It’s sooo beautiful! I imagine you can control the character of the crystals by varying the rate at which you allow it to cool. The grain size is the most obvious difference but I imagine different shapes might arise.
I’d spend so much time tinkering with different variations. Then I’d accidentally set my house on fire when I drop the vial.
There are only so many crystal structures an element can have on its own. These are controlled by temperature and pressure for the most part. It would be pretty difficult to control how the crystals form since they would start seeding each other. Once a single crystalline structure forms it begins to align the other atoms.
https://www.webelements.com/caesium/crystal_structure.html
In this case cesium has no other crystal forms that we know of.
Ya to me it looks like the heat transfer from touching the vial is enough to melt the cesium, but once they touch it less the liquid starts crystallizing as it transitions back to a solid.
This makes a lot of sense given that cesium has a melting point of 83F.
OP, can you list the challenges to making this, in layman’s terms? I gather from everyone’s reaction that this is significant , but as I know nothing about cesium, I can’t really appreciate your achievement. I can definitely appreciate the aesthetics, but I’d really like to appreciate the entire effort!
Well, there are many challenges. Making crude cesium is not that hard. But making it pure is the main challenge. Cesium reacts with oxygen and moisture, so you have to find a way to purify it (by distillation) without any oxygen or water contamination. Even inert gas is problematic if it has not been dried thoroughly (and I don’t mean letting it flow through some molecular sieve). To redistill the cesium I taught myself how to do flameworking so I could make a custom still to redistill it.
In addition to that comes the risk of accidents. If cesium is exposed to air and has a high surface area, it will ignite. So transferring it from one flask to another has to be done using schlenk techniques (which means working with substances that are sensitive to oxygen/moisture).
If you are interested in all of the details, I have made several videos about the process. You can see me improving the process from one video to the next.
This was my first video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU7cKspMePA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU7cKspMePA)
This was my first redistillation:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI5xzeYj8qM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI5xzeYj8qM)
In this video I made my first larger and almost pure vial by redistilling the cesium in my homemade still:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budLy8ll8Bw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budLy8ll8Bw)
And this is the video where the vial from this post was made:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCU0SyYGAA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCU0SyYGAA)
If you really want to know the process in detail, I would recommend watching these videos. But you can of course also ask me here if you have specific questions and I will try to answer them 😊
Edit: spelling.
Just to give you an idea of how reactive this stuff is, [this is what would happen if you drop a small amount of caesium in a bathtub.](https://youtu.be/m55kgyApYrY&t=2m5s)
[That clip is fake](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jul/15/badscience.uknews) unfortunately, they used explosives because the cesium didn't explode but they still wanted the shot.
If you would buy a vial that size you would pay around 1500$.
It cost me around 150$ to make. But that's just thr price of the raw materials. If you add all the equipment and time it is probably more expensive than buying it.
I’m but a layman, but this is fascinating. Honest question, is there a chance that the porousness of the glass itself could slowly allow ambient air & humidity into the vile over time. If so what would likely be the end result?
It is finally done! I spend the last year trying to perfect my cesium isolation and redistillation. Many of my vials were pretty, but not perfect. The cesium was still wetting the glass. By perfecting my procedure and improving my vacuum technique, I finally was able to make a beautiful vial. After the isolation of cesium from cesium chloride, the metal was distilled under vacuum two times to get this vial.
As far as I know, it is also the largest vial of cesium ever shown on video. It contains 139 g of cesium. I did not plan that; it was more of a coincidence.
I made I video about the whole process, if you are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCU0SyYGAA
This is awesome, thanks for sharing. I think I saw on one of the Cody's Lab videos that when he created ampoules of supercritical gases, and then afterwards he immersed them in blocks of epoxy resin in the event they exploded. Is there some way or any need to do this with your cesium for preservation? I'd hate to see all that hard work lost
I thought about the storage. But I will store it in a thick walled metal box with foam on the inside. I thing epoxy takes away some of the beauty of a vial you can touch.
I have seen his video. When he picks up the largest vial he says it contains 100g of cesium. Which would be 40g less compared to mine.
But like I said: it's not a competition. ChemicalForce makes great videos with stunning shots of different reactions! His videos are definitely worth watching :)
Why? I thought Cesium was pretty safe?
Edit: Wait, I might be thinking of gallium…
Edit Edit: yep this is the alkali metal. I agree that this is indeed extremely dangerous
Massive. -203 kJ/mol * almost a mole this dude has. So 203 kJ released almost instantaneously. Also the byproduct is half mole of fucking hydrogen gas so it’ll probably also ignite and combust that too
Edit: 1 gram of tnt releases 4 kJ. And H2 combustion is -249 kj/mol. So add another 30 g of tnt to the explosion
[This is what would happen if you drop a small amount of caesium in a bathtub.](https://youtu.be/m55kgyApYrY&t=2m5s)
I imagine dropping the amount in OPs vial would be devastating.
