For at least a year now, I've been telling myself that I would make shorter videos.
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
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.
But, to start things off: I've decided to go with something called "Manganese Heptoxide".
Manganese Heptoxide is nothing new, it's been known to exist since at least the mid-1800s.
It's made by mixing two relatively common chemicals where the first one is just concentrated sulfuric acid.
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.
The moment that they are mixed, the Sulfuric Acid reacts with the Potassium Permanganate to make Permanganic Acid.
This acid is then dehydrated by the Sulfuric Acid, meaning that the water is pulled off, and it forms an anhydride version.
This new molecule is a combination of two Permanganic Acids, and it really does not want to exist.
It's a really strong oxidizer, but it's also not very stable... So, it basically looks for any reason to decompose.
This can either be by reacting with something or just spontaneously.
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.
All of the green oil at the top was the Manganese Heptoxide, and you can see that almost immediately it ALL reacted.
However, when the amount of (Potassium) Permanganate is low like I did for this first run, and when the temperature is below 55°C
You don't have to worry too much about it spontaneously decomposing
It's only really when you add quite a bit of it, and you get all of that oil floating on the top.
Regardless of that though, it is still dangerous, and it has to be treated with respect.
But anyway, now getting back to this sample, for the first test I just dropped a cotton ball on it.
(Popping and crackling sounds)
The reaction quite fast, and it generated a lot of heat.
So, it almost immediately lit up on fire.
Most of the (Manganese) Heptoxide either reacted or decomposed almost instantly though.
So the violent part of the reaction didn't last very long.
To quench this, I just added some water which killed any remaining (Manganese) Heptoxide and converted it back to the pinkish-purplish Permanganic Acid.
There was also a bunch of brown stuff that appeared, which was all Manganese Dioxide.
For the next run, I did it with a potato chip, and it was mostly the oil in it that reacted.
This time though, for whatever reason, it let off a lot more Manganese Dioxide.
I did it again from another angle just to really show how much of it was letting off.
(Reaction Sounds)
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.
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.
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.
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...
When I turned the (fume) hood back on though, you can see how they all kind of just switch directions. And, got pulled away.
For the next run, I added a lot more (Potassium) Permanganate, and there was a lot more (Manganese) Heptoxide floating on the top.
I assumed this would make the reaction even faster, and more violent, so I threw on another cotton ball.
However, it was actually one more delayed. And, I'm not entirely sure why.
(Whooshing sound with crackles)
In general, the (Manganese) Heptoxide reaction seems to happen in 2 stages.
Where the first one is directly between the (Manganese) Heptoxide and the cotton.
This then generates enough heat to quickly decompose the rest of the Heptoxide
And, in doing so it splits apart into Manganese Heptoxide as I mentioned before, and a whole bunch of Oxygen and Ozone gas.
Both of these gasses are then able to immediately react with the already burning cotton and cause it to erupt in flames
The issue with this more concentrated run though seems to be with the first part.
The purer (Manganese) Heptoxide apparently just has trouble "attacking" and at oxidizing the cotton on its own.
In the other run, because I used less (Potassium) Permanganate there was more Sulfuric Acid present, and I think it helped in some way
Sulfuric Acid reacts quite easily with cotton, and I think that maybe it helped speed up its reaction with the (Manganese) Heptoxide
However, this is just speculation on my part.
I tried this again using one (1) gram of permanganate and the same thing happened.
It just kind of sat there for awhile and then suddenly popped.
The heptoxide in the dish did continue to decompose for a bit though; which I thought was cool.
To test this delayed action I made more heptoxide and I carefully pipette'd it onto a paper towel.
Concentrated sulfuric acid is easily able to tear apart paper towel in seconds and in doing so generates a lot of heat.
However, nothing happened here, which supported my idea that it's concentration was just to low.
I initally planned to just indefinitely wait for it to react, but I got impatient and kept adding more heptoxide.
Eventually though, for whatever reason, it just went off, and it was much more violent than any of the other runs.
(Poofs)
This is because of what I made was a sensitive mixture of a strong oxidizer and a fuel.
So when they did decide to react the entire section of heptoxide did so almost instantly.
Mixing an oxidizer and a fuel like this is a basic recipe of making an explosive which can obviously be very dangerous.
Also, on top of this, like other explosive mixtures, the heptoxide ones and both super unstable and unpredictable
With cotton and paper the reaction seems to be relatively tame but with other fuels, things can get really violent and dangerous.
