How to make sodium hydroxide (lye) at home

[IvanSRBfilip]

should the electrodes be near each other or close to each other

[rsx123]

What would you need sodium hydroxide for at home?

[Agentoxedo07]

Holy-Terrorist:>*=* I maked it in my remember 1 year of past of but is making sodium chlorate[NaClO3] process of i abandon my chemistry of is not easy of is so complexe for me, of but sodium chlorate[NaClO3] with aluminium[Al] to form flash powder!

I speak french and little english.

[theonelinerkid]

its realy this simple?...i can make drain cleaner out of salt water?...wellyou learn something new everyday.. this willsave me somemoney

[20fireman12]

Did you use tap water or distilled water?

[Fendori]

@20fireman12 obviously distilled you retard

[20fireman12]

@Fendori duh...

[20fireman12]

@20fireman12 lol I ended up making sodium chloride.

[CancelDueWeather]

err how do i know when it is done? so it is just salt n water??

[diegoman35]

Just one little doubt. Can I use pencil graphite as electrode? It may sound stupid, but I want to know from someones that actually knows xD

[TheChemlife]

@diegoman35 yep that's where I got mine.

[diegonikki]

@diegoman35 i recomend carbon rods from eveready d sized batteries but pencil graphite works too and its cheaper :D

[1bnbnbn]

o.0 how do you electrolyze something??

[purity4all]

I'm confused, I thought lye was made from ashes.

[tappakeggaday1]

@purity4all thats what I thought too, that it was leached from ash in some manner.

[purity4all]

@tappakeggaday1 Yes, water poured over hard wood ashes.

[hehthatsnice]

thank you you saved my life... so anyone could make lye.... why all the extra crap

[PaladinswordSaurfang]

Awesome vid, thanks for uploading :D

[LittleBigMuslimTV]

I did this

but sadly it didnt work

only a few molecules of NaoH became after leaving it for 32 houres

Can u please help?

and thank u for your great show

[elflordbob1]

you can get carbon electrodes from f-cell battieres which are the batteries in the lanturn batteries

[pde385e]

well well around the world in salt is KOI and NaCl.  NaCl + KOI + 2 H2O ---> NaI + 4KOH + Cl

[l8yonfire77]

I was being sneaky after I'd researched making sodium hydroxide to make soap because I'm a girl and soo not a chemist! We had burned hydrogen in science class, so I figured it would be easy to reproduce. Wrong! I accidentally cut the plug off the + and - wires and reattached them naively and all of the power went out! >:) Sorry Dad for no TV, your daughter's just brewing up an electrical storm in here. :) Thanks for the video, will be trying again tomorrow with clear safety precautions. ;)

[SargentLimpDick]

Hey could one take a cord from something and attach electrodes to it then plug it straight into the wall?

[SargentLimpDick]

Hey could I use galvanized nails for the zinc? or will the iron contaminate the reaction?

[whynotrylan]

nelsonR001 i did same thing but i kept mine outside for at least 20 hrs over an expanse of days after looking at other videos i found out this makes chlorine

[jdflyback]

@NelsonR001 the only reason it would be green Is if there is copper electrodes. I would recomend taking apart a carbon zinc battery. Or super heavy duty lantern battery. Just throwing stuff out there

[dizzious]

Might want to mention to people that if they use a metal container when boiling, to make sure it's NOT an Aluminum container! In fact, I wouldn't recommend boiling it at all. I'd strongly recommend not boiling it.

[dizzious]

I imagine it's best to use distilled water for the salt solution... you'd be surprised at the amount of contaminants that are found in most tap water.

Also, instead of swirling like that and adding water little by little; just fill the jar up until it's about 1" from the brim, then screw the lid on it and shake it. Instead of taking half an hour to dissolve your salt, it'll take a minute. ;)

[UTubeisSHIT523441]

heh and I always though ONLY NaOCl will form or NaClO3 with heating. Thats what everybody says, but thanks to XAtom1c to explain this things.

[NelsonR001]

Hi, so I am doing this, but its been about 5 hours since I started the electrolysis, and it steels bubbling, also the liquid has turned a little green, and somethimg has precipitated on the bottom of the jar.

What is that precipitation?

Why is the water green?

I used a very saturated solution of NaCl

I used graphite diodes

The salt was pure

I used a glass jar quite smaller that the one you used on this video.

And I used distiled water.

[opl500]

@NelsonR001 The green stuff is copper hydroxide. Same reason that most copper roofs look green.

[MrSmudger687]

Honestly guys it's so much easier just to buy sodium hydroxide, the stuff you buy will be infintely more pure than the crap you get by electrolysis.

[tjfoxxxx]

@MrSmudger687 Making your own it's charm.

[ApertureScience27]

Careful, NaOH reacts with aluminum & makes hydrogen

[TPDR08]

So I'm new to electrolysis and synthesis in general. I used a 9v battery, wrapped copper wire around the nodes and then led those wires to two carbon rods that I took out of some old batteries. I left it there for about 3 hours and I got a light blue solution that managed to eat through one of the copper wires ( ! ). The rods were as far apart as possible. Any clue as to what went wrong, or tips as to other electrodes?

