Making a Rare and Very Unstable Chemical (and also Potassium Iodate)

Now I'm kinda curious what the KICl4 converted the acetone to...chloroacetone? Mesityl oxide? Mesitylene? Mesityl chloride? The dark color kinda makes me think it's polymerizing, which does potentially point to a self-Aldol reaction. Regardless, KICl4 seems like a potentially useful chlorinating agent! I wonder if using HF would give a more stable KIF4 salt...

Oh yes how it infuriates me to set the light so that there is no f*сking reflection on the test tubes when I take macro shots :face-orange-raised-eyebrow:

Pick one for all reactions for the rest of your life. 1. Final product always low single digit yield but always very high purity 2. Final product always over 3 digit yield, ie always highly contaminated.

The red-brown acetone solution likely contains iodine monochloride and possibly from elemental iodine.

Beautiful Crystals.

when you said "if you dont like crystals" I was like why the fuck would such a person watch a video like this

Your thumbnail had me in the typical scrolling, Ooh pretty crystals, who doesn't like pretty crystals. I had books in the 80s that my grandfather gave me that were filled with pictures of natural crystals, I'd look at them for hours as I didn't understand how these objects even existed.

Hi Apoptosis, Nice video and experimentation. Just as a side note from my basic knowledge of chemistry (we are always students into that field of wonders ;o)), If chlorate are very potent oxidizers, more so than bromate or iodate (from pyrotechnic and uncompatibilities understanding); it follows the rule of electronegativity; so Cl > Br > I. Note that they are ready to "give their oxygen easier and thus to "scavenge" it easier the other way arround. For that reason hypohalite are hell good oxydisers (somehow unstable) and the ease of disproportionation goes into the order I > Br > Cl; for that reason IO(-) froms nearly spontaneously IO3(-), while BrO3(-) requires some more energy and ClO3(-) some heat to "deteriorate" Javel-Bleach water. 3 OCl(-) -heat-> OClO2(-) + 2 Cl(-) (take some time below 30°C but the warmer the weather the faster commercial bleach isn't efficient anymore) 3 OBr(-) --> OBrO2(-) + 2 Br(-) 3 OI(-) --> OIO2(-) + 2 I(-) Then as oxydation comes into consideration; oxydation up to perchlorate takes quite some energy but is acheivable; oxydation up to perbromate is hell difficult (for that reason despite perchlorates are amongst the stabler into the sequence of OCl(-), OClO(-), OClO2(-) and OClO3(-)) one may consider bromate to be a nearly endpoint for conventional OTC chemistry and the resulting perbromate is an utterly powerful oxidizer (read unstable towards reducers - thus low activation energy); on the contrary iodate is absolutely no endpoint and leaves access behind to some periodate quite easily. Periodates are also powerful oxydizers (known for ages - in early begin of the 20th century - so more than 100 years ago) into organic chemistry) able to cut geminal diols into aldehydes) but somehow stable and useable from that "ancient time" because easily accessible. To my feeling, you excess wheight-yield might also come from periodate of sodium or potassium; because as chemistry logic follows some "not-so-obscure" rules; if iodates are less soluble; periodates are even less soluble and precipitates thus even more readily. As a complication periodic acid (yeah an acid that shows off often - periodically ;o) ) has not always a simple formula HIO4 (metaperidoic acid) but also orthoperiodic acid (H5IO6) what must provide also some solubility constants troubles and hydratation troubles (H5IO6 = 2 H2O + HIO4, after all). To finish; oxydation may happen dry like what you did, maybe with the help of fusion into the water of crystallization (?) of chlorate and iodide to lead to chloride and iodate (and maybe periodate?); it can also happen into solution: Cl2 is indeed also a strong oxydizer and can dillute into water to generate the nascent powerful oxydant hydrogen hypochlorite (hypochlorous acid). Cl2(g) + H2O --> HOCl + HCl So: HOCl + I(-) --> Cl(-) + HOI OCl(-) + HOI --> Cl(-) + HOIO OCl(-) + HOIO --> Cl(-) + HOIO2 (iodic acid and iodate) OCl(-) + HOIO2 --> Cl(-) + HOIