Not sure if you're still checking comments on this video, but there's actually a semi-OTC method to make tetraethyl orthosilicate at home, which should substitute well for the tetramethyl used here. To do this, first prepare silicon tetrachloride by passing dry chlorine gas past some silicon in a heated tube. This reaction is extremely dangerous due to the large amounts of toxic corrosive chlorine required, but there are videos of the synthesis in youtube. One the silicon tetrachloride is made, purify it by passing it through a cotton filter and add it to excess anhydrous ethanol SLOWLY. The reaction is extremely violent due to flash boiling of the solvent. Once all the silicon tetrachloride is added, distill off the residual ethanol and what remains is tetraethyl orthosilicate, pure enough for aerogel.
I had my doubts when you first talked about doing this, but wow it's amazing what an individual can pull off. I've only seen areogel once, at an art exhibit, it was a nice big chunk of it too. It really does look exactly like smoke.
one thing that may help against cracking. I believe you were right about the large almost instantaneous change in temperature being the cause for cracking. that being said, as opposed to wrapping the aerogel in foil, which will still allow the fluid to come in direct contact with a warmer body. I was thinking if you slowly cooled the gel prior to putting it in the chamber by putting the methanol bath in either a ice bath, or even just putting it in the freezer for a day prior to the supercritical phase. i belive this should help prevent cracking more so than just putting some foil around it.
Hey man, I´m just preparing a short scientific lecture about aero gels and your video gave an nice look about howto produce them without industrial ressources. Thanks for it.
At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2 will sublimate from dry ice into CO2 gas. However, at higher pressures, the dry ice will melt into liquid CO2. Whether this process is sublime or not, is for you to judge.
Great video, I've fancied having a go at making areogel for a while. I don't want to sound like a health and safety freak but a gas mask doesn't offer sufficient protection. Moisture in the air and your breath will rapidly deactivate the filter rendering it useless at stopping chemicals. Why don't you build yourself a fumehood and vent it out one of the windows? A sheet of perspex a a couple of sheets of ply is all you'd need.
To think we can freeze dry some solution at home and make a flexible aerogel at home without fuss these days so fast and easily... These videos make me happy to see how we have advanced by so much compared to the effort that had to be tackled back then.
John P I said a smarter and saner version. Cody is very smart, but, AS seems much more intelligent. And Cody seems a bit off, like he lost a couple marbles.
Props for your username Cuntington I don't think it's worth judging them against each other. Cody shows how it's possible to do things with a bare minimum of equipment, and I feel like people come to AS to see how to do things the way lab professionals would do it.
Instead of drying the gel by replacing the methanol have you considered adding a drying agent to it such a silica gel or anhydrous magnesium sulfate to essentially trap the water as it diffuses out of the gel into the methanol, then instead of changing it every day or so just leave it in the 1 container for a few days in the same methanol + drying agent bath.
Dessicated molecular sieves would be an excellent drying solution at that stage, and the seives could be regenerated and reused. Would save methanol also.
i just realized that when i saw your clip on supercritical co2 back '11 or '12 i never heard of the stuff so i searched on youtube for other videos on it and thats how i found periodic videos channel. youtube is great!
you are the ultimate DIY guru, respect. By the way I just played subnautica and thought aerogel and magnetite were completely fictional hahaha ( in game to produce it you need Hydrofluoric acid + gold).
I was thinking about making some at my home to help insulate my sun room (it gets cold in the winter and wreaks havoc on the electric bill) but now I see it would be cheaper just to buy a door because I don't have the equipment, chemicals, money, or know-how to make it. Cool video though.
ya, the good ole days of giving technology to the people are over. to do anything now, you will be heavily controlled in your potential. the american way is gone.
To get around the cracking issue, it might make sense to insulate and refrigerate the chamber first. You could even do that with a dry ice and alcohol bath without too much trouble. Once the gel is cooled, it will no longer undergo any thermal expansion or contraction of a significant scale. Then the addition of liquid CO2 will very likely not cause the cracking to happen. Just a thought.
TMOS is hard to get because it's very dangerous in untrained or malicious hands. Even a small amount of the vapor getting in your eye will cause blindness.
if vodka would cure the blinding effects, does that mean you could bomb russia (not that you would want to...) with that stuff and it would have no effect on the majority of population?
