrees Fahrenheit which is
about 29 and a half degrees Celsius this
gallium which was on the stove even
though it was on its lowest setting is
quite a bit warmer than that hot enough
that it’s a little bit uncomfortable to
stick our hands in for any extended
period of time but we can still do it
for just a second you can see how it
reacts and moves so some people think
that gallium is toxic or not safe to
handle that’s simply not true
mercury which looks very similar is but
gallium as far as we know it’s just fine
what she says we she doesn’t mean we
didn’t do any research we as in all
tests indicate that metallic gallium is
safe one note
although it’s not toxic it does have a
tendency to stain a little bit like it
just leaves some residue well we don’t
feel like we need to be wearing gloves
for safety reasons we do like wearing
gloves for staining reasons this should
come off with just soap and water though
soda cans are made from aluminum and
aluminum reacts interestingly with
gallium we’re gonna do an experiment to
show that effect so the aluminum can has
like paint and it has a coating on it so
that your drink isn’t absorbing aluminum
as you’re drinking it so we’re gonna do
is we’re gonna sand the bottom of this
can a little bit we’re gonna pour some
of our molten gallium into a bowl and
we’re gonna set the can in there and
we’re gonna let it sit for a while and
see what it does
aluminum usually has an oxide layer on
it even when it’s not painted now that
actually keeps it from reacting with
water and other things but it’s also
good to keep it from reacting to the
gallium so not just the paint but the
oxide layer itself has to come off and
then you’ll actually see how quickly it
will soak that up perfect we’re gonna
place that on the stove in a spot that
keeps it warm just let it sit and absorb
this right here is some aluminum mesh
useful for a lot of things but right now
we’re just gonna use it because it’s
aluminum regular sheet of aluminum foil
you can tear it
it tears fairly easily but it also
doesn’t just fall apart nothing’s
happening to it however take a little
bit of a gallium we’ve got a little bead
out of there I’m just gonna spread that
[Music]
just destroyed this soda can has now
been sitting in this galleon for quite a
while we actually left a soda can in the
gallium overnight and so it’s really had
a chance to absorb a lot the gallium did
actually solidify at one point so it
wasn’t necessarily sitting in there like
constantly overnight because it only has
the effect when the gallium is actually
liquid and can be absorbed so it’s
several hours worth and and there’s
already some deformations that have
happened you can actually if you can see
into the can well you can see along this
side this entire side of the can is just
shattered also you can see if the can is
shorter like this can is raised up
higher at the bottom but it’s still
lower down than this one our can is just
I think melting down I want to try and
I’m gonna try and pick it up the bottom
is like oh the bottom just tore open
when it caught on this other piece of
the room okay so this is interesting
where that air bubble was where we
couldn’t actually get it very bottom
very bottom is just fine because there
was an air bubble protecting it from the
gallium so this is an aluminum can with
about the structural integrity of
aluminum foil vary a little yeah less
than aluminum foil and it’s it’s not
just where it was you can see that it
was cracking all the way up the edges
and this is just tearing as I touch it
like the newspaper oh there it goes
there so this this will recur fright now
I think is that the plastic coating
that’s on the inside of aluminum cans
which is now also soaked in gallium so
it looks like metal this right here so
has now had that coating removed so this
is just aluminum that’s soaked up
gallium it wasn’t in direct contact in
the bottom but just Falls to pieces
oh I mean a normal aluminum can’t isn’t
hard to crunch but it doesn’t fall into
pieces like that just did and most of
that can wasn’t in the gallium it was
just connected to it and it just drinks
the gallium up into the metal all right
Mich down down where it was in contact
is just falling apart
aluminum reacts to water we had a lot of
aluminum sitting in here I want to know
if this gallium will now react to water
even just a little bit it’s poured a
drip of water in see if it does anything
am this gallium soaked up so much
aluminum it’s now reacting to water now
if you saw our experiments before when
we were dripping the gallium into a
glass of water it wasn’t doing anything
it was just sort of peddling up this is
not gallium supposed to do this is the
aluminum so for our next test we are
actually going to try something that we
have seen before it’s called the gallium
beating heart now you take about two
grams worth of gallium you drop it into
sulfuric acid then you introduce a metal
rod it has to be an iron rod and when
you do that it causes the gallium to
expand and contract so fast it actually
looks like a beating heart so we’ve got
our six more concentration of sulfuric
acid here which has been warming up
gently on the stove it should be warm
enough that it will melt our two pieces
of gallium which will then form into
beads which are then joined together
we’ll start with one just in case
so the hydrogen is still coming off of
this but as soon as I touch it with a