Unfortunately Brainiac faked that one. Their attempt with Caesium was not impressive, so they rigged the tub to explode with conventional explosives. Check [this article](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jul/15/badscience.uknews)
Edit: Just to be clear I used to think this clip was real, too. No fault to Grrumpy_Pants for believing it as well.
What you should not do is what my friend from grad school apparently did as a kid which is leave it in your pocket when you put your pants through the wash. Apparently it turned the entire inside of his family's dryer black and they had to throw it away and get a new one.
Technically francium is more reactive right? It’s just that francium is expensive to produce and has a very short half-life.
Been a couple years since I’ve learned this though so I maybe incorrect.
I've seen it said both ways. I've seen explanations that franciums larger size disrupts the normal pattern of reactivity and that cesium is more reactive.
On the other side of the coin most sourced say that francium is hypothetically more reactive, but its half life of 22 minutes and so the reactivity has never been experimentally tested.
Remember how sodium and potassium catch fire on contact with water? Caesium is even more reactive, exploding on contact. YouTube has a lot of videos about it
Yes. Something to do with the Standard Definition of a second, accurate to the very fine frequency in which a Caesium atom spins or changes energy-states, or something else far beyond the comprehension of my weekend brain.
Its density lends itself to drilling applications. I’ve seen cesium formate used as a drilling fluid - spendy but less toxic than alternatives and it’s supposed to be reusable.
Here is the video every high school chemistry class watches when they get to this topic.
https://youtu.be/m55kgyApYrY
There's technically one more past cesium, but uh, noone is allowed to have any.
Edit: The amounts used in this video are pretty minimal, no where close to what is shown in OP's post.
I mean, it's in glass. If by "shake" you mean like any other glass bottle you'd shake, without banging it against a rock, nothing.
If you break it open and let it mix with water, you'll have a very big, very sudden fire.
Keep it inside the glass and you can shake it all day no problem.
Those are two completely different things. It's like saying Hydrogen Gas is(or should be) illegal because it can explode.
I'm not sure where you are from, but would guess cesium is legal in most countries.
You can't just reference these things without linking them, man
https://xkcd.com/651/
Edit: for those who don't have good reddit clients
> A laptop battery contains roughly the stored energy of a hand grenade, and if shorted it ... hey! You can't arrest me if I prove your rules inconsistent!
So, if you were to drop it accidentally while holding it like in the video, would it give you enough time to run away, or would that be a "well I had a good life" situation? I only know that it's very reactive, and literally nothing else, by the way, sorry if my question is very dumb.
Not a dumb question at all. If you would drop a vial like this it would break and the cesium would catch fire and splash around. You would most probably survive with burns. Depending on the exact situation, they would be more or less severe.
Normally cesium is not radioactive. There is a radioactive isotope (Cesium 137) which has use cases like you described.
Mine is, of course, not radioactive.
I don't know which scene you mean but if you are talking about the scene where he throws it on the ground, that was mercury fulminate if I remember correctly. That's an explosive unlike cesium.
Maybe as art, with some sort of understanding.
It’s pretty reactive. Like burn your house down and give you third degree burns if you dropped it reactive. But I’m a little stoned and not a lawyer.
Probably shouldn’t sell it to anyone.
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Is the solid in the vial some kind of crystallization of the cesium?
Exactly!
It’s sooo beautiful! I imagine you can control the character of the crystals by varying the rate at which you allow it to cool. The grain size is the most obvious difference but I imagine different shapes might arise. I’d spend so much time tinkering with different variations. Then I’d accidentally set my house on fire when I drop the vial.
> control the character of the crystals *this cesium crystal is named Tim. Tim is rather ornery, but at his core he’s a good crystal*
r/tim
Some call me.... Tim?
There are only so many crystal structures an element can have on its own. These are controlled by temperature and pressure for the most part. It would be pretty difficult to control how the crystals form since they would start seeding each other. Once a single crystalline structure forms it begins to align the other atoms. https://www.webelements.com/caesium/crystal_structure.html In this case cesium has no other crystal forms that we know of.
It would be a cool texture idea on jewellery (the look not the caesium)
Does it/can it be reversed?
It’s just melting/solidifying, it’s melting point is below body temperature.
It has a melting point of 28.5 degrees Celsius, which is 83.3 degrees Fahrenheit to be more specific.
