I fell in love with chemistry because i didn't have a hard time making a mental image of what happens during a chemical reaction. Now when i can visually see the beauty i'm happy i decided for chemistry. You inspire me NurdRage.
monkeyemperor12 Its possibile with gold cyanide. Cody did a gpld platin video. If things can be gold plated why do you think that gold crystals cant be grown?
Yes. You absolutely can. If you can plate something with it, you can grow crystals with it. Gold would behave almost the exact same way. You could use gold chloride, or gold cyanide solution. Density, chemical resistance, or mercury have nothing to do with this. Gold chloride is a commonly used compound, and its very easy to get your hands on. As long as you have the money, because I believe its somewhere around 240 dollars a gram. As a jeweler and goldsmith, electroplating is one of the things I have to do all the time. We use a solution of rhodium sulfate and sulfuric acid for rhodium plating. A solution of gold chloride for gold plating. Nickle chloride for nickle. and copper nitrate for copper. In our setup, we have a platinized titanium anode, and a gold cathode. The cathode is some gold wire with four hooks soldered to it. I love when we clean the cathodes off, because you can watch the rhodium metal slowly crystallize onto the hook. It takes months, but its cool seeing them develop.
Mexi Chemia The problem with electrolysis is you need to have very pure material. You absolutely could make your gold chloride, but it would be even more expensive. Because the nitric acid you would need is very expensive. I can buy gold chloride plating solution easily, already mixed and ready, much cheaper than straight gold chloride. Or if you needed to, you could easily make cyanide plating solution that works much better. However, for a big corporation, they want safe and cheap. So pre bought acid based solution is the only reality. hahaha
dude i take my hat off to you, i look through all these videos, and am am not only learning but you take it to the next level, by explaining the process in a well informed way. cheers from australia :)
I'm sure that these are the same things God says when he makes things. "Wow, look at that - isn't it amazing!" Thank you for showing how incredible even very small things can be.
Five plus minutes of my life, very well spent! Your video's are some of my most satisfying and enjoyable subscribed to content on TH-cam and I can only have wished that you were the professor that had taught me 'O' chem back when I was still in school. Thank You again.
@@AstralTraveler cost of materials its probably cheaper to just buy silver than grow it in any significant amount...Also time...time is money...If it was cheaper to make silver than buy it people would be doing just that :)
@@cutlerylover Actually just so happens that I have around 50kg of electric contactors - copper with silver patine and contacts made of pure silver with addition of iridium and paladium... This will be probaqbly my first step in the process of extraction/rafinstion... :) The only issue is the NO2 - do you know if there is some kind of air filter to prevent the deadly pollution of my neighbourhood?
@@AstralTraveler well the silver crystal growth here is through a microscope or at least loupe so id imagine you would need to replicate what was done here 1000+ times? maybe 100,000 times? to maybe get 1ozt silver currently worth $23..is that profitable? thats for you to decide lol
@@cutlerylover I guess that it's possible to adjust the speed of crystal growth by increasing the amperage of electric current. Besides, extracting silver is only the first step. What I'm mostly interested in are the "leftovers" of electrolyse - mostly platinum, iridium and palladium. Compared to them, silver is just a mere byproduct. .. I mightt soon become quite rich (at least compared to my current standard of life) :)
I've only seen 3 videos from this guy so far. Is there any particular reason he uses a filter for his voice other than to hide his identity for some reason.
He's a real life Doc Brown (see my other comment!). But seriously, it is silly to disguise your voice just by changing the pitch. Anyone with basic audio software can change it back to any other pitch. So if someone were really looking for him, they'd find him. Or her!
why does he keep saying its microscopic...if you would do this for a few days straight wouldn't it eventually grow to the size of a quarter or so?? I'm not trying to be a smart ass just trying to see if anyone knows.
I'm meant to be an electrical engineer but when I watch this I realise that there's so much more to learn.....please oh master let me come and learn the darker arts of electroalchemy I promise to be a very astute pupil....!!!
This was a fantastic vid. I love every one of these NurdRage videos and this one was top notch. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos and posting them here. Please don't ever stop rockin'!!
@CoNiGMa yeah, the silver is coming out of the silver nitrate solution and the silver metal anode (off camera). While i could melt it down afterward, if i really wanted to do that i'd just melt silver bars directly, far cheaper than going through this slow process of electrochemical crystallization.