piece of iron the gallium itself should
relax that’s what we want to have happen
as soon as I let go it’s gonna contract
and we want to see that change there you
go you can see the bead is moving it’s
not just being pushed by the iron it’s
actually reacting to the iron it’s
running away from it I’m not moving guys
it’s doing that on its own okay so this
is kind of cool as soon as he does that
you can see that the whole piece of
gallium relaxes so that’s what’s
happening here I think I’ve said it a
few times already but it’s contracting
and relaxing the iron is actually
causing it to relax so what’s causing
that little beating heart is that iron
comes in contact with it which makes it
relax just a little bit but it relaxes
out from under the iron so it’s no
longer touching the iron and so it beads
back up and then it beads back up and
touches the iron again and the whole
cycle just starts and goes over and over
which is also why we’re able to push it
another test we’re gonna try is this
rather solid aluminum bar we’ll just
sand this down a little bit and set it
in our warm gallium and this one we’re
actually going to let go for a while
this is going to be heating up on our
stove for about two days because I
really want to give it a chance to soak
through okay well we actually pulled a
cooking show trick and we didn’t put
this in and let it sit live right now I
put one of these bars into some gallium
two days ago and now we’re showing you
what happens when you pull it out but it
really has been sitting in for two days
so that complete intact
aluminum bar got eaten away a lot before
and after these were exactly the same
length too so one thing I do want to
test is the strength I don’t know how
this one will hold up to this one so I’m
just gonna take a hammer or onion hit
this one for a control test and I’m
gonna hit this one and see if it’s any
different I haven’t done this before so
it slightly dented it that’s about all
let’s try with this one well it wasn’t
as fragile as I thought it was gonna be
but it is definitely still coming apart
looks like metallic tree bark that’s
kind of coolest like aluminum core very
organic looking texture on it more
robust than I thought it was going to be
but this is not what happens to regular
aluminum that has just turned into
shards we have melted down some aluminum
in our furnace and now we have some
solid gallium pieces and we want to see
what happens if we put the solid gallium
into the liquid aluminum I know it will
melt them but I want to see if it’ll
melt them down well it will turn into
all one alloy and then see if that’s any
different
after we pour that out and let it cool
down it’s got some slag in it but it’s
the aluminum is reacting to the water
yep almost instantly yep that’s pretty
normal but we’re using sands so that all
of that reacting boiling water can
escape down and it doesn’t cause the
aluminum to pop up do you think it’s
actually going to stay together in one
piece or is it gonna be too brittle and
just fall apart
I think it’ll stay together I think it’s
gonna be a really really weak bar here
see okay this is what I want I want to
know
nope what just fall apart it’s just a
cell right apart see if that same thing
happens with the big ones but that is
very hot so far oh rumbly almost what
I’ve seen it’s not holding together at
all like it’s gonna form it’s gonna
solidify just fine but we’re gonna be
[Music]
we now have an alloy gallium and
aluminum here you can see what happens
when I drop it yes Jacques it’s fragile
Wow very fragile the world’s worst metal
to construct with gallium aluminium
alloy so this has just been soaking in
the water for just a minute and like I
think it’s actually extracting the
gallium from the aluminum here it’s just
all the water is reacting with the
aluminum and then what gets left behind
his little gallium silver beads our
aluminum gallium bar that we’ve broken
the lots of pieces has now been sitting
in the water overnight and I am very
surprised that will happen it’s amazing
I thought maybe it would like fall apart
a little bit but this is now you can’t
really see into the liquid the liquid is
just opaque gray but we still have
hydrogen rising so the gallium it’s
completely this is fun too because
what’s coming off with all these bubbles
forming okay but now check out check out
what happened sunny levels the metal rod
that we made we now have metallic sponge
it like it just absorbed water it just
pull this out apart sucking in the water
it barely holds itself together I can
squish it all of those bar pieces just
turn into this can’t even pick one up
[Music]
guys we’ve got a sale going on in the
store right now a couple of shirts
including this one or $19.99 get yours
by clicking the link in the description
below [Music]
showing you some experiments using
gallium aluminum and acid we’ve done
some fun experiments with gallium in the
past including making some little Lego
men full gallium copy of my face and
we’ve just melted it down and played
with it today we want to look at a
little bit more of some of the chemistry
behind gallium and how it reacts with
some other stuff here’s the basic idea
we are going to be taking our gallium
and we are going to be putting it
through a few basic tests to show you
just how difficult it is so gallium is
the element 31 and it’s actually in the
same family some metals that you may be