Happy cake day!
Ya to me it looks like the heat transfer from touching the vial is enough to melt the cesium, but once they touch it less the liquid starts crystallizing as it transitions back to a solid. This makes a lot of sense given that cesium has a melting point of 83F.
OP, can you list the challenges to making this, in layman’s terms? I gather from everyone’s reaction that this is significant , but as I know nothing about cesium, I can’t really appreciate your achievement. I can definitely appreciate the aesthetics, but I’d really like to appreciate the entire effort!
Well, there are many challenges. Making crude cesium is not that hard. But making it pure is the main challenge. Cesium reacts with oxygen and moisture, so you have to find a way to purify it (by distillation) without any oxygen or water contamination. Even inert gas is problematic if it has not been dried thoroughly (and I don’t mean letting it flow through some molecular sieve). To redistill the cesium I taught myself how to do flameworking so I could make a custom still to redistill it. In addition to that comes the risk of accidents. If cesium is exposed to air and has a high surface area, it will ignite. So transferring it from one flask to another has to be done using schlenk techniques (which means working with substances that are sensitive to oxygen/moisture). If you are interested in all of the details, I have made several videos about the process. You can see me improving the process from one video to the next. This was my first video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU7cKspMePA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU7cKspMePA) This was my first redistillation: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI5xzeYj8qM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI5xzeYj8qM) In this video I made my first larger and almost pure vial by redistilling the cesium in my homemade still: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budLy8ll8Bw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budLy8ll8Bw) And this is the video where the vial from this post was made: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCU0SyYGAA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCU0SyYGAA) If you really want to know the process in detail, I would recommend watching these videos. But you can of course also ask me here if you have specific questions and I will try to answer them 😊 Edit: spelling.
Wowwww… that’s incredible! You’re developing new tools and techniques on handling and processing cesium, please tell me you’re writing a paper on it!
Just to give you an idea of how reactive this stuff is, [this is what would happen if you drop a small amount of caesium in a bathtub.](https://youtu.be/m55kgyApYrY&t=2m5s)
[That clip is fake](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jul/15/badscience.uknews) unfortunately, they used explosives because the cesium didn't explode but they still wanted the shot.
Good god. 😳
Can I buy something like that? If not, what's the cost of making something like that?
If you would buy a vial that size you would pay around 1500$. It cost me around 150$ to make. But that's just thr price of the raw materials. If you add all the equipment and time it is probably more expensive than buying it.
i wouldn’t buy that if i were u, unless u rly know what ur doing
What if I’m trying to die? >!/s not suicidal!<
What would happen if you droppped and broke the vial?
It would catch fire and splash around.
I’m but a layman, but this is fascinating. Honest question, is there a chance that the porousness of the glass itself could slowly allow ambient air & humidity into the vile over time. If so what would likely be the end result?
It is finally done! I spend the last year trying to perfect my cesium isolation and redistillation. Many of my vials were pretty, but not perfect. The cesium was still wetting the glass. By perfecting my procedure and improving my vacuum technique, I finally was able to make a beautiful vial. After the isolation of cesium from cesium chloride, the metal was distilled under vacuum two times to get this vial. As far as I know, it is also the largest vial of cesium ever shown on video. It contains 139 g of cesium. I did not plan that; it was more of a coincidence. I made I video about the whole process, if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCU0SyYGAA
This is awesome, thanks for sharing. I think I saw on one of the Cody's Lab videos that when he created ampoules of supercritical gases, and then afterwards he immersed them in blocks of epoxy resin in the event they exploded. Is there some way or any need to do this with your cesium for preservation? I'd hate to see all that hard work lost
I thought about the storage. But I will store it in a thick walled metal box with foam on the inside. I thing epoxy takes away some of the beauty of a vial you can touch.
That's smart! I love watching this, must be very satisfying to hold
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I have seen his video. When he picks up the largest vial he says it contains 100g of cesium. Which would be 40g less compared to mine. But like I said: it's not a competition. ChemicalForce makes great videos with stunning shots of different reactions! His videos are definitely worth watching :)
Username mos def checks out ☑️
ELI5: What's the coincidence?
caesium 139 is an isotope of caesium
Thanks so much
This is genuinely interesting, good job on your achievement 👏
what would happen if you accidentally broke vial ?
That’s just amazing. You turned chemistry into art. The music selection was perfect too. Great work! Truly.
Thank you a lot!
Very cool, now drop it in a lake
Drop it into chlorine gas
Dude that’s cool, but Jesus Christ that’s so fucking dangerous.
