Creating aerogel with supercritical methanol

[kualquierkosa]

I was gonna suggest you changed your molding technique, but you already will, i was thinking the pressure to release the gel from the syringe actually fractured the gel, and these fractures only showed until you dried it. >.< so i think. Good luck in future experiments very informative, Thumbs up.

[Hobgoblin612]

if there was a slow leak and it ignited you wouldnt know because methenol burns with a clear flame! (you can only see the heat haze)

[fusionfreak2009]

You know typical steel vessels lose their structural integrity and weaken @ 350F. I would wrap your tank w kevlar or not really push that vessel to its max psi anymore. Thanks for yr post, did you happen to try decaffinating coffee w high pressure water after being subjected scfe?

[fakemadereal]

Yes, since us YouTube commenters have been known for our high IQ's.

[Th3Su8]

Are you related to Bill Nye?

Thanks for the informative, and sometimes dangerous, scientific experiments. Keep up the good work and making science interesting and fun.

[cholulo80]

great job man!

I see you changed de preassure vessel from the original's aerogel.org pipe fittin design.

what kind of pipe did you use? is inox steel?

[bkraz333]

@cholulo80 These are 2" schedule 80 steel pipe fittings from McMaster.

[cholulo80]

@bkraz333 thanks, is stainless steel right?

Im from Argentina and I tring to figure out how I suppose to make my supercritical dryer for aerogel production without killing myself in the process!

I planned to make it with stainless steel 316 or 304 pipe fittings but if is a way to make a bigger dryer with other components will be great.

thanks and keep working, you great!!

[bkraz333]

@cholulo80 It's not stainless -- just plain steel. Good luck!

[GOTJIFF223]

yes methanol and aluminum do react, im surprised you still have your aluminum washer

[electrodacus]

Lower density is not necessarily better. You will need a microscope to see the structure of the aerogel.

There can be more defects in the structure and maybe there are big air pockets not good for mechanical resistance or thermal insulation.

[menushadesanayaka255]

Thanks for risking your life for sciences so we don't have to do it

[oisiaa]

Your experiments (or fiddling around if you will since you aren't actually doing science normally) reminds me of the stories I read about 17th century legends who's work our world is based on today.

[AgentDexter47]

"I ended up using a torch, if there was a slow leak it would ignite and I would detect it right away

if there was a big leak ummm that could be a problem" hahahahaha

You are awesome! Keep up the good work!

[lglglggl]

Nice, goes from aerogel production to molecular gastronomy. Somehow he manages to take my interests to unimaginable extremes .

[catman72]

if i recall correctly - hi pressure deepfrying is patented by KFC.

that makes it very rare outside KFC's shops....

their HP fryers were the only safe design for many years.

great videos, i love them. keep it up :-)

[PBnFlash]

Super critical methanol ate your aluminum?

Science!

Aluminum is actually fairly reactive, but it's oxide layer on the surface is typicality impermeable, the nonreactive CO2 didn't do anything but the methanol must have done the job. I wonder how deep super critical CO2 penetrates, and if it can carry things with it... perhaps a coloring agent. hmmm

[Orthosonic]

Awesome! :)

Have you thought about installing a fume hood?

[Flick14113]

You're not going to make a super insulated aerogel container? It would be like a really efficent drink cooler :)

[nerobro]

High pressure frying is done on a comercial scale. Every KFC has a couple of pressure fryers in back. They're an off the shelf item. :-)

[TeenageIronman]

Is he a chemical engineer?

[spareroomhacker]

Hey Ben, how do you know that pipe can handle the pressures you are placing it under?



[xXdenhartXx]

Very cool video.. I still you should try to make freeze-dried coffee, but i will admit that  the vacuum frying sounds quite interesting too!

[orbiter8]

Here on You Tube we have our own real life mad scientist. He's called Ben :)

Interesting as always mate, great vid.

[Films4You]

2:20 air presure test first.

6:51 Carbon Nano-Tubes :)

[c4fishfood]

i like your scale. also, what material did you use to make the chamber?

[refa42]

Haha, nice touch @ 2:11

It's like "if this thing blows up it will vaporize this whole shop but remember, always wear eye protection".

Maybe we see more FPGA stuff in the future. Or stainless steel high vacuum parts turning in your nice lathe. Doesn't matter much because your experiments are always interesting, just keep it safe :)

[frac]

"A little more dangerous". My, how delightfully understated.

[Fast2405]

Another fantastic video. :) If you get chance take a look at the videos from NurdRage. Some interesting stuff there. According to Wikipedia - One of the drawbacks of methanol as a fuel is its corrosivity to some metals, including aluminium. Methanol, although a weak acid, attacks the oxide coating that normally protects the aluminium from corrosion:

6 CH3OH + Al2O3 → 2 Al(OCH3)3 + 3 H2O

[slin1990]

@Fast2405

At those temperatures and pressures it's even possible, that the methanol attacks the metallic Al to form all sorts off components. e.g hydrocarbons, carbon, hydrogen and as you pointed out correctly Al(OCH3)3 and some Al(OH)3

[bogdanbelcea]

"This is probably the most dangerous experiment that I have ever posed to YouTube ... " Makes us all wonder what crazy things you have done "off camera" :)

[bur1t0]

"High pressure frying" was used by "that fried chicken chain" to cook chicken much faster back in the 1930's.