Crystal growing really fascinates me, thanks a lot for the video, i am studying chemical civil engineering and one of the reasons i am studying that is your awesome videos, thanks again
Even though I do not understand the things you talk about in your videos but I love every single one of them, please make more! :) I will never understand science but ive alway been fascinated by all the amazing thing science has uncovered and created. You are so awesome!
@insaneperson7766 no, we're not making silver from nothing. The silver came from the anode and the silver nitrate solution. So the total amount of silver is always the same. Elements cannot be made chemically, only converted between forms.
Awesome video, I've seen pictures of this quality in my textbooks but never on video, whenever you do a crystallization from now on you gotta do this, it's so awesome!
@rainbowsalads nothing, the price of silver is mostly reflective of demand and the cost of refining. The cost of refining itself is based on labor and chemicals. The cost of energy for the whole process is actually very small. So unlimited energy would probably have a very minor effect compared to natural market fluctuations of supply and demand. An energy intensive commodity, like aluminum metal, is more linked to energy prices.
@Amana09 laser crystals are usually non-conductive, this process can only make crystals from conductive materials and even then it only really works with metals... which are opaque and definetly not usable for lasers.
that was a beautiful demonstration! I agree - prob, no, make that DEFINITELY my fav subscribed content, along with periodic and sixty. Nurdrage, you're a legend!!! :)
@HoboUnderTheBridge in theory, a crystal can be grown to be meters in size. But the cost would be enormous due to the large number of parameters that must be controlled and the innumerable number of inevitable failures.
dear god if this isn't beauty in it's purest form I don't know what is. thank you again nerdrage for absolutely enthralling me in one of your elplorations into the amazing things that happen around us every day. :D
When you say "charge density" I think it would be more accurate to say "current density". I did this would a resistor or microscope and with copper sulfate. It worked but yours looks better. As usual. Excellent Vid.
I love watching how the difference in current changes how the crystals grow. I would like to see this same experiment performed, but instead of a static resistor, placing a variable resistor or potentiometer into the chain, and then throttling the resistance to impede or accelerate the growth.
@rovhatree Yes actually, using the gold salt its possible to grow gold crystals. It costs a lot but perhaps someday when i have the money i might do it.
@Nurdrage: To grow gold crystals does the catode and anode would have to be gold as well and apply current in the disolved gold salt? or which procedure do you suggest? Many thanks
Wonderful footage. You should try some other crystallisations with other chemicals like potassium permanganate, not necessarily by electrochem. I didn't see a lot of crystallisation at this small scale during my degree. I'd do it myself but I lack a decent camera/microscope!
@Whopzer no, we're not making silver from nothing. The silver came from the anode and the silver nitrate solution. So the total amount of silver is always the same.
It's really nice to see, I like. Indeed most people don't have the requiered equipement... so thanks for sharing your video, it's great. Crystals of any materials are always beautiful to look : )
@dmikrut yes, i can do this on any scale i want. and no, I cannot make money because silver nitrate costs more than the amount of silver metal i get out of it.
Fantastic! I am SO impressed! Where chem and physics meet. I can't wait to try this for m class. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and making it quite clear (I think) on how to do this ourselves. cheers!
@Athiril Investing *is* demand. When the investor purchases silver they are demanding a quantity of metal. Even though it's all dressed up in shares, stocks and other market instruments, they are still essentially buying and owning a piece of real metal even though they may or may not physically handle it. That's still demand. Investors don't determine the price by saying "Today let's make it higher". They drive the price by trading financial instruments that link to the real metal.
I was watching a nova video about fractals and when the current was used without the resister, you could totally see the crystals forming like fractals. I am sure that slowly grown silver was grown in fractals manner as well, but it is harder to see with larger structures.
Nice. I think the "high volt" crystal filmed in the last portion of the video 3.45 looks similar to the following shapes. Lightning strike, blood vessles, and river erosions patterns down sandy mountains. As well as crystals, particular where the voltage vas high and the crystals grew fast. Could they all be in the shape of a crystal pattern ?
you should do this again, now using a potentiometer to control the current, and do something like slowly increase it! Just an idea... great video, man :)
As a Geologist, its great to see mineral growth in action, thanks so much for the demonstration.
This has got to be one of the most coolest things I've ever seen.
this reminds me of fractals, its beautiful !
Because it is a fractal..
I fell in love with chemistry because i didn't have a hard time making a mental image of what happens during a chemical reaction. Now when i can visually see the beauty i'm happy i decided for chemistry. You inspire me NurdRage.
With proper comtrol of this process you can make tiny pure-silver coral jewelery :D
That was beautiful! Couldn't take my eyes off the screen!