That was pretty cool! I found that diesel truck brake line antifreeze contains 100% methanol with no additives, I tried by evaporating some on a mirror and nothing at all remained after evaporation. It's cheap too, about 20 dollars a gallon. I've used it in many extractions of volatile oils and never had a problem. As for the TMOS, we had some in college, I remember we had to be VERY careful with it because on contact with anything moist it hydrolyses, producing SiO2, like in eyes or lungs.
During the water extraction phase perhaps you could use a desicant like CaO, CaO3, or silica gel to the dry gas instead of changing it out just sprinkle a little more in over time. The desicant can be regenerated with heat (lots for CaO, CaO3), silica jell can ge cooked out in an oven.
Your videos are an education.Thank you so much for sharing your projects with us. You could avoid the multiple methanol changes by adding some anhydrous aluminum chloride granules to the Ethanol. These would lock up all the water that emerges from the gel. Best regards, David Kane.
Then the boiling action of the methanol would most likely break the gel. The supercritical step is to avoid those movements by rising the temperature in the sealed chamber until the meniscus vanishes then slowly drop the pressure while keeping the temperature above boiling point until 1 atm has been reached. A smooth transition from liquid to gas has been achieved without violent boiling or surface tension pulling.
Step 3 seems to take quite a while. I would try using a soxhlet extractor during this step. That way you can "wash" the sample with fresh, almost pure methanol and it would basically be the same as dipping the thing and letting it sit over the course of a few days. Also, you won't need to constantly change the solvent, due to the working principle of the soxhlet extractor. Be sure to check it out. :)
Aerogel is mostly commonly made from silica, which would require the chemicals. There are other aerogels -- check out the recipes section at aerogel dot org. I've made freeze-dried Jello (search my videos), but it might also be possible to supercriticallly dry it, and get a much finer bubble structure.
I got to play with some aerogel in highschool back in 2003. A research physicist at OU brought it by. He also brought some metal wire that had true shape memory that could be reset by a quick dunk in room temp. distilled water.
wikipedia says: "Even at low concentrations inhalation causes lung lesions, and at slightly higher concentrations eye contact with the vapor causes blindness[citation needed]. Worse, at low concentrations (200 ppm/15 min) the damage is often insidious, with onset of symptoms hours after exposure.[3] The mode of action is the precipitation of silica in the eyes and/or lungs" so its a perfect chemical weapon to throw it into a train full of people.
How porous is this material, and what kind of force can it take before breaking? could it hold a cellular structure? and if so, of what complexity and density? I know these are a bunch of seemingly random questions, and probably don't have any well-researched answers, but if it can sustain cellular life within it, it'll be much more durable than a cellulose sponge, which certainly makes up for how hard it is to make, on the smaller scale stuff at least.
I have watched a bunch of your videos, but this one has inspired me, I am definitely trying this at home. Its a shame chemicals are so restricted, even those not connected to various nefarious practices. It really discourages home-scientific experimentation from those not friends with a professional scientist or professor.
Do you think this aerogel might be useful in sound deadening applications where light weight is of high importance, like in headphones, in ear monitors, etc. Do you think it would reduce unwanted vibrations when mounted to a frame?
Why are there so many comments from people who think the title implies that you can make this at YOUR home. This is HIS home. The title isn't "how to make aerogel at any home" it's "making aerogel at home." He very clearly did exactly what the title said. Also, he clearly explained the challenges with finding one of the chemicals AND he has another video explaining how to make the supercritical drying chamber. For fuckssake, most of y'all complaining probably can't even distill some water if you had to.
Here is the safety section on wiki about Tetramethyl orthosilicate: The hydrolysis of Si(OCH3)4 produces insoluble SiO2 and CH3OH (methanol). Even at low concentrations inhalation causes lung lesions, and at slightly higher concentrations eye contact with the vapor causes blindness. Worse, at low concentrations (200ppm/15min) the damage is often insidious, Contrary to several erroneous MSDS sheets, the methanol produced is relatively innocuous think about it !
may i suggest bringing the temp of the gel down before putting in the chamber? if you can get it so that the co2 will evap slower when hitting the wall it may not boil and crack the gel.