familiar with like aluminum but there
are some vast differences and we want to
show you what some of those are most
famously gallium has a melting
temperature that is way lower than
aluminum and lower than almost any other
metal this cast of my face is probably
about 60% of all of the gallium we have
maybe more and we need it for some
experiments so this unfortunately is now
going to get destroyed
my face is now melted so we’ve got
plenty of liquid gallium to play with
let’s see what we can do with it
gallium melts to a liquid at about 85
and 1/2 degrees Fahrenheit which is
about 29 and a half degrees Celsius this
gallium which was on the stove even
though it was on its lowest setting is
quite a bit warmer than that hot enough
that it’s a little bit uncomfortable to
stick our hands in for any extended
period of time but we can still do it
for just a second you can see how it
reacts and moves so some people think
that gallium is toxic or not safe to
handle that’s simply not true
mercury which looks very similar is but
gallium as far as we know it’s just fine
what she says we she doesn’t mean we
didn’t do any research we as in all
tests indicate that metallic gallium is
safe one note
although it’s not toxic it does have a
tendency to stain a little bit like it
just leaves some residue well we don’t
feel like we need to be wearing gloves
for safety reasons we do like wearing
gloves for staining reasons this should
come off with just soap and water though
soda cans are made from aluminum and
aluminum reacts interestingly with
gallium we’re gonna do an experiment to
show that effect so the aluminum can has
like paint and it has a coating on it so
that your drink isn’t absorbing aluminum
as you’re drinking it so we’re gonna do
is we’re gonna sand the bottom of this
can a little bit we’re gonna pour some
of our molten gallium into a bowl and
we’re gonna set the can in there and
we’re gonna let it sit for a while and
see what it does
aluminum usually has an oxide layer on
it even when it’s not painted now that
actually keeps it from reacting with
water and other things but it’s also
good to keep it from reacting to the
gallium so not just the paint but the
oxide layer itself has to come off and
then you’ll actually see how quickly it
will soak that up perfect we’re gonna
place that on the stove in a spot that
keeps it warm just let it sit and absorb
this right here is some aluminum mesh
useful for a lot of things but right now
we’re just gonna use it because it’s
aluminum regular sheet of aluminum foil
you can tear it
it tears fairly easily but it also
doesn’t just fall apart nothing’s
happening to it however take a little
bit of a gallium we’ve got a little bead
out of there I’m just gonna spread that
[Music]
just destroyed this soda can has now
been sitting in this galleon for quite a
while we actually left a soda can in the
gallium overnight and so it’s really had
a chance to absorb a lot the gallium did
actually solidify at one point so it
wasn’t necessarily sitting in there like
constantly overnight because it only has
the effect when the gallium is actually
liquid and can be absorbed so it’s
several hours worth and and there’s
already some deformations that have
happened you can actually if you can see
into the can well you can see along this
side this entire side of the can is just
shattered also you can see if the can is
shorter like this can is raised up
higher at the bottom but it’s still
lower down than this one our can is just
I think melting down I want to try and
I’m gonna try and pick it up the bottom
is like oh the bottom just tore open
when it caught on this other piece of
the room okay so this is interesting
where that air bubble was where we
couldn’t actually get it very bottom
very bottom is just fine because there
was an air bubble protecting it from the
gallium so this is an aluminum can with
about the structural integrity of
aluminum foil vary a little yeah less
than aluminum foil and it’s it’s not
just where it was you can see that it
was cracking all the way up the edges
and this is just tearing as I touch it
like the newspaper oh there it goes
there so this this will recur fright now
I think is that the plastic coating
that’s on the inside of aluminum cans
which is now also soaked in gallium so
it looks like metal this right here so
has now had that coating removed so this
is just aluminum that’s soaked up
gallium it wasn’t in direct contact in
the bottom but just Falls to pieces
oh I mean a normal aluminum can’t isn’t
hard to crunch but it doesn’t fall into
pieces like that just did and most of
that can wasn’t in the gallium it was
just connected to it and it just drinks
the gallium up into the metal all right
Mich down down where it was in contact
is just falling apart
aluminum reacts to water we had a lot of
aluminum sitting in here I want to know
if this gallium will now react to water
even just a little bit it’s poured a
drip of water in see if it does anything
am this gallium soaked up so much
aluminum it’s now reacting to water now
if you saw our experiments before when
we were dripping the gallium into a
glass of water it wasn’t doing anything
it was just sort of peddling up this is
not gallium supposed to do this is the
aluminum so for our next test we are
actually going to try something that we
have seen before it’s called the gallium
beating heart now you take about two