05:30 Reminds me of some plants in starbound found in volcanic planets with dangerously high temperature =p
you are a genius. And i love it that you put this online for people to watch.
Is it possible to grow gold crystals??
Rory O no, there is no chemical that will do this with gold, it is just too dense, also this isn't making silver, it is just crystalyzing it
If you find the right chemicals, yep. It exist, but isn't really easy to get since gold is extremely resistant to chemical attacks.
monkeyemperor12 Its possibile with gold cyanide. Cody did a gpld platin video. If things can be gold plated why do you think that gold crystals cant be grown?
Yes. You absolutely can. If you can plate something with it, you can grow crystals with it. Gold would behave almost the exact same way. You could use gold chloride, or gold cyanide solution. Density, chemical resistance, or mercury have nothing to do with this. Gold chloride is a commonly used compound, and its very easy to get your hands on. As long as you have the money, because I believe its somewhere around 240 dollars a gram. As a jeweler and goldsmith, electroplating is one of the things I have to do all the time. We use a solution of rhodium sulfate and sulfuric acid for rhodium plating. A solution of gold chloride for gold plating. Nickle chloride for nickle. and copper nitrate for copper. In our setup, we have a platinized titanium anode, and a gold cathode. The cathode is some gold wire with four hooks soldered to it. I love when we clean the cathodes off, because you can watch the rhodium metal slowly crystallize onto the hook. It takes months, but its cool seeing them develop.
Mexi Chemia The problem with electrolysis is you need to have very pure material. You absolutely could make your gold chloride, but it would be even more expensive. Because the nitric acid you would need is very expensive. I can buy gold chloride plating solution easily, already mixed and ready, much cheaper than straight gold chloride. Or if you needed to, you could easily make cyanide plating solution that works much better. However, for a big corporation, they want safe and cheap. So pre bought acid based solution is the only reality. hahaha
dude i take my hat off to you, i look through all these videos, and am am not only learning but you take it to the next level, by explaining the process in a well informed way. cheers from australia :)
I'm sure that these are the same things God says when he makes things. "Wow, look at that - isn't it amazing!"
Thank you for showing how incredible even very small things can be.
+Quality Silver Bullion god is the one who hid things like this from us you dumb fuck
+Zak K says the dumb
But humans are the ones who chose to cut off connection with God.
Zak K Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
I'd really like to know how to do this on a larger scale. Amazingly beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Now I can tell my mother the silver DOES grow on trees! XD
Five plus minutes of my life, very well spent! Your video's are some of my most satisfying and enjoyable subscribed to content on TH-cam and I can only have wished that you were the professor that had taught me 'O' chem back when I was still in school. Thank You again.
Could you please do a bigger one so we can see it with our bear eyes please ! :)
Probably the coolest nurdrage I've seen so far. Fascinating!
*As crystals grow, T-1000 theme plays in head
sorta
kinda
I could literally watch you play with this all day.
lol would be nice if it was possible to do this on a larger scale to grow silver at home...haha
And what exactly stops us from doing it on larger scale?
@@AstralTraveler cost of materials its probably cheaper to just buy silver than grow it in any significant amount...Also time...time is money...If it was cheaper to make silver than buy it people would be doing just that :)
@@cutlerylover Actually just so happens that I have around 50kg of electric contactors - copper with silver patine and contacts made of pure silver with addition of iridium and paladium... This will be probaqbly my first step in the process of extraction/rafinstion... :)
The only issue is the NO2 - do you know if there is some kind of air filter to prevent the deadly pollution of my neighbourhood?
@@AstralTraveler well the silver crystal growth here is through a microscope or at least loupe so id imagine you would need to replicate what was done here 1000+ times? maybe 100,000 times? to maybe get 1ozt silver currently worth $23..is that profitable? thats for you to decide lol
@@cutlerylover I guess that it's possible to adjust the speed of crystal growth by increasing the amperage of electric current. Besides, extracting silver is only the first step. What I'm mostly interested in are the "leftovers" of electrolyse - mostly platinum, iridium and palladium. Compared to them, silver is just a mere byproduct. .. I mightt soon become quite rich (at least compared to my current standard of life) :)
Thank you for taking the time to make this! I thoroughly enjoyed it!!! Probably the coolest video EVAR!
I've only seen 3 videos from this guy so far. Is there any particular reason he uses a filter for his voice other than to hide his identity for some reason.
