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The idea is rather simple, oxalic acid produces insoluble metal oxalates with a lot of metal salts. But in doing so, the salt anions are left behind in solution and become their respective acids. So a metal sulfate can be converted into sulfuric acid by removing the metal ions with oxalic acid. The conversion isn't perfect, but it's good enough to give better than 50% yield under the right circumstances.

300g of Iron (II) sulfate heptahydrate was mixed with 1L of water and stirred until dissolved. Then 200g of oxalic acid with heated with 300mL of water until dissolved. The two liquids are mixed and iron oxalate precipitates out. This can be filtered but for improved yield, i found leaving it out in the sun to photolyze any dissolved Iron (III) oxalate for 8 hours increased yields by 10%. After filtration the filtrate is boiled down until it starts to crystalize and then cooled and filtered again before the filtrate is distilled at high temperature to get sulfuric acid. Effective yield was around 67%.

I wasn't able to get Magnesium sulfate or copper sulfate to work. I think magnesium sulfate just doesn't work, but copper sulfate produces ultrafine copper oxalate that can't be filtered.

Related videos:
Purification of Sulfuric Acid by Distillation: https://youtu.be/0Gb9rM9BJ8I

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Potassium nitrates and sodium nitrates are sought after for their uses in... umm.. fertilizer.... as well as for making alternative aqua regia. I've previously shown how to make them from ammonium nitrate, but ammonium nitrate is getting harder and harder to find as stricter regulations are enacted. Fortunately it seems calcium nitrate is widely available as fertilizer and has much less restrictions. I could easily buy it online from various e-commerce vendors.

Calcium nitrate by itself is usable to make nitric acid directly, but potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate themselves are specifically desired, then it can be converted. To do so, Calcium nitrate is first identified by looking at its NPK value to determine the exact form and the molar nitrate equivalent is found. That quantity is then reacted with equivalent amount of alkali, like potassium hydroxide or sodium carbonate, and then filtered. The filtrate contains the corresponding alkali nitrate that can then be dried or crystalized.

For potassium nitrate specifically. Potassium chloride may be reacted with calcium nitrate and the solution heated until dissolved. Then filtered and allowed to cool and the potassium nitrate directly crystalizes out. This is filtered and retained. Although it is rather impure and needs to be recrystallized again for best purity.

Related videos:
Make nitric acid from calcium nitrate and sodium bisulfate: https://youtu.be/Xa2OMNaHn_Y

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The process is rather simple, dissolve 300g of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (A common fertilizer) in 1L of water and then dissolve 150g of Oxalic Acid dihydrate in 300mL of water with heating. Then mix the two. A white precipitate of calcium oxalate is formed. Filter this off and distill the filtrate. The distillate will be dilute nitric acid. Fractionally distill that to get azeotropic nitric acid. The yield is around 74%

Related videos:
Making Sulfuric Acid by Oxalate Precipitation: https://youtu.be/iDlFEV8bT3c
Make Potassium and Sodium Nitrate from Calcium Nitrate: https://youtu.be/RlonW4iJYrw
Purifying and upgrading nitric acid: https://youtu.be/88gbfCnrV8o

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The procedure is really simple, just make a solution of 10mL with 4-8grams of sodium hydroxide, use the full 8 grams if you want stoichiometric sodium silicate, and 4 grams if you want "liquid glass" solution for doing the chemical garden experiments.

Heat the solution and add in 6 grams worth of crushed silica gel beads. The finer the better. if they aren't dissolving, you might need to add more water.

Once it's dissolved, you'll have a concentrated solution of sodium silicate.

For experiments using Sodium Silicate solution, check out these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a45jZOc7PRY

In an upcoming video we'll need aluminum nitrate nonahydrate.
The chemical formula is Al(NO3)3.9H2O

Warning: These reactions must be performed outside or in a fumehood.

At first it might seem that simply mixing aluminum with nitric acid can be done. But interestingly enough, aluminum is immune to the effects of nitric acid. So in order to make aluminum nitrate a two step method is needed.

First the aluminum is dissolved in concentrated hydrochloric acid. This produces a solution of aluminum trichloride.

The aluminum trichloride is then reacted with an excess of nitric acid. This oxidizes the nitric acid to nitrosyl chloride gas that bubbles out of solution, leaving behind aluminum nitrate.

The solution is then evaporated to obtain aluminum nitrate nonahydrate.