Chill the chamber before filling try just hosing it down. I have thinking of trying this as well i might build my chamber inside a modified dewar, and leave my ln2 generator setup running above it keeping the chamber walls super critical at all time basically a pipe braised through the side of a dewar with a cap and a stainless steel shelf inside.
Slick. If I'm not mistaken, an exercise in physical chemistry. I've heard that silica aerogels are being looked into for very efficient thermal insulation for houses and other buildings.
The are hydrophillic beads used in the manufacture of pure ethanol for biodiesel. You might be able to use something like that to cut down on some of the waste you generate. The drawback would be that in order to recharge them you have to bake them in an electric oven. If you have anything nasty in the beads it will come out as a gas.
Perhaps you should try testing on how long to leave the gel and see if it will come out less ridged it might help make it the Aerogel at the end seem more clean?
*Make up a 5% solution of phosphoric acid and then very slowly drip sodium silicate that has been cut with 80% water with vigorous stirring until the whole thing turns into a very solid thick jelly. It's very brittle gel at this point so handle it with great care. Now place it in the vacuum jar which makes the water boil away at room temperature due to the high vacuum. The vacuum also keeps the structure from collapsing. This form of "poor-man's" aerogel may shrink a little and is not very transparent but it's a cheap way to make a lot of high temperature and lightweight flame retardant insulation or even a good stuffing for an Arctic jacket at a very low cost. Using this technique I can fill up about six or seven 5 gallon buckets full of lightweight aerogel per day for a cost under $9. I used to freeze dry fruits and vegetables and stumbled onto this technique kind of on accident. In fact the aerogel made with the vacuum drying process reminds me of a freeze-dried Apples in many ways. Very light but pretty tough, hard to snap. For those of you who do not know water boils at room temperature in the vacuum. The trick is to use only enough vacuum to get the water evaporating very quickly but not boiling or the bubbles will blow the gel apart*
i just completed one of my ideas on my youtube chanel its a tazer glove works great. when i watched the makeing of aerogel for the first time i had an idea. 1.what kind adhesive would you use to connect aerogel to the following materials. carbon or graphen ti. if its not possible could you connect the material by using the meted of interlacing materials that can't be puled or moved apart with out removing the firspeice like a puzle. could you use the aerogel a insalter in a body suit for highh
Hey, we want to make some, but the question is, how long did it take for you to form the gel. How long did you let the TMOS, Methanol and ammonium hydroxide react?
hey what if you made metal alloys that would have interesting properties, depending on their temperature, also if you can make alloys that can be cast on a mold with a hydraulic press . thank you for the awesome channel
Very nice! You can make small amounts of tetramethyl orthosilicate by reacting silicon tetrachloride with methanol. I don't know if it's cheaper, but you can get 1 liter of SiCl4 off of Alfa Aesar for about 80 bucks, that is, if they sell to individuals. Might be worth a try...
This was a very impressive video and very helpful. Thank you. I am working with a simpler material for my work with energy conversion. Can this gel be interlaced with carbon fiber nano tubes?
Anhydrous copper sulphate can remove the last bit of water from an ethanol azeotrope. Wonder if it could reduce the number of times you need to batch out the methanol...
You mentioned you didn't have a volumetric flask (sp) when measuring the water, but i've heard it's actually better to measure chemicals and stuff by weight due to differences in density from things like atmospheric pressure, temperature, etc.?
Would using a drying agent like anhydrous sodium sulfate or mol sieves help in speeding the methanol/water xchange? Could put a layer at the bottom of the methanol, rest the gel on a raised platform above.
just wondering what you would make, if you put that aerogel liquid in with the gas mix it in then make it go supercritical then set the aerogel liquid so it makes a solid in the chamber while mixed with the gas I wondering if the gas will leach out leaving a lighter solid or a solid with built in pressure meaning a more harder solid
You should use all the small pieces of aerogel to make a thermos and see how well it can make coffee stay hot. I know it sounds silly, but if it could keep coffee warm for a week, a lot of army people would pay the money to get one.
A vaccum bottle is already as close to perfect as you are going to get and those are common. the problem is you need ingress/egress IE you need an opening and that is where all your heat is going to leak.
have you considered freezing the sample and then adding it to the chamber? It might be possible to freeze the gel in liquid nitrogen and then add it as a solid to avoid cracking.