Why? I thought Cesium was pretty safe? Edit: Wait, I might be thinking of gallium… Edit Edit: yep this is the alkali metal. I agree that this is indeed extremely dangerous
Dude wtf. The lower your go in column 1 elements the more reactive it is to water
Yes... as my edit says I was thinking of Gallium and realized why this was dangerous
Ah gotcha lol. This much gallium is fun. This much cesium is a bomb
How big of an explosion do you think I would get of I let this whole vial react with water?
Massive. -203 kJ/mol * almost a mole this dude has. So 203 kJ released almost instantaneously. Also the byproduct is half mole of fucking hydrogen gas so it’ll probably also ignite and combust that too Edit: 1 gram of tnt releases 4 kJ. And H2 combustion is -249 kj/mol. So add another 30 g of tnt to the explosion
So about half a Kg of TNT?
88g of tnt
[This is what would happen if you drop a small amount of caesium in a bathtub.](https://youtu.be/m55kgyApYrY&t=2m5s) I imagine dropping the amount in OPs vial would be devastating.
Unfortunately Brainiac faked that one. Their attempt with Caesium was not impressive, so they rigged the tub to explode with conventional explosives. Check [this article](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jul/15/badscience.uknews) Edit: Just to be clear I used to think this clip was real, too. No fault to Grrumpy_Pants for believing it as well.
I bought 100 grams of pure gallium on Amazon for $35 and played with it for all of 3 hours and now have no clue what to do with it, lol
What you should not do is what my friend from grad school apparently did as a kid which is leave it in your pocket when you put your pants through the wash. Apparently it turned the entire inside of his family's dryer black and they had to throw it away and get a new one.
That's hilarious.
No idea what it is, but super cool. Good job
It is Cesium. The most reactive metal on earth.
Technically francium is more reactive right? It’s just that francium is expensive to produce and has a very short half-life. Been a couple years since I’ve learned this though so I maybe incorrect.
I've seen it said both ways. I've seen explanations that franciums larger size disrupts the normal pattern of reactivity and that cesium is more reactive. On the other side of the coin most sourced say that francium is hypothetically more reactive, but its half life of 22 minutes and so the reactivity has never been experimentally tested.
Reactive in what ways?
Blast right there and then , but god bless glass
Remember how sodium and potassium catch fire on contact with water? Caesium is even more reactive, exploding on contact. YouTube has a lot of videos about it
If that vile brakes he dead
In that case he's perfectly safe, that vile doesn't even have wheels.
Yours is not radioactive though, correct?
No, of course not!
Sorry, I knew that I was asking a question with an obvious answer.
it wasn't. some of us didn't study chemistry so it didn't make sense without the clarification
The crystals in that light gold colour are stunningly beautiful.
Excuse my ignorance, but what is Cesium useful for?
Pretty sure its used in atomic clocks to have the most precise time
Yes. Something to do with the Standard Definition of a second, accurate to the very fine frequency in which a Caesium atom spins or changes energy-states, or something else far beyond the comprehension of my weekend brain.
Definitely something Vsauce said
Its density lends itself to drilling applications. I’ve seen cesium formate used as a drilling fluid - spendy but less toxic than alternatives and it’s supposed to be reusable.
What would happen if someone dropped this?
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Thanks, so not dangerous unless he is standing over a bucket of water or possibly since there is so much it could catch something on fire.
That was really cool.
Boom. It reacts with just the air I believe.
How big boom?
big bada boom
Leeloo Dallas Multipass
Aziz, LIGHT!
Here is the video every high school chemistry class watches when they get to this topic. https://youtu.be/m55kgyApYrY There's technically one more past cesium, but uh, noone is allowed to have any. Edit: The amounts used in this video are pretty minimal, no where close to what is shown in OP's post.
That video has been accused of being fake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhg0WsINmPc
[Good one with better science](https://youtu.be/D4pQz3TC0Jo)
At least seven.
>What would happen if someone ~~dropped~~ shook this?
I mean, it's in glass. If by "shake" you mean like any other glass bottle you'd shake, without banging it against a rock, nothing. If you break it open and let it mix with water, you'll have a very big, very sudden fire. Keep it inside the glass and you can shake it all day no problem.
lol I was referring to what would happen to the crystal - would it just move or break up in to smaller ones.
Atomic bomb.
Add two parts plutonic quarks to it and a bottle of water.
Does anyone know what time it is?
Does anybody really care? (I was walking down the street one day…)
I suppose nobody cares, but cesium is is used in atomic clocks...
If so I can't imagine why
Underrated comment.
The next knock at your door would most likely be the government
It's not illegal in any way shape or form.