In the winter I was able to dry it in air and get crystals. But in the summer the ambient humidity was too high so I had to use a desiccator bag. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJFfS_YbbYI

We'll be using aluminum nitrate nonahydrate to make glow in the dark powder in upcoming videos.

Warning: The procedures in this video produce large quantities of toxic gases and deal with highly corrosive acids. All work must be performed in a fume hood with proper safety equipment. And all apparatus must be glass to withstand the acids.

Sodium metabisulfite upon reaction with acid will generate sulfur dioxide. This provides a convenient source of sulfur dioxide that is easier to handle than burning sulfur, but it is acceptable if you want to go that route. You'll just need to build a sophisticated gas capture and scrubbing system so the sulfur vapors and soot don't clog your tubes, poison your air and possibly burn down your workspace.

Sulfur dioxide is converted into sulfuric acid by reacting it with an oxidizer in water. In this case either hydrogen peroxide or nitric acid.

Industrially, sulfur dioxide is reacted with oxygen over a catalyst to make sulfur trioxide. This is cheaper but extremely difficult to do safely for the home chemist so the metabisulfite/oxidizer method is used instead.

You may use potassium metabisulfite instead of sodium metabisulfite. Both are used by home brewers to sterilize winemaking and beermaking mixtures. It's also used for homemade dyeing processes. Therefore it is very easy to obtain the metabisulfites without the need for expensive shipping fees or licenses.

The oxidizers must be present for this reaction to work. You cannot simply use water or you'll just make sulfurous acid which decomposes on heating and is useless for the reactions that sulfuric acid is intended for.

In future videos, we may show other methods of sulfuric acid production including sulfur trioxide based methods so please subscribe!

-EDIT-

You CANNOT use a sulfate in place of a sulfite, they are chemically different and cannot be substituted.

The Leidenfrost effect is the formation of a gas barrier between a hot surface and a boiling liquid if the temperature difference is great enough. This gas barrier greatly slows the heat transfer between the two and allows the liquid to last longer and consequently the hot surface to remain hot longer. This effect can be seen in a frying pan as it's being heated. At first the water quickly boils as it's dropped in but at a hot enough temperature the Leidenfrost effect takes over and makes the water skate around the surface lasting a very long time.

Liquid nitrogen vs. a room temperature object will also exhibit the effect preventing it from instantly freezing the object... such as my hand.

WARNING: This procedure should only be performed by, or under the direct supervision of, an experienced chemist. Please refer to the material safety data sheets of all chemicals for their hazards. Synthesis must be performed in a fumehood.

The exact same process is used in glow sticks. This is NOT mountain dew. Mountain dew cannot glow like this, it does not have the crucial TCPO chemical or any chemical like that.

The reaction will glow in the dark for several minutes if you use ethyl acetate as the solvent. It will glow for several hours if you use diethyl phthalate as the solvent.

Thanks for watching!

Please subscribe, rate and comment!

All the chemicals used in this video were purchased from Alfa Aesar. http://www.alfa.com

This is a little different from freezing water because the mist produced is very dense and you can actually scoop it up in your hand very easily. I'm not actually touching liquid nitrogen, I'm just touching the acetone mist above it.

Also when it freezes the acetone becomes a snow rather than just creating a sheet of ice like in water.

WARNING:This experiment is extremely dangerous as it involves corrosive acids and flammable liquids with a small, but not negligible, chance of a damaging explosion. Face shields, goggles, fire extinguishers and fire safety protocols must be present. This should only be attempted by an experienced chemist.

Just get a test tube of 95% alcohol and carefully pipette a layer in a bottom of sulfuric acid. Then drop in some potassium permanganate crystals.

The reaction of the permanganate and the sulfuric acid produce manganese heptoxide that explodes on contact with organic matter like the alcohol. This also works with acetone.

All the components can be gotten from our previous videos:

Copper sulfate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arlYPz3EP7A

Zinc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knc1lSupAwQ

Sulfuric acid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okvvD3-DF9U

More information on the chemistry can be googled under the term "daniell cell"

Useful for camping, fondue, pyro, and just setting stuff on fire in general.

First, get one of those antacids that have equal or greater than 1000mg of calcium carbonate per tablet. Crush the tablets into a powder. Then simply add 10mL of vinegar and stir. Let the mixture dry out until it becomes less than half of its original volume. But keep it as a liquid slurry, if it dries out too much add some water. Once you have your slurry add it to rubbing alcohol in small amounts and stir until it becomes a jelly. Then scoop it out and light it up!