grams worth of gallium you drop it into
sulfuric acid then you introduce a metal
rod it has to be an iron rod and when
you do that it causes the gallium to
expand and contract so fast it actually
looks like a beating heart so we’ve got
our six more concentration of sulfuric
acid here which has been warming up
gently on the stove it should be warm
enough that it will melt our two pieces
of gallium which will then form into
beads which are then joined together
we’ll start with one just in case
so the hydrogen is still coming off of
this but as soon as I touch it with a
piece of iron the gallium itself should
relax that’s what we want to have happen
as soon as I let go it’s gonna contract
and we want to see that change there you
go you can see the bead is moving it’s
not just being pushed by the iron it’s
actually reacting to the iron it’s
running away from it I’m not moving guys
it’s doing that on its own okay so this
is kind of cool as soon as he does that
you can see that the whole piece of
gallium relaxes so that’s what’s
happening here I think I’ve said it a
few times already but it’s contracting
and relaxing the iron is actually
causing it to relax so what’s causing
that little beating heart is that iron
comes in contact with it which makes it
relax just a little bit but it relaxes
out from under the iron so it’s no
longer touching the iron and so it beads
back up and then it beads back up and
touches the iron again and the whole
cycle just starts and goes over and over
which is also why we’re able to push it
another test we’re gonna try is this
rather solid aluminum bar we’ll just
sand this down a little bit and set it
in our warm gallium and this one we’re
actually going to let go for a while
this is going to be heating up on our
stove for about two days because I
really want to give it a chance to soak
through okay well we actually pulled a
cooking show trick and we didn’t put
this in and let it sit live right now I
put one of these bars into some gallium
two days ago and now we’re showing you
what happens when you pull it out but it
really has been sitting in for two days
so that complete intact
aluminum bar got eaten away a lot before
and after these were exactly the same
length too so one thing I do want to
test is the strength I don’t know how
this one will hold up to this one so I’m
just gonna take a hammer or onion hit
this one for a control test and I’m
gonna hit this one and see if it’s any
different I haven’t done this before so
it slightly dented it that’s about all
let’s try with this one well it wasn’t
as fragile as I thought it was gonna be
but it is definitely still coming apart
looks like metallic tree bark that’s
kind of coolest like aluminum core very
organic looking texture on it more
robust than I thought it was going to be
but this is not what happens to regular
aluminum that has just turned into
shards we have melted down some aluminum
in our furnace and now we have some
solid gallium pieces and we want to see
what happens if we put the solid gallium
into the liquid aluminum I know it will
melt them but I want to see if it’ll
melt them down well it will turn into
all one alloy and then see if that’s any
different
after we pour that out and let it cool
down it’s got some slag in it but it’s
the aluminum is reacting to the water
yep almost instantly yep that’s pretty
normal but we’re using sands so that all
of that reacting boiling water can
escape down and it doesn’t cause the
aluminum to pop up do you think it’s
actually going to stay together in one
piece or is it gonna be too brittle and
just fall apart
I think it’ll stay together I think it’s
gonna be a really really weak bar here
see okay this is what I want I want to
know
nope what just fall apart it’s just a
cell right apart see if that same thing
happens with the big ones but that is
very hot so far oh rumbly almost what
I’ve seen it’s not holding together at
all like it’s gonna form it’s gonna
solidify just fine but we’re gonna be
[Music]
we now have an alloy gallium and
aluminum here you can see what happens
when I drop it yes Jacques it’s fragile
Wow very fragile the world’s worst metal
to construct with gallium aluminium
alloy so this has just been soaking in
the water for just a minute and like I
think it’s actually extracting the
gallium from the aluminum here it’s just
all the water is reacting with the
aluminum and then what gets left behind
his little gallium silver beads our
aluminum gallium bar that we’ve broken
the lots of pieces has now been sitting
in the water overnight and I am very
surprised that will happen it’s amazing
I thought maybe it would like fall apart
a little bit but this is now you can’t
really see into the liquid the liquid is
just opaque gray but we still have
hydrogen rising so the gallium it’s
completely this is fun too because
what’s coming off with all these bubbles
forming okay but now check out check out
what happened sunny levels the metal rod
that we made we now have metallic sponge
it like it just absorbed water it just
pull this out apart sucking in the water
it barely holds itself together I can
squish it all of those bar pieces just
turn into this can’t even pick one up
[Music]
guys we’ve got a sale going on in the
store right now a couple of shirts
including this one or $19.99 get yours
by clicking the link in the description
below [Music]
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