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Kind: captions
Language: en

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For at least a year now, I've been telling myself that I would make shorter videos.

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However, I would always just end up choosing much larger projects, and then while I was editing it I'd be wondering why it was already 20 minutes long

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Finally, though I have committed to making some shorter ones, like this video. And, there were a whole lot of different topics that I do eventually want to cover.

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But, to start things off: I've decided to go with something called "Manganese Heptoxide".

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Manganese Heptoxide is nothing new, it's been known to exist since at least the mid-1800s.

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It's made by mixing two relatively common chemicals where the first one is just concentrated sulfuric acid.

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I like to add a pipette full, which is about two (2) milliliters, and then just sprinkle on a small amount of the second ingredient, which is Potassium Permanganate.

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The moment that they are mixed, the Sulfuric Acid reacts with the Potassium Permanganate to make Permanganic Acid.

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This acid is then dehydrated by the Sulfuric Acid, meaning that the water is pulled off, and it forms an anhydride version.

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This new molecule is a combination of two Permanganic Acids, and it really does not want to exist.

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It's a really strong oxidizer, but it's also not very stable... So, it basically looks for any reason to decompose.

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This can either be by reacting with something or just spontaneously.

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For example, this was a different sample that I made using a lot more Potassium Permanganate, and all I did was touch it with a hot piece of metal.

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All of the green oil at the top was the Manganese Heptoxide, and you can see that almost immediately it ALL reacted.

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However, when the amount of (Potassium) Permanganate is low like I did for this first run, and when the temperature is below 55°C

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You don't have to worry too much about it spontaneously decomposing

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It's only really when you add quite a bit of it, and you get all of that oil floating on the top.

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Regardless of that though, it is still dangerous, and it has to be treated with respect.

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But anyway, now getting back to this sample, for the first test I just dropped a cotton ball on it.

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(Popping and crackling sounds)

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The reaction quite fast, and it generated a lot of heat.

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So, it almost immediately lit up on fire.

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Most of the (Manganese) Heptoxide either reacted or decomposed almost instantly though.

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So the violent part of the reaction didn't last very long.

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To quench this, I just added some water which killed any remaining (Manganese) Heptoxide and converted it back to the pinkish-purplish Permanganic Acid.

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There was also a bunch of brown stuff that appeared, which was all Manganese Dioxide.

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For the next run, I did it with a potato chip, and it was mostly the oil in it that reacted.

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This time though, for whatever reason, it let off a lot more Manganese Dioxide.

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I did it again from another angle just to really show how much of it was letting off.

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(Reaction Sounds)

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The chip didn't react nearly as much, but the effect was nearly the same. Which told me it was probably just the (Manganese) Heptoxide decomposing.

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The Manganese Dioxide was initially really fine dust, but once it was in the air for a bit it started to form these small little pieces.

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They were still extremely light. But, they were now too heavy to just float around in the air, so they all started (to fall) back down.

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For the sake of the visuals, I turned off my fume hood for most runs. But, I had to be really careful, since breathing this stuff in would not be very good, to say the least...

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When I turned the (fume) hood back on though, you can see how they all kind of just switch directions. And, got pulled away.

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For the next run, I added a lot more (Potassium) Permanganate, and there was a lot more (Manganese) Heptoxide floating on the top.

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I assumed this would make the reaction even faster, and more violent, so I threw on another cotton ball.

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However, it was actually one more delayed. And, I'm not entirely sure why.

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(Whooshing sound with crackles)

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In general, the (Manganese) Heptoxide reaction seems to happen in 2 stages.

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Where the first one is directly between the (Manganese) Heptoxide and the cotton.

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This then generates enough heat to quickly decompose the rest of the Heptoxide

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And, in doing so it splits apart into Manganese Heptoxide as I mentioned before, and a whole bunch of Oxygen and Ozone gas.

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Both of these gasses are then able to immediately react with the already burning cotton and cause it to erupt in flames

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The issue with this more concentrated run though seems to be with the first part.

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The purer (Manganese) Heptoxide apparently just has trouble "attacking" and at oxidizing the cotton on its own.

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In the other run, because I used less (Potassium) Permanganate there was more Sulfuric Acid present, and I think it helped in some way

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Sulfuric Acid reacts quite easily with cotton, and I think that maybe it helped speed up its reaction with the (Manganese) Heptoxide

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However, this is just speculation on my part.

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I tried this again using one (1) gram of permanganate and the same thing happened.

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It just kind of sat there for awhile and then suddenly popped.

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The heptoxide in the dish did continue to decompose for a bit though; which I thought was cool.

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To test this delayed action I made more heptoxide and I carefully pipette'd it onto a paper towel.

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Concentrated sulfuric acid is easily able to tear apart paper towel in seconds and in doing so generates a lot of heat.

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However, nothing happened here, which supported my idea that it's concentration was just to low.

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I initally planned to just indefinitely wait for it to react, but I got impatient and kept adding more heptoxide.

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Eventually though, for whatever reason, it just went off, and it was much more violent than any of the other runs.

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(Poofs)

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This is because of what I made was a sensitive mixture of a strong oxidizer and a fuel.