Exactly how much slurry you need depends on the particular antacid you choose. So just experiment until you get the right mixture. If you add too much slurry the mixture will liquify again. So trial and error are your best bets.

The tablets must have more than 1000mg of calcium carbonate, if its less then the reaction probably wont work.

You can also use crushed egg shells as long as you weigh out the correct amounts. 1g of egg shells per 10mL of vinegar.

We use 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) because it is cheap and anyone can get it. Lesser percentages might work, but we haven't tried them.

Ethanol (95%) works better but not everyone can get their hands on that.

What's happening is that you're creating calcium acetate from the calcium carbonate in the antacid and the acetic acid in the vinegar. Calcium acetate causes alcohols to gel. So with these two substances you can get rubbing alcohol to gel. But because antacid has sugars and fillers the gel won't be as good as gel made from pure calcium acetate. If you can get your hands on pure calcium acetate then go with that instead.

Don't play with fire if you don't know what you're doing.

Thanks for watching!

Subscribe rate and comment!

Road shadow: Original
Silver trees: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJbllSaj_L4
Acetone mist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PigqSwbRe0Q
Copper sulfate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arlYPz3EP7A
2 Liter Glow stick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCdGMeTveM
restore silver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGCx9HZwYBo
KMnO4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70AfSqP5YK8
Phosphorescence: Original
Iodine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_kPXbi2D8
Flash powder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCxtc4LCJDw
Sodium Acetate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21IcpkxgBVY
2 liter glow stick: see above
Hand in liquid nitrogen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjsMV1MglA4
My lab: Original
Road shadow: Original

Silver chloride has the interesting property that it reacts to light. This photosensitive chemical will decompose into dark silver powder and chlorine.

To make it, just mix one gram of silver nitrate made in our previous video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6hPgGV_qAg ) and half a gram of salt in separate quantities of water. Then mix the two solutions with shaking, this forms silver chloride. Then let it stand for five minutes. This will cause the silver chloride to settle to the bottom. After five minutes pour off the extra liquid. Spread out the silver in a layer onto a piece of paper. Let it dry in darkness as you don't want the light to expose it before you're ready. Once it is dry, place a stencil or template of something you want "photographed" over the silver chloride. You might want to weigh it down with a piece of glass.

When you're ready, shine a strong light onto it for ten minutes or so. The silver chloride will darken in the areas that are exposed to light. Remove the glass and template and you will have a negative photo of what you placed over it.

The image won't keep forever, eventually the whole thing will darken.

This is ofcourse a very simple experiment and modern photography is far superior.

Please rate, comment and subscribe!

Instead of buying the salts directly from our chemical supply companies we decided to make them entirely using chemicals anyone can buy online or make themselves. In this case europium metal and dysprosium metal with nitric acid.

The europium and dysprosium metal were purchased online from: http://elementsales.com/

The nitric acid was produced in our nitric acid video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yE7v4wkuZU

The procedures for both salts is rather simple.

First, obtain 2.5 grams of europium. Europium comes in mineral oil so it must be washed off with toluene. Then the europium is placed in a beaker where a total of 10 mL of water is added in small portions. This is added before the acid for safety reasons. After all the water is added and the reaction seems to have slowed down 10mL of concentrated 15.6 molar nitric acid is added.

The solution is then heated to ensure complete reaction of all the metal bits.

For dysprosium:

5g of dysprosium can be directly added to a mixture of 20mL of water and 20mL Nitric acid. Once again, heating the solution ensures complete reaction.

Both nitrates are allowed to dry in the desiccator bag we made last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJFfS_YbbYI

Afterward, the nitrates are transferred to vials for storage and labeled.

The europium salt produced will be Europium Nitrate pentahydrate
The dysprosium salt produced will be dysprosium nitrate pentahydrate.

We're going to use these nitrates for some cool upcoming videos so please subscribe rate and comment!

Note: before you ask, no they are not good for any pyrotechnic.

Warning: This experiment deals with very high temperatures in glass equipment. Face shields and protection against shattering glass is required. In addition small quantities of toxic gases are produced. This experiment should be performed outside or in a fume hood.

Make a vial with a mixture of 7 grams of potassium nitrate and 1 gram of manganese dioxide.