Dude just invited half a million people to come over and make aerogel at his shop, what a baller.
Wonder if he has any left?
yei! Let's do this
@@artonline01 You kidding? He home built an SEM.
bunsenburner I'm kidding
@@artonline01 So was I :)
Even though this guy does not taste his chemicals as often as Cody does, he's still pretty interesting to watch.
XD
My home doesn't look like that at all.
yesterman You are not sciencing hard enough then.
+yesterman I imagine Ben's mom walking around in his shop and uttering "this is why we can't have nice things".
"get out of my room, I'm playing minecraft"
What did you think it would look like ITS a scientist house lol
Me too
Not sure if you're still checking comments on this video, but there's actually a semi-OTC method to make tetraethyl orthosilicate at home, which should substitute well for the tetramethyl used here. To do this, first prepare silicon tetrachloride by passing dry chlorine gas past some silicon in a heated tube. This reaction is extremely dangerous due to the large amounts of toxic corrosive chlorine required, but there are videos of the synthesis in youtube. One the silicon tetrachloride is made, purify it by passing it through a cotton filter and add it to excess anhydrous ethanol SLOWLY. The reaction is extremely violent due to flash boiling of the solvent. Once all the silicon tetrachloride is added, distill off the residual ethanol and what remains is tetraethyl orthosilicate, pure enough for aerogel.
Bill Smathers if you survive...lolz
"By passing dry chlorine gas over silicon in a heated tube" that sounds like hell to get set up.
Jordan Schlansky would be proud of your comment
i think nileRed or someone made a vid on something like that(making sillicon tetrachloride)
Surprised someone hasn't deleted your post with a copyright notice. Corporations hate technology being taught freely.
i think your definition of "at home" is slightly skewed
He's at home?
Dont confuse "at home " with simple... these isnt a hot pocket hes cooking up here
he is at home, but happens to be that he has an independent home base lab and workshop, so its accurate.
😂
@@lmeza1983 it would be more accurate if he had named the video, "How I made aerogel at my home"...
>making silica aerogel at home
>you need tetramethyl orthosilicate and a super critical drying champer
Pick one
Well he picked both.
>trying to greentext on youtube
What are you, 14?
Casper Fogh Larsen this isnt 4chan so that you can just use greentext like it's the colonial times lmmfaoo
What, you don't have obscure chemicals and technical apparatus at home?
will Amazon ship combustium trioxide to my abandoned funfair on coney island?
I had my doubts when you first talked about doing this, but wow it's amazing what an individual can pull off. I've only seen areogel once, at an art exhibit, it was a nice big chunk of it too. It really does look exactly like smoke.
I never fully understood the production of aerogel until this video. Thank you for explaining this in a way I could grasp fully.
one thing that may help against cracking. I believe you were right about the large almost instantaneous change in temperature being the cause for cracking. that being said, as opposed to wrapping the aerogel in foil, which will still allow the fluid to come in direct contact with a warmer body. I was thinking if you slowly cooled the gel prior to putting it in the chamber by putting the methanol bath in either a ice bath, or even just putting it in the freezer for a day prior to the supercritical phase. i belive this should help prevent cracking more so than just putting some foil around it.
Hey man, I´m just preparing a short scientific lecture about aero gels and your video gave an nice look about howto produce them without industrial ressources. Thanks for it.
Wow, I hadn't realized how involved it is to make aerogel. It looks like my dreams of insulating my bus conversion with are dashed LOL!
At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2 will sublimate from dry ice into CO2 gas. However, at higher pressures, the dry ice will melt into liquid CO2. Whether this process is sublime or not, is for you to judge.
Great video, I've fancied having a go at making areogel for a while. I don't want to sound like a health and safety freak but a gas mask doesn't offer sufficient protection. Moisture in the air and your breath will rapidly deactivate the filter rendering it useless at stopping chemicals. Why don't you build yourself a fumehood and vent it out one of the windows? A sheet of perspex a a couple of sheets of ply is all you'd need.
Hello , do you know how to make a mass products of aerogel ?
To think we can freeze dry some solution at home and make a flexible aerogel at home without fuss these days so fast and easily...