He's a real life Doc Brown (see my other comment!). But seriously, it is silly to disguise your voice just by changing the pitch. Anyone with basic audio software can change it back to any other pitch. So if someone were really looking for him, they'd find him. Or her!
he said one time he doesn't use a voice changer.
im not sure when though
Saul Bishop I bet he's just accidentally editing his videos at a slightly slower rate.
BEST CHEMICAL VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!
why does he keep saying its microscopic...if you would do this for a few days straight wouldn't it eventually grow to the size of a quarter or so?? I'm not trying to be a smart ass just trying to see if anyone knows.
Zachary Wech the crystals wouldn't grow that large because they would kinda branch off just like that high current run
I'm meant to be an electrical engineer but when I watch this I realise that there's so much more to learn.....please oh master let me come and learn the darker arts of electroalchemy I promise to be a very astute pupil....!!!
Alchemy .-.
Rebornshadows false
Interesting, very interesting. I've seen sugar crystals grow but this is the first time I've seen metal crystals growing.
This was a fantastic vid. I love every one of these NurdRage videos and this one was top notch. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos and posting them here. Please don't ever stop rockin'!!
I have to sincerely thank you for making this video. That was very fascinating and one of the most amazing things I've seen in my lifetime.
@CoNiGMa yeah, the silver is coming out of the silver nitrate solution and the silver metal anode (off camera). While i could melt it down afterward, if i really wanted to do that i'd just melt silver bars directly, far cheaper than going through this slow process of electrochemical crystallization.
Crystal growing really fascinates me, thanks a lot for the video, i am studying chemical civil engineering and one of the reasons i am studying that is your awesome videos, thanks again
I'm speechless, this is really beautiful! Such a simple reaction too.
In all my life, that is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
That has got to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
it's 4:39 am here in monterrey mexico... i'm still up because of this awesome channel :)
Even though I do not understand the things you talk about in your videos but I love every single one of them, please make more! :) I will never understand science but ive alway been fascinated by all the amazing thing science has uncovered and created. You are so awesome!
Very unique !!! I'd say you did a great job capturing all this on film!
Thank you....
Extremely cool! I did the same thing a few years ago with Copper.
Thanks Dr. Lithium!
Not gonna lie. These videos are probably another reason i'm going for a chemistry major next year.
keep making videos!
this is one of the best things i saw on youtube hope you make more of this
Mr. NerdRage,
This was one of your coolest videos! Thanks for teaching me all about chemistry!!
@insaneperson7766 no, we're not making silver from nothing. The silver came from the anode and the silver nitrate solution. So the total amount of silver is always the same. Elements cannot be made chemically, only converted between forms.
The high current process makes Lichtenberg figures! Cool!
Last night I was thinking about metal plants. Now, WOW!!! Silver Plant!!!!!!!
Awesome video, I've seen pictures of this quality in my textbooks but never on video, whenever you do a crystallization from now on you gotta do this, it's so awesome!
The world has more beautiful things than we people will ever see, and this is a good example of it.
Very awesome video, I think this is one of the few videos that really took my breath away as I watched the reactions. Love what you do, keep it up!
This is the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen.
That's about one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Thanks NR!
I grow these crystals on a larger scale. But it's very cool seeing the different scenarios of growth under magnification. Very very cool.
Awesome video. Just started electro chemistry at uni. Hope I'll be making some of those funky silver crystals in the labs soon.
A+ as always thanks for taking the time to post and discuss the process as we observe it, also thanks for posting in HD the details are just awsome
@rainbowsalads nothing, the price of silver is mostly reflective of demand and the cost of refining. The cost of refining itself is based on labor and chemicals. The cost of energy for the whole process is actually very small.
So unlimited energy would probably have a very minor effect compared to natural market fluctuations of supply and demand.
An energy intensive commodity, like aluminum metal, is more linked to energy prices.
@Amana09 laser crystals are usually non-conductive, this process can only make crystals from conductive materials and even then it only really works with metals... which are opaque and definetly not usable for lasers.
that was a beautiful demonstration! I agree - prob, no, make that DEFINITELY my fav subscribed content, along with periodic and sixty. Nurdrage, you're a legend!!! :)
@HoboUnderTheBridge in theory, a crystal can be grown to be meters in size. But the cost would be enormous due to the large number of parameters that must be controlled and the innumerable number of inevitable failures.
Oh I've seen this done before, looks really amazing.
Fractalicious!
How does this video not have a million views. This is incredible. I think you need to rename it to attract more viewers.
I didn't know awesome and beautiful electrochemistry figured among Bane's hobbies.