Using a torch carefully heat the mixture so they melt together. Smoke and fumes should be liberated as the potassium nitrate oxidizes any contaminants in the manganese dioxide.

Keep the mixture molten for a few minutes.

Now add 2 grams of potassium hydroxide and heat the mixture again thoroughly. It will boil and turn green as the reactants generate potassium manganate. Keep it on a gentle boil for several minutes.

Let the vial cool and then smash it apart with a hammer. Obtain the green solid and pulverize it into a powder. Mix this powder with 50 mL of water and dissolve the green potassium manganate. Let it settle and then pour off the solution.

The solution can be converted to potassium permanganate by adding drops of either sulfuric acid or sodium bicarbonate. Just keep adding and stirring until the solution turns purple. If you go too far it will turn light pink indicating the permanganate has been destroyed.

Let the byproduct of brown manganese dioxide settle out and the liquid is a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

A demonstration you can do is to add the solution to another solution of half a gram of sugar and sodium hydroxide. The purple/red solution of permanganate will go to a green and then to a yellow color as the permanganate ion is reduced.

Warning: This should be done in a well-ventilated area as hydrogen gas build up is explosive. Copper sulfate is toxic and sulfuric acid is corrosive, wear gloves when handling them.

The procedure is extremely simple, just get a copper sulfate solution, insert two electrodes and run a current through them. The anode, the positive electrode, must be an inert material that can withstand extremely oxidizing conditions. Very few materials meet this condition, platinum, lead dioxide, and carbon among them. Other metals, even stainless steel, are quickly destroyed under these conditions and cannot be used. The cathode, the negative electrode, is exposed to reducing conditions so the metal requirements are must less stringent. Copper is the best choice here since it has high electrical conductivity.

When applying power, the current should be adjusted so that corrosion at the positive terminal and bubbling at the negative terminal are both minimized. The bubbling at the negative terminal is hydrogen production and that's wasted energy that should have gone into reducing the copper sulfate.

After the solution has gone clear, filter off the particles and the clear filtrate is dilute sulfuric acid that can be boiled down to obtain concentrated sulfuric acid. It will have trace amounts of metals but for most purposes this is not an issue.

Keep in mind that it will take a long time for the solution to go clear. if after filtering it's still blue, you'll need to keep electrolyzing it. You'll need over 60 amp hours of current per mole of copper sulfate, and usually more since the process is not very efficient.

Warning: Reaction must be done outside or in a fumehood due to production of toxic gases including hydrogen sulfide.

First, get your sodium or potassium iodide and completely dissolve it in a minimum of water. Then place it into an ice bath to keep it cold.

Second, add concentrated sulfuric acid directly to the solution and constantly stir. As you add it will produce iodine.

At first the mixture will become pasty and eventually liquefy.

Once it's liquefied, pour it directly into cold water (the ice bath itself is useful for this) and stir it up. Then let it settle for ten minutes or so.

The iodine will settle to the bottom so pour off the water and acid.

The iodine will still be contaminated with acid so you'll need to add water and pour off several times to get out most of the acid.

Filter it and now you have a solid plug of iodine.

It's usable as-is for most purposes but you can purify by placing it in a beaker with a ice-filled round bottom flask on top. Then heat the beaker. The iodine will vaporize and deposit on the flask.

A cool reaction is to take some iodine and pour magnesium powder over it. It will react to form a purple cloud of iodine vapor. If it doesn't react quickly enough, just add a drop of water.

Warning: Thionyl Chloride is EXTREMELY toxic and this experiment must be performed in a fumehood by an experienced chemist with proper safety precautions.

Lithium thionyl chloride batteries offer excellent shelf life (sometimes over a decade) and energy density. Their main drawback is they are not rechargeable but for low power applications like memory backup they are extremely useful. At very low power levels, they can outlast the device they are installed in, making the recharge issue a non-issue.

As seen in this experiment, they are also extremely simple to make.

A solution of lithium tetrachloroaluminate in thionyl chloride serves as the electrolyte and the lithium and carbon rods are simply inserted in. The cell can produce up to 3.5volts depending on the purity and quality of the components. Our cell in the video used waste chemicals we had leftover around the lab so the voltage is not that high. But it did produce enough power to light a small light emitting a diode.

Commercial cells use lithium foil and spongy carbon for greater current but the concept is still the same.