These videos make me happy to see how we have advanced by so much compared to the effort that had to be tackled back then.
this guy reminds me a smarter more sane version of codys lab
exactly
I think he looks a lot like Cody, just older.
i think cody's lab is also smart and sane. they are both awesome channels
John P I said a smarter and saner version. Cody is very smart, but, AS seems much more intelligent. And Cody seems a bit off, like he lost a couple marbles.
Props for your username Cuntington
I don't think it's worth judging them against each other. Cody shows how it's possible to do things with a bare minimum of equipment, and I feel like people come to AS to see how to do things the way lab professionals would do it.
I love the fact that you felt the need to explain what baking paper is! :D
Instead of drying the gel by replacing the methanol have you considered adding a drying agent to it such a silica gel or anhydrous magnesium sulfate to essentially trap the water as it diffuses out of the gel into the methanol, then instead of changing it every day or so just leave it in the 1 container for a few days in the same methanol + drying agent bath.
I was thinking the same thing, but with molecular sieves.
Dessicated molecular sieves would be an excellent drying solution at that stage, and the seives could be regenerated and reused. Would save methanol also.
i just realized that when i saw your clip on supercritical co2 back '11 or '12 i never heard of the stuff so i searched on youtube for other videos on it and thats how i found periodic videos channel. youtube is great!
you are the ultimate DIY guru, respect.
By the way I just played subnautica and thought aerogel and magnetite were completely fictional hahaha ( in game to produce it you need Hydrofluoric acid + gold).
I'm glad that you checked out the aerogel (d) org tip, looks like you are having great fun making aerogel. Great results too. Congratulations!
I was thinking about making some at my home to help insulate my sun room (it gets cold in the winter and wreaks havoc on the electric bill) but now I see it would be cheaper just to buy a door because I don't have the equipment, chemicals, money, or know-how to make it. Cool video though.
good luck buying enough to insulate a room it will cost millions
triple glazing instead?
@IgnemFeram Thicker jacket and a furry hat!
ya, the good ole days of giving technology to the people are over. to do anything now, you will be heavily controlled in your potential. the american way is gone.
@@johnwortherly4592 what are you even talking about?
This was very interesting. Being a simple crafter, I can only imagine all the uses this stuff could have. Thanks for sharing!
Why is TMOS so guarded? Does it have explosive capabilities or something?
What is TMOS?
Tetramethyl orthosilicate. Sometimes called TMOS.
It produces methanol which can cause lung lesions and blindness
Well, methanol can be extracted from wood aswell
@@EddieMiamifgc yeah that stuff is dangerous aswell it is in smaller volumes though
The stuff you do at HOME blows my mind
How to make aerogel at home. Step one: Get a chemical that isn't sold to individuals.
Next video should be - how to get that chemical from accessible by individuals
To get around the cracking issue, it might make sense to insulate and refrigerate the chamber first. You could even do that with a dry ice and alcohol bath without too much trouble. Once the gel is cooled, it will no longer undergo any thermal expansion or contraction of a significant scale. Then the addition of liquid CO2 will very likely not cause the cracking to happen. Just a thought.
TMOS is hard to get because it's very dangerous in untrained or malicious hands. Even a small amount of the vapor getting in your eye will cause blindness.
Drinking beer will cure the blinding effects of methanol poisoning.
@@bloodyricho1 Good luck with that 5% Ethanol that is in beer.
I'm Australian I'm sure that I can drink enough 😂
if vodka would cure the blinding effects, does that mean you could bomb russia (not that you would want to...) with that stuff and it would have no effect on the majority of population?
Dead Meme Well since their blood is 75% straight vodka, yes.
That was pretty cool! I found that diesel truck brake line antifreeze contains 100% methanol with no additives, I tried by evaporating some on a mirror and nothing at all remained after evaporation. It's cheap too, about 20 dollars a gallon. I've used it in many extractions of volatile oils and never had a problem. As for the TMOS, we had some in college, I remember we had to be VERY careful with it because on contact with anything moist it hydrolyses, producing SiO2, like in eyes or lungs.
You're a very good teacher.
What did you expect? This guy did a freaking fantastic job explaining this. I know I don't have a lab at home, but this seems simple enough.
May I ask what are the most important uses of aerogel??
It's a great insulator and super light weight, I guess it's used a lot with NASA. Also great as filter media and absorbing chemicals.