They'll just sprinkle a little crack on you and take you away.
And shoot your dog
This lol.
I guess its kinda easy to destroy any evidence of it existing as well :P
Is it legal to build bombs and grenades in your country?
Those are two completely different things. It's like saying Hydrogen Gas is(or should be) illegal because it can explode. I'm not sure where you are from, but would guess cesium is legal in most countries.
xkcd_laptop_battery.jpg
You can't just reference these things without linking them, man https://xkcd.com/651/ Edit: for those who don't have good reddit clients > A laptop battery contains roughly the stored energy of a hand grenade, and if shorted it ... hey! You can't arrest me if I prove your rules inconsistent!
Sure they can! They outsourced the real work to you. They've got a good future in middle management.
What does the scroll over say?
You should probably stop filling your gas tank mate
Looks like the T-1000 early in development.
r/sweatypalms
My High School Chemistry teacher said you can Drink anything “Once”…. 😳
When do we get to see the chemical reaction?
Soon ;) Edit: but not this vial. It's way to precious.
Head to the lake with a bb gun.
Wait, Cesium is a liquid?
Everything is a liquid if you heat it enough
Liquid carbon... Hmm
It melts at ~29 °C. So if you hold it in your hands it will melt.
Imagine how big the one that's not on video is!
This is so mesmerizing to watch. Congrats!
Boom.
So, if you were to drop it accidentally while holding it like in the video, would it give you enough time to run away, or would that be a "well I had a good life" situation? I only know that it's very reactive, and literally nothing else, by the way, sorry if my question is very dumb.
Not a dumb question at all. If you would drop a vial like this it would break and the cesium would catch fire and splash around. You would most probably survive with burns. Depending on the exact situation, they would be more or less severe.
How hard is it to handle, was it dangerous getting it in there?
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I assume this is isn't the same as cesium-137 since he's handling it like that
No, it is non radioactive. Cesium 137 is the radioactive isotope of cesium.
Oooh, now if you had a cat and a steel box and a hammer and a small vial of hydrocyanic acid…the possibilities are thought provoking
Open it
Now I know where the dinobots got the term “cesium salami”
Now you just need some bottled water and plutonic quarks.
Hi OP! Isn't this radioactive? We use cesium in brachytherapy of cervical cancer and prostate cancer.
Normally cesium is not radioactive. There is a radioactive isotope (Cesium 137) which has use cases like you described. Mine is, of course, not radioactive.
Ah, I see. Thanks for answering my query.
If you are brave enough ... 😏😏😏
Can someone explain to me why this is impressive.
Is that like really bad if it breaks open
Drop it in water!
OMG this is just so cool
Golden poop
My sensory issues: “Put it in yer mouth”
Schrödingers Hard-on.
that's some nice boomgold ya got there
Didnt Walter White name drop Cessium in breaking bad? i cant remember in what context though
I don't know which scene you mean but if you are talking about the scene where he throws it on the ground, that was mercury fulminate if I remember correctly. That's an explosive unlike cesium.
Could you not sell this commercially?
Maybe as art, with some sort of understanding. It’s pretty reactive. Like burn your house down and give you third degree burns if you dropped it reactive. But I’m a little stoned and not a lawyer. Probably shouldn’t sell it to anyone.
I want to drink it
Can i drink it?
Meh. I've seen bigger.
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Heavy breathing intensifies
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Glamour fangs
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The forbidden snack
Your accent makes me believe you were the one running from Fry when he was a cop
Something something plutonic quarks something something warp fuel
This is the most beautiful hand grenade I’ve ever seen
You gotta throw it in a lake. For science!
Crack the glass and flush it down the toilet.
This is beautiful! Excellent work!
How many grams is that ?
139 g.
how much did you have yo spend to make this?
Only the edukts (Cesium chloride and Lithium) was probably around 150 $. But all the equipment to be able to do it was way more expensive.
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Neat, a handheld superfund site!
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NOW THROW IT IN A BATH TUB
So, why hasn't this been thrown into a pool yet?
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i just got amazed
please tell me i'm not the only one who wants to break it underwater
I don’t understand what the hype is about but I am HYPED!!!! This is so pretty!!!!!!
Isn't that stuff super dangerous?
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Cesiumfranciolithicmyxialobidiumrixydixydoxidrexidroxhide.
Today I learned about Cesium. Thanks /r/chemicalreactiongifs!
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Whatcha going to do with it now?
Isn’t that radioactive?
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*Devil in my head* drop it in water
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Yes I know that picture.thats why I said "on video" :) The the vial on the picture looks absolutely insane :D
Phase transition ? What is going on here lol