For example, this guy did it with hexamine, which is commonly used as a camping fuel.
It's also a precursor to C4, and I think that might be why he tried using it.
Poof
In the end, he apparently wasn't injured, but I think adding the heptoxide as fuel, is just a recipe for disaster
It's just way too unpredictable and personally I don't really think it's worth the potential danger.
So far, everything I've been adding to it has been solid
But I wanted to try it with some liquids
Pretty much any flammable liquid should work and for the first test I just did with acetone
Also for all these runs I'm doing a bit more concentrated version. So I am using one (1) gram of permanganate.
(Flashes)
The reaction was almost instant
And at 60 frames per second
It only lasted a few frames.
For the next one I did it with 95% ethanol which was just another solvent that I had on hand.
(Flashes)
Unsurprising, this reaction was also super fast
But what I thought was the coolest part
was when I slowed it down.
I of course was still only able to get a few frames of the reaction
but I thought it kind of looked like a mini nuclear explosion.
After playing around with this for a bit
and seeing these solvents react, and ignite
The moment they touch the heptoxide
I started thinking about the rocket video I made
In that video, I talked about hypergolic combinations, which is where a fuel and an oxidizer spontaneously ignite on contact
That was exactly what was happening here
and I figured the next thing I wanted to try is aniline
which was an old rocket fuel.
I really thought this reaction would be a lot more violent
but it seemed to be about the same as the others
However the major difference was I felt it generated a lot more heat
Unfortunately though after trying this I ended up having to put the project on hold for a couple months.
However, when I came back to it something weird happened.
I decided to redo the runs without adding solvent
and for some reason the results were different
It was relatively tame before but this time when I added the acetone I was surprised by the difference
(Pops loudly)
It was a much more violent reaction and when I did it again the same thing happened
(Pops even more loudly)
The sound that each one made also surprised me because I didn't hear anything like that in any of the other ones
I then tried it with ethanol and I had a much higher pitched and more violent snap to it
(Pops/Cracks)
I did this one a second time as well and it still had that nice snap to it
(Pops/Cracks)
For the last try I did it with aniline and it wasn't as nearly as violent
Like before though I could just feel that it generated a lot more heat
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
So, to a test tube, I carefully added some sulfuric acid, followed by a small amount of the permanganate
I figured it was better to not use the full gram like I did in the test runs
and to do it a bit more dilute here
This was all thoroughly mixed around
and then I added the aniline.
It seemed fine, and by that I mean it didn't explode so I tried it with a narrowed neck
The reaction here was a lot more violent and it was also pretty loud
The full impact of the sound though just like in all the other runs.
wasn't picked up super well by the mic.
So a mixture of heptoxide and sulfuric acid and a fuel like aniline
Could potentially work to fire a rocket
but there were just too many downsides to it.
The major one was that heptoxide is just way to sensitive and if it was stored in a tank it would just explode
The decomposition of the heptoxide might also be able to travel up the feed lines and make it back to the tank
which would again, explode.
Also, a huge portion of it's mass is basically manganese dioxide
which really doesn't do much for the reaction.
And not only is it just dead weight it would probably also get stuck in the rocket engine and start building up
which could cause a bunch of other problems.
But anyway, I think that's about it
manganese heptoxide is definitely an interesting chemical
and I think it can sometimes be fun to play with but it's also extremely dangerous.
I really don't recommend anyone trying this out for themselves though
unless they've the proper setup to deal with it.
Not only is it super reactive and explosive like we saw
It also shoots dangerous vapor and dust into the air
that should definitely not be inhaled.
Also, when you're done playing around with it
You're left with a bunch of manganese waste
that has to be dealt with properly.
This means even after neutralizing it with water it can't just simply be poured down the drain
or dumped into the garbage.
In my last video you guys seemed to like that I showed how I dealt with my waste
so I've decided to do that again.
This one has also been posted to my other channel NileBlue
and there is a link in the description.
Oh and also
I started working on making a ferrofluid again
and this time I was actually successful.
I am still working out a few kinks with the whole process though
so I'm not entirely sure
when I'll be posting a video about it
There is a pretty decent chance that it could be as early as even the next video
but I don't really want to make any promises.
As usual a big thanks goes out to all my supporters on Pateron.
Everyone who supports me can see my videos at least
24 hours before I post them to YouTube
Also, everyone on Patreon can directly message me
and if you support me with $5 or more
you'll get your name at the end like you see here.
English captions written by: - Alex C. - @ericjx