Thank you very much for your prompt reply.
During the water extraction phase perhaps you could use a desicant like CaO, CaO3, or silica gel to the dry gas instead of changing it out just sprinkle a little more in over time. The desicant can be regenerated with heat (lots for CaO, CaO3), silica jell can ge cooked out in an oven.
what you think about to make a phosphorescent areogel powered by uv led?pretty the same idea as phospors COB LEDS
Your videos are an education.Thank you so much for sharing your projects with us.
You could avoid the multiple methanol changes by adding some anhydrous aluminum chloride granules to the Ethanol. These would lock up all the water that emerges from the gel.
Best regards,
David Kane.
You're on a good way to making a spacecraft at home :)
Holy crap this guy is awesome. How on earth do you get so damn talented and smart.
What about a partial vacuum for drying? Enough to counter the collapse into the xerogel.
Xerogel is correct, it's the collapsed more solid, less airy version.
Then the boiling action of the methanol would most likely break the gel. The supercritical step is to avoid those movements by rising the temperature in the sealed chamber until the meniscus vanishes then slowly drop the pressure while keeping the temperature above boiling point until 1 atm has been reached. A smooth transition from liquid to gas has been achieved without violent boiling or surface tension pulling.
Amazing stuff, you are a real life Gyro Gearloose, thanks for sharing.
lmfao dood the first five seconds of the video i thought "breaking bad" then i saw youre comment
Hey! I’m just wondering, we’re you verified when you made this comment, or were you just a normal user?
You definitely have a passion for chemistry. Nice job.
Step 3 seems to take quite a while. I would try using a soxhlet extractor during this step. That way you can "wash" the sample with fresh, almost pure methanol and it would basically be the same as dipping the thing and letting it sit over the course of a few days. Also, you won't need to constantly change the solvent, due to the working principle of the soxhlet extractor. Be sure to check it out. :)
That is actually not a bad idea because methanol and water don't form an azeotrope.
Aerogel is mostly commonly made from silica, which would require the chemicals. There are other aerogels -- check out the recipes section at aerogel dot org. I've made freeze-dried Jello (search my videos), but it might also be possible to supercriticallly dry it, and get a much finer bubble structure.
This is exactly what I was curious about. We have a vacuum chamber and multiple freeze driers, I wonder how close we could get
did you try freeze drying the gel?
I got to play with some aerogel in highschool back in 2003. A research physicist at OU brought it by. He also brought some metal wire that had true shape memory that could be reset by a quick dunk in room temp. distilled water.
notes : METH 0:23
He did say he is working on getting his quality better! Freaking hizenburg!
jordan foster *Ahem!* Hisenberg
Волынщик*Ahem!* Heisenberg.
Alex Hudson Wow. I can't believe I actually spelled that wrong. That is... hilarious.
Methanol
Why is tetramethyl orthosilicate so hard to get? Is it use for something bad?
wikipedia says:
"Even at low concentrations inhalation causes lung lesions, and at slightly higher concentrations eye contact with the vapor causes blindness[citation needed]. Worse, at low concentrations (200 ppm/15 min) the damage is often insidious, with onset of symptoms hours after exposure.[3] The mode of action is the precipitation of silica in the eyes and/or lungs"
so its a perfect chemical weapon to throw it into a train full of people.
One way you can make tetramethoxysilane at home is by reacting silicon tetrachloride with methanol.
Hello do you know how to make aerogel for cheap
If you submerge the supercritical drying chamber in liquid nitrogen, you could the chamber's temperature low enough to prevent the CO2 boiling.
Great video! thanks for sharing!
I you ever make a follow up video. I am extremely curious to see what would happen if you use normal desert jelly / jello
That's your home shop??? That's not fair...
How porous is this material, and what kind of force can it take before breaking? could it hold a cellular structure? and if so, of what complexity and density? I know these are a bunch of seemingly random questions, and probably don't have any well-researched answers, but if it can sustain cellular life within it, it'll be much more durable than a cellulose sponge, which certainly makes up for how hard it is to make, on the smaller scale stuff at least.
At 0:30 you can see the word METH on the top right hand corner
It says METHANOL
There are a lot of chemicals that start with "meth" that have nothing to do with drugs.
