Elementary Production: Thermite Reactions

[GolfingThurnis]

so that's what happened on 9/11

[DevilMaster]

So that's what "blur mixed with blur" is! :-D

[mabakken]

@DevilMaster

haha, that's right ;)

[GWR4079]

and how much did all the oxidising chemicals and the aluminimum and iron powder cost you to do this?

[amourdutigre]

You should try that with Uranium oxide... :-)

[mrhomescientist]

I've done some manganese thermites too, and mine were pretty violent as RokSrakaCar said (two of my videos feature it). I used MnO2:Al in a ratio of 2.42:1 by weight, with 425 mesh aluminum powder. I've found that finer powder makes a huge difference in the speed of reaction, so maybe that's why yours didn't go as quickly?

[Bernler75]

I made one out of Copper(II)oxide and titanium metal, I put it in a tube and left a crater in my lawn.

[mV33rs]

Have you ever tried NaOH + Al?

[reven676]

freeze it at 3:05

[GingleGangle1]

What did u put at the end?

[Revelde20]

dagerous

[reven676]

you meen dangerous? what a fail at spelling

[Revelde20]

you mean to like" meen" and mean? check your self! typo and fail to spell ! ?

[dreamwalkercchms]

Lipsmalloy:

Precisely cos copper is unreactive, it is easily displaced by metals(eg aluminium and zinc) from its compounds therefore rate of reaction is fast.

[lewisvz]

AWESOME were do you get the hand held torch?

[VilliVanilli]

You are a dane, right? :-D

"Magnesium bånd" :P

[LipsMalloy]

mabakken, great experiments, but I have a question. You say copper oxide is much lower on the reactivity scale, but your experiment shows it to react quickly and explosively. Can you explain?

[seuntjie900]

its like the alkali metals, the further down you go, the more reactive they become, this should also be the case for metals because then they have more electrons to use up in the reaction

[mewrox99]

@LipsMalloy

Due to it being lower on the reactivity series it's potential for it to be displaced by a more reactive metal is high. Metals high in the reactivity series have much lower potential to be reduce there for the rate of reaction is much lower and the required activation energy higher.

[ravensmomscorp76]

GREAT VIDEO! Thanks so much for posting this! I am already in the process of recommending this to people! :)

[johnm7115]

Try doing this without the bricks.

[respaldoscero]

Very instructive, since I know of this reactions for a while, but never saw them before

[SirSmokeal0t]

Awesome!

[dragonridley]

I wonder, what would it be like if you used gold oxide?

[mV33rs]

was thinking exactly the same

[alleyezon50cent]

can i use aluminum oxide in thermite?

[starshock01]

stick with iron oxide, some of the other oxides react more rapidly at lower temps causing explosions

[alleyezon50cent]

just wondering if it will work

[zcuttlefish]

excellent job. I'd been wanting to test CuO thermite for a while...

[ElAurian]

mabakken, you do a good job!

[retalz]

fags

[twirlywirly55]

Hi

Tin oxide works good as well , hard to get the tin metal out though cool video BTW

[potassiumperchlorate]

A few months ago I made some MnO2 thermite and it burnt allmost explosive.

[b43e65f77]

Anhydrous plaster powder with aluminium is also very powerful, see my video.

[potassiumperchlorate]

That's not a thermite reaction thats just a normal redox-reaction. Thermite reactions are a special type of redox-reactions between a metal oxide and a metal..

[EzraKile]

mmmm what about titanium oxide? mmmmm tonight i will try!

[sciencoking]

titanium is more reactive than many people think. Try silver oxide!

[slyscafe]

Copper (II) Oxide and Aluminum?

[asofaihp]

sweet. I saw one of your other videos and immediately went to your page to see if you had a thermite reaction one ;)

[Proph3tTroyer]

Gold(III) oxide (if you can get some) would be worth watching too =D

[RokSrakaCar]

no...what was your ratio (mine was MnO2 : Al = 2,4 : 1). But I did find out, that this thermite is more violent in large quantities. However, small reactions were still quite violent.

[RokSrakaCar]

that's odd! in my case, manganese thermite was very violent... check out my video (big thermite reactions)

[mabakken]

That is strange...did you use the same oxide? MnO2?

[RokSrakaCar]

yes, i did

[mabakken]

Strange. According to the electrochemical series, it SHOULD behave like it did in my video. Any theories?

[derkozten]

Probably because of the high oxidation number of manganese (+4), this oxide acted more violently than predictes only by the Al/Mn electrochemical series.

The reaction could be:

3MnO2 + 2Al --> 3MnO + Al2O3

Instead of the classical thermite substitution. 3MnO2 + 4Al --> 3Mn + 2Al2O3

[syntheser]

@mabakken

In my opinion, it's strongly depend what kind of aluminium powder did you used. There are various micro meter in size (the smaller size is make the mixture more homogeneous -> more reactive), and there are flake- or sphercial aluminium powders. In pyrotechnical mixtures the various aluminium powders (flake or sphercial) are strongly define the mixture burn rate!

[MrAde9999]

@mabakken maganese burns in small and explodes in big. copper explodes in small but burns in big

[Bernler75]

any1 know where I can get Magnesium Ribbon Cheap and easy? (I live in Sweden)

[kyubi890]

no but if u are useing it to light thermite easily try KNO3 + S + Al to light the thermite but u have to use black powder to light the KNO3 + S + AL

[Marcooftw]

Er du dansk?

[mabakken]

Nei, jeg er norsk. :)

[nachtparade]

NICE VIDEO

[iman10000]

mmm, very informative video... I'll have to play around with these one day!

thanks :)

[rchad14]

i covered a turd in that stuff and it smlet REALY BAD!!!!!

[Nilss7]

And the diameter of the fireball was approximately about one meter?

Quite impressive for an unconfined thermite.

[Nilss7]

great. What amount of CuO/Al did you use?

[mabakken]

They were mixed in an exact stoichiometric ratio, with ca 5 grams Aluminum. :)

[nulladiessine]

can the glycerol with KMnO4 ignite the ZnO thermite?

[mabakken]

It can ignite any Thermite that is thermodynamically favorable!

[Basco36]

whats the difference between copper oxide (I)

and copper oxide (II)

[mabakken]

In copper(I) Oxide, Copper is in oxidation state +1, but in Copper(II) Oxide it is in oxidation state +2. The chemical formulas are Cu2O and CuO, respectively.

With respect to reactivity, Copper(II) Oxide is very low in the reactivity series with regard to Aluminum, and therefore the reaction is much more violent!

[RokSrakaCar]

coooooooooooooooool