[TheChemlife]

@TPDR08 you can't have any copper touches the water or you'll make copper hydroxide

[IvanSRBfilip]

@TheChemlife I used copper wire as electrode later I filter the sollution and hetted the sollution very gently and collected what was at the botton(the sollution was at the beginng a light blue color)please tell me what I made ((and sory for my bad gramar)) is this powder copper-hydroxide please anser

[taaBe23]

@IvanSRBfilip it's the copper that made you solution blue. make sure you use inert electrode like carbon, platinum or gold so the electrode itself will not react with the electric current

[IvanSRBfilip]

@taaBe23 ok thanks

[bipolarprobe]

make sure the metal container used for boiling is not aluminum which sodium hydroxide does not need to be molten to eat aluminum and the reaction is highly exothermic

[ForceRecon198]

I'm gonna end up on the no-fly list for watching this.

[silverleaf81]

@ForceRecon198 Probably not, unless you live in China.

[rarosera]

Can anyone tell me what the best voltage is for the electrolosis?

[christi695]

@rarosera 9 or 10v battery

[christi695]

@rarosera 10v battery

[HUsoldier171]

@thechemlife i love your videos because i am very interested in chemistry and i wanted to know if potassium hydroxide could be made via this method to if i use potassium chloride instead of NaCl because i need KCl for alot of experiments and id rather make it my self than buy it and also is there anyway to purify the hydroxide that is made so it is fairly pure say above 80%

[musicinsane666]

So, no bleach will be formed if i throw a piece of zinc into the reaction? Then afterwards I just take it out?

[FPSCro]

Can you tell me, how can I know when electrolysis is finished, and how strong is it? Thanx!

[zeelove8]

thank u very much,, very informative!!!!!!!

[ScienceHideout]

Metal container?! What type of metal would be safe? It eats right thru aluminum.

[saturbo1107]

Are u using regular 110 a/c or 12 volts ?? I got lost there?

 Thanks!!!

[kavus0393]

I used copper electrodes, now I have an orange solution. What'd I make?

[TheChemlife]

@kavus0393 not sodium hydroxide. i said use graphite or carbon for this reason

[maxxorid1]

@TheChemlife carbon and graphite is the same thing

[Aviatorsmith]

@maxxorid1 Carbon and graphite are not the same thing. The most common form of carbon, amorphous carbon does not conduct electricity.

[dizzious]

@maxxorid1 Kind of. All graphite is carbon, but not all carbon is graphite. ;D

[marcomovies97]

I use graphite too, but my electrolyte is turning a little bit blue... Do you know why??? Cheets from holland.

[TheChemlife]

@marcomovies97 i have no idea. it must be an impurity in your container or in your electrolyte

[ExothermicVideos]

How many hours does the electrolysis last?

[TheChemlife]

@ExothermicVideos i let mine run for 3 but more is better

[ExothermicVideos]

@TheChemlife Okay thanks.

Nice opening btw...

[TheChemlife]

@ExothermicVideos the opening sucked this week i know but next week it'll be much better, i downloaded a ton of royalty free stuff so it'll stop sucking. i needed to stop using the track cause it was kind of copyrighted.

[ExothermicVideos]

@TheChemlife I don't think it sucks, I like it.

[TheChemlife]

@ExothermicVideos oh ok, well if you like it you'll like next weeks video even more. it's gonna be the biggest one yet, about half an hour or more. upgraded my software so it looks and sound awesome

[Palizasadomicilio]

If you want to go caveman on sodium hydroxide, just make it from CaO, water and Na2CO3 :)

[XAtom1c]

To clear it up the confusions: The electrolysis of a NaCl solution produces NaOH and Cl2 which can react to form NaOCl or NaClO3 (with higher temps), others said this before. But for this process the electrodes have to be close to each other, but in this video the electrodes are far away from each other and chlorine can escape. But still not all NaCl will be converted to NaOH but the bigger the space between the electrodes the more NaOH and less NaOCl will be produced. Hope this helps

[opl500]

@XAtom1c

And the more contact the Cl2 has with the solute, the greater the chance of ClOX being former, I'd guess. So if you put the Cl producing electrode close to the surface of the solution, you'd probably get next to no byproducts. This would be at the expense of the reaction rate, but if this is just a home chemist screwing around, you can always go do something else while it works.

[annohalic]

@TheChemlife if you are trying to collect the chlorine/hydrogen the chlorine may dissolve into the water thus reacting with the sodium hydroxide(at regular temps) to make a solution of sodium hypochlorite, which is bleach. this only happens if the bleach is trapped and dissolves.Cl2 + 2 NaOH → NaCl + NaClO + H2O

[chemicalsymphony]

@Madarpok The cell probably produces a little NaClO and ClO3, but those reactions only really start happening at temps higher than 50C, as at room temp most of the chloride ions turn into elemental chlorine.