I have watched a bunch of your videos, but this one has inspired me, I am definitely trying this at home. Its a shame chemicals are so restricted, even those not connected to various nefarious practices. It really discourages home-scientific experimentation from those not friends with a professional scientist or professor.
First 2 seconds of video. See all those bottles and chemicals. Instantly going to get arrested if I try this.
Shankovich did you
Shankovich nah, owning most chemicals isn’t illegal.
Do you think this aerogel might be useful in sound deadening applications where light weight is of high importance, like in headphones, in ear monitors, etc. Do you think it would reduce unwanted vibrations when mounted to a frame?
Should have had goggles on my friend.
Don't Even Bother Yeah, because Safety is number 1 priority
Dylan McDonald EliteSwiper - Gaming and more! **prorty
For TMOS you need a full face respirator which he had. A fume cupboard would be better.
Why are there so many comments from people who think the title implies that you can make this at YOUR home. This is HIS home. The title isn't "how to make aerogel at any home" it's "making aerogel at home." He very clearly did exactly what the title said. Also, he clearly explained the challenges with finding one of the chemicals AND he has another video explaining how to make the supercritical drying chamber. For fuckssake, most of y'all complaining probably can't even distill some water if you had to.
"Hey there, neighbor, can I borrow a cup of tetramethyl orthosilicate?"
Here is the safety section on wiki about Tetramethyl orthosilicate:
The hydrolysis of Si(OCH3)4 produces insoluble SiO2 and CH3OH (methanol). Even at low concentrations inhalation causes lung lesions, and at slightly higher concentrations eye contact with the vapor causes blindness. Worse, at low concentrations (200ppm/15min) the damage is often insidious, Contrary to several erroneous MSDS sheets, the methanol produced is relatively innocuous think about it !
At the beginning at the top right, his note is cut off but it says Meth hahaha......ok Heisenburg
I think it has been used for capturing comet dust on a space probe. It is also a good insulator.
2:05 Are you my mummy?
XD
Stole the words right out of my mouth.
LOL dr who ftw
Thanx man, I'm going for a interview at a adsorbent & desiccant company tomorrow, good to know what Silca gel is.... thanx again.
Breaking Bad
Thats fkn hilarious
Hez made white arogel. It's his signature from the blue stuff. Like walters blue meth
0:30
Awesome video. It is just amazing to see what you are able to accomplish in your workshop!!
Okay Walter White.. ;)
I bet you're referring to the "methanol" sticky note...
*****
XD
Methanol is a type of toxic alcohol. Methylamine (P2P) is what Walter White used to synthesize methamphetamine
Methylamine not P2P; it is one of the precursors, along *with* P2P, that goes into the method WW used.
@@johnathancorgan3994 ww used nh3 and litium or sodium.
may i suggest bringing the temp of the gel down before putting in the chamber? if you can get it so that the co2 will evap slower when hitting the wall it may not boil and crack the gel.
I wish I was smart.
no
You, Sir, would be an excellent Chemical Engineer, Thanks for this great video !
Notes: Meth...
Chill the chamber before filling try just hosing it down. I have thinking of trying this as well i might build my chamber inside a modified dewar, and leave my ln2 generator setup running above it keeping the chamber walls super critical at all time basically a pipe braised through the side of a dewar with a cap and a stainless steel shelf inside.
Sticky note says meth
Slick. If I'm not mistaken, an exercise in physical chemistry. I've heard that silica aerogels are being looked into for very efficient thermal insulation for houses and other buildings.
meth lab in desgise
Not everyone is a degenerate junkie.
"Disgise" LOL Guess you are end user of it aren't ya?
There’s always a meth comment no matter what science channel.
not everyone is that stupid.
The are hydrophillic beads used in the manufacture of pure ethanol for biodiesel. You might be able to use something like that to cut down on some of the waste you generate. The drawback would be that in order to recharge them you have to bake them in an electric oven. If you have anything nasty in the beads it will come out as a gas.
Perhaps you should try testing on how long to leave the gel and see if it will come out less ridged it might help make it the Aerogel at the end seem more clean?
You are the legend ulta Pro Max
In making home made aerogel
could you use the principles from your video "how to chemically strengthen glass" to improve aerogel strength?