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So when they did decide to react the entire section of heptoxide did so almost instantly.

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Mixing an oxidizer and a fuel like this is a basic recipe of making an explosive which can obviously be very dangerous.

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Also, on top of this, like other explosive mixtures, the heptoxide ones and both super unstable and unpredictable

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With cotton and paper the reaction seems to be relatively tame but with other fuels, things can get really violent and dangerous.

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For example, this guy did it with hexamine, which is commonly used as a camping fuel.

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It's also a precursor to C4, and I think that might be why he tried using it.

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Poof

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In the end, he apparently wasn't injured, but I think adding the heptoxide as fuel, is just a recipe for disaster

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It's just way too unpredictable and personally I don't really think it's worth the potential danger.

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So far, everything I've been adding to it has been solid

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But I wanted to try it with some liquids

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Pretty much any flammable liquid should work and for the first test I just did with acetone

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Also for all these runs I'm doing a bit more concentrated version. So I am using one (1) gram of permanganate.

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(Flashes)

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The reaction was almost instant

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And at 60 frames per second

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It only lasted a few frames.

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For the next one I did it with 95% ethanol which was just another solvent that I had on hand.

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(Flashes)

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Unsurprising, this reaction was also super fast

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But what I thought was the coolest part

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was when I slowed it down.

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I of course was still only able to get a few frames of the reaction

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but I thought it kind of looked like a mini nuclear explosion.

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After playing around with this for a bit

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and seeing these solvents react, and ignite

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The moment they touch the heptoxide

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I started thinking about the rocket video I made

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In that video, I talked about hypergolic combinations, which is where a fuel and an oxidizer spontaneously ignite on contact

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That was exactly what was happening here

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and I figured the next thing I wanted to try is aniline

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which was an old rocket fuel.

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I really thought this reaction would be a lot more violent

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but it seemed to be about the same as the others

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However the major difference was I felt it generated a lot more heat

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Unfortunately though after trying this I ended up having to put the project on hold for a couple months.

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However, when I came back to it something weird happened.

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I decided to redo the runs without adding solvent

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and for some reason the results were different

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It was relatively tame before but this time when I added the acetone I was surprised by the difference

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(Pops loudly)

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It was a much more violent reaction and when I did it again the same thing happened

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(Pops even more loudly)

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The sound that each one made also surprised me because I didn't hear anything like that in any of the other ones

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I then tried it with ethanol and I had a much higher pitched and more violent snap to it

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(Pops/Cracks)

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I did this one a second time as well and it still had that nice snap to it

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(Pops/Cracks)

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For the last try I did it with aniline and it wasn't as nearly as violent

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Like before though I could just feel that it generated a lot more heat

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Because the aniline seemed to be relatively tamed I decided that I would try to fire it in the test tube like I did in my rocket video

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So, to a test tube, I carefully added some sulfuric acid, followed by a small amount of the permanganate

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I figured it was better to not use the full gram like I did in the test runs

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and to do it a bit more dilute here

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This was all thoroughly mixed around

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and then I added the aniline.

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It seemed fine, and by that I mean it didn't explode so I tried it with a narrowed neck

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The reaction here was a lot more violent and it was also pretty loud

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The full impact of the sound though just like in all the other runs.

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wasn't picked up super well by the mic.

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So a mixture of heptoxide and sulfuric acid and a fuel like aniline

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Could potentially work to fire a rocket

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but there were just too many downsides to it.

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The major one was that heptoxide is just way to sensitive and if it was stored in a tank it would just explode

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The decomposition of the heptoxide might also be able to travel up the feed lines and make it back to the tank

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which would again, explode.

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Also, a huge portion of it's mass is basically manganese dioxide

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which really doesn't do much for the reaction.

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And not only is it just dead weight it would probably also get stuck in the rocket engine and start building up

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which could cause a bunch of other problems.

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But anyway, I think that's about it

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manganese heptoxide is definitely an interesting chemical

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and I think it can sometimes be fun to play with but it's also extremely dangerous.

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I really don't recommend anyone trying this out for themselves though

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unless they've the proper setup to deal with it.

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Not only is it super reactive and explosive like we saw

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It also shoots dangerous vapor and dust into the air

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that should definitely not be inhaled.

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Also, when you're done playing around with it

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You're left with a bunch of manganese waste

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that has to be dealt with properly.

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This means even after neutralizing it with water it can't just simply be poured down the drain

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or dumped into the garbage.

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In my last video you guys seemed to like that I showed how I dealt with my waste

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so I've decided to do that again.

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This one has also been posted to my other channel NileBlue

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and there is a link in the description.

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Oh and also

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I started working on making a ferrofluid again

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and this time I was actually successful.

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I am still working out a few kinks with the whole process though

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so I'm not entirely sure

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when I'll be posting a video about it

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There is a pretty decent chance that it could be as early as even the next video

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but I don't really want to make any promises.

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As usual a big thanks goes out to all my supporters on Pateron.

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Everyone who supports me can see my videos at least

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24 hours before I post them to YouTube

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Also, everyone on Patreon can directly message me

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and if you support me with $5 or more

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you'll get your name at the end like you see here.

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English captions written by:
- Alex C.
- @ericjx