Who need Netflix or HBO, if we can see this beautiful experiments in TH-cam and also enrich our scientific culture ?. Haha. Great Channel.
dear god if this isn't beauty in it's purest form I don't know what is. thank you again nerdrage for absolutely enthralling me in one of your elplorations into the amazing things that happen around us every day. :D
When you say "charge density" I think it would be more accurate to say "current density".
I did this would a resistor or microscope and with copper sulfate. It worked but yours looks better. As usual. Excellent Vid.
I love watching how the difference in current changes how the crystals grow. I would like to see this same experiment performed, but instead of a static resistor, placing a variable resistor or potentiometer into the chain, and then throttling the resistance to impede or accelerate the growth.
Awesome! i might try it too!
@rovhatree Yes actually, using the gold salt its possible to grow gold crystals.
It costs a lot but perhaps someday when i have the money i might do it.
@Nurdrage: To grow gold crystals does the catode and anode would have to be gold as well and apply current in the disolved gold salt? or which procedure do you suggest?
Many thanks
Those crystals were beautiful. I am not kidding.
I LOVE your videos. I also really like recovering silver; I use an electrolytic machine to separate and recover it.
I remember doing this in high school inside a test tube using silver nitrate. FUN STUFF!
I love when you talk technical to me
Wonderful footage. You should try some other crystallisations with other chemicals like potassium permanganate, not necessarily by electrochem. I didn't see a lot of crystallisation at this small scale during my degree. I'd do it myself but I lack a decent camera/microscope!
When the silver branches it looks so similar to Julia set fractals - amazing!
@Whopzer no, we're not making silver from nothing. The silver came from the anode and the silver nitrate solution. So the total amount of silver is always the same.
I love a good fantasy/sci-fi story, but stuff like this just proves that no created world will ever be as amazing or intricate as the one we live in.
It's really nice to see, I like. Indeed most people don't have the requiered equipement... so thanks for sharing your video, it's great.
Crystals of any materials are always beautiful to look : )
It's like growing a bunch of silver trees! So breathtakingly beautiful. :')
thanks!
@dmikrut yes, i can do this on any scale i want. and no, I cannot make money because silver nitrate costs more than the amount of silver metal i get out of it.
yes, although you'll need the corresponding metal salts
The microscope i have has a special attachement that you can screw a camera onto. A lot of professional microscopes have them nowadays
wow what a awesome display of science and chemistry
Fantastic! I am SO impressed! Where chem and physics meet. I can't wait to try this for m class. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and making it quite clear (I think) on how to do this ourselves. cheers!
Wow, this is beautiful :)
I love watching your videos!
Yes actually. this process is used to make extremely pure "electrolytic silver" for analytical chemistry applications.
@Athiril Investing *is* demand. When the investor purchases silver they are demanding a quantity of metal. Even though it's all dressed up in shares, stocks and other market instruments, they are still essentially buying and owning a piece of real metal even though they may or may not physically handle it.
That's still demand.
Investors don't determine the price by saying "Today let's make it higher". They drive the price by trading financial instruments that link to the real metal.
Very cool, I remember separating hydrogen and oxygen with electrolysis when I was in HS.
Brilliant! I am going to try this once I get a better microscope.
in theory yes. but i think the graphite might fall apart and contaminate the silver.
Nice one NurdRage, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
this was one of the best videos i evre seen
Nice fireworks. Reminds me of those crystal grow kits.
Wow, that is just plain awesome. Thank you so much for showing me, I might have to try this myself....
this was really amazing to watch. thank you!
Wooooow. That was spectacular.
Some results looks, not surprisingly, as a Brownian tree fractals.
its looks like a giant peice of silver covered in diamonds this is so cool
I was watching a nova video about fractals and when the current was used without the resister, you could totally see the crystals forming like fractals. I am sure that slowly grown silver was grown in fractals manner as well, but it is harder to see with larger structures.
That is absolutely beautiful! It fits in nicely with the holiday season too ^_^
Nice. I think the "high volt" crystal filmed in the last portion of the video 3.45 looks similar to the following shapes. Lightning strike, blood vessles, and river erosions patterns down sandy mountains. As well as crystals, particular where the voltage vas high and the crystals grew fast. Could they all be in the shape of a crystal pattern ?
I love this new video! Very relevant to my and my interest in photographic film chemistry :)
you should do this again, now using a potentiometer to control the current, and do something like slowly increase it! Just an idea...
great video, man :)
Amazing video! Would love to see more like this.
u are the best on youtube
i really like ur vids !!!!!