Cool. It would be great if you could upload a video showing if the aerogel you have been able to make actually has the super insulating properties.
*Make up a 5% solution of phosphoric acid and then very slowly drip sodium silicate that has been cut with 80% water with vigorous stirring until the whole thing turns into a very solid thick jelly. It's very brittle gel at this point so handle it with great care. Now place it in the vacuum jar which makes the water boil away at room temperature due to the high vacuum. The vacuum also keeps the structure from collapsing. This form of "poor-man's" aerogel may shrink a little and is not very transparent but it's a cheap way to make a lot of high temperature and lightweight flame retardant insulation or even a good stuffing for an Arctic jacket at a very low cost. Using this technique I can fill up about six or seven 5 gallon buckets full of lightweight aerogel per day for a cost under $9. I used to freeze dry fruits and vegetables and stumbled onto this technique kind of on accident. In fact the aerogel made with the vacuum drying process reminds me of a freeze-dried Apples in many ways. Very light but pretty tough, hard to snap. For those of you who do not know water boils at room temperature in the vacuum. The trick is to use only enough vacuum to get the water evaporating very quickly but not boiling or the bubbles will blow the gel apart*
You're waaaaaay ahead of the curve
i just completed one of my ideas on my youtube chanel its a tazer glove works great. when i watched the makeing of aerogel for the first time i had an idea. 1.what kind adhesive would you use to connect aerogel to the following materials. carbon or graphen ti. if its not possible could you connect the material by using the meted of interlacing materials that can't be puled or moved apart with out removing the firspeice like a puzle. could you use the aerogel a insalter in a body suit for highh
That's awesome mate! Maybe you could distill the heet through a condenser so you can get the other crap out. Just a thought.
Hey, we want to make some, but the question is, how long did it take for you to form the gel. How long did you let the TMOS, Methanol and ammonium hydroxide react?
hey what if you made metal alloys that would have interesting properties, depending on their temperature, also if you can make alloys that can be cast on a mold with a hydraulic press . thank you for the awesome channel
Saftey gear? I haven't suffered any drain bammage from fume inhalation.
Excellent video!!!!
I would like to make an aerogel
couldYou say how you do the drying (more specifically)
Thank you!!!!!
Very nice! You can make small amounts of tetramethyl orthosilicate by reacting silicon tetrachloride with methanol. I don't know if it's cheaper, but you can get 1 liter of SiCl4 off of Alfa Aesar for about 80 bucks, that is, if they sell to individuals. Might be worth a try...
This was a very impressive video and very helpful. Thank you. I am working with a simpler material for my work with energy conversion. Can this gel be interlaced with carbon fiber nano tubes?
Methanol can be bought cheaply at a good paint supply store.
I up to 1 gallon containers.
Anhydrous copper sulphate can remove the last bit of water from an ethanol azeotrope. Wonder if it could reduce the number of times you need to batch out the methanol...
You mentioned you didn't have a volumetric flask (sp) when measuring the water, but i've heard it's actually better to measure chemicals and stuff by weight due to differences in density from things like atmospheric pressure, temperature, etc.?
Would using a drying agent like anhydrous sodium sulfate or mol sieves help in speeding the methanol/water xchange? Could put a layer at the bottom of the methanol, rest the gel on a raised platform above.
have you thought about using molecular sives to extract water out of the methanol solution? this could help save on one and methanol
just wondering what you would make, if you put that aerogel liquid in with the gas mix it in then make it go supercritical then set the aerogel liquid so it makes a solid in the chamber while mixed with the gas I wondering if the gas will leach out leaving a lighter solid or a solid with built in pressure meaning a more harder solid
You should use all the small pieces of aerogel to make a thermos and see how well it can make coffee stay hot. I know it sounds silly, but if it could keep coffee warm for a week, a lot of army people would pay the money to get one.
A vaccum bottle is already as close to perfect as you are going to get and those are common. the problem is you need ingress/egress IE you need an opening and that is where all your heat is going to leak.
The wet stage of the aerogel looks delicious.
have you considered freezing the sample and then adding it to the chamber? It might be possible to freeze the gel in liquid nitrogen and then add it as a solid to avoid cracking.
Could you hook the methanol rinse/soak up to a closed loop where you distill the methanol to purify it?