[TheChemlife]

@louforiginator in chemistry it is better to be paranoid then stupid.

[vvindowsRExp]

@TheChemlife I have a question (obviusly duh).since i don't think its mentioned in the video what voltage do you use,because my adapter only goes to 12v I'm wondering will that be enough.how long does it take to evapourate and do you evapourate it from the jar itself or what other way, and are there any obvius indications that its done(stops bubling or something?).

[TheChemlife]

@vvindowsRExpWATCH I mention the voltage in my latest video. usually about 12v dc and anywhere from .5 to 1.5 amps

[toothpick93]

@louforiginator and its better to slow evap due to if boiling it, it could react with what your using or it will make a concerntrated hot solution... which if you get it on yourself... ur screwed

[TheChemlife]

@Madarpok also i added hydrogen peroxide to test if oxygen was evolved and then added some to copper sulfate. no oxygen was evolved and it made copper hydroxide immediately. also look at the other comment i made on yellowmetalcyborgs comment. i explained a quick method of dealing with some of he problems

[TheChemlife]

@Madarpok the contamination problem is minimal and if you let it evaporate the hydroxide comes out of solution first. also it's difficult to deal with these problems. if purity is your concern buy it. this is just for simple experimentation for example, making rayon.

[TheChemlife]

i haven't had any of these problems. i tested my product and it was infact NaOH.

[Madarpok]

@TheChemlife Are you sure it was pure? How exactly did you test it?

[yellowmetalcyborg]

This doesn't work, you get sodium hypochlorite instead.

You need a sodium ion exchange membrane.

[TheChemlife]

@yellowmetalcyborg yes it does. i have tested the product. i wouldn't put this up if it didn't work.

[yellowmetalcyborg]

@TheChemlife I've tried this, without exaggeration a dozen times and it hasn't worked even once. The only thing I got was a weak solution of sodium hypochlorite. The chlorine gas that is evolved quickly reacts with with the sodium hydroxide to yield bleach. The only way this can really work is if you use an ion exchange membrane. Any idea where Na ion exchange membranes can be found or bought?

[TheChemlife]

@yellowmetalcyborg so have i and it worked every time. i suggest better electrodes or playing with the voltage.

also if it's really a problem stop it for a while drop in a piece of zinc then filter it out before running it again. it'll convert the hypochlorite into chloride again.

[yellowmetalcyborg]

@TheChemlife I'll probably give this another go. I have more than enough voltage to make this work. I use outlet power hooked up to a huge resistor and a circuit breaker. I can't do it any other way, I don't want to damage any of my drill batteries and the nuclear reactor in my basement is being refuelled at the moment : ).

Sorry about my original comment, I was confused as to why your contraption worked and mine didn't even though my design was very similar if not identical to yours.

Apologies.

[TheChemlife]

@yellowmetalcyborg i hope you weren't using ac power. and if u saw my other video u saw that i am actually building a nuclear reactor :P also try using graphite electrodes if u weren't already

[yellowmetalcyborg]

@TheChemlife I've been using graphite rods all along; you know the spare ones from the CANDU reactor I have in my basement ^_^.

Are you building a fusion or fission reactor?

[TheChemlife]

@yellowmetalcyborg i just posted the video today. it's fusion. the one in the video is my demo one

[Madarpok]

@Madarpok If you have a method to deal with these contamination problems, please share it.

[coolliger]

Do not do this; it's too much work and very dangerous for a easily found chemical. The amount of chlorine produced is an extreme hazard to you and people around you. Chlorine is very lethal and should not be produced by a home, amature chemist. Boiling a hydroxide solution is extraordinarily dangerous and the solution will not evaporate to dryness bc NaOH is very hygroscopic. If you want NaOH, just buy it.

[TheChemlife]

@coolliger if it's done outside it's fine. not nearly as much chlorine as you say is produced. also i said don't boil the hydroxide.

[coolliger]

@TheChemlife

If a little chlorine is produced, that is still too much. Chlorine is nothing to mess around with, it is very dangerous. But to reiterate my point, this is too much time and energy wasted on a chemical that can be easily bought.

[Ilovetheplatypus]

@coolliger Lol; too much time and energy to do an experiment??? I'm sure all of the great chemist throughout history just went down to their local walmart to get chemicals because they didn't want to waste the energy to experiment.

[matthew1198765]

@coolliger Thats not the point of these vids. The point is to show or explain how something is done, and teach us something. For example, rayon, not practical at all but still really cool to know

[norxcontacts]

What about leftover salt?

[joey6978Gmail]

1 view 3 comments

[zapo147]

first as shit

[uut0]

I'm so gonna try this.

[zapo147]

@uut0 hax

[uut0]

@zapo147 in 2152 future, I can like and comment before the vid is up :P ( I clicked on it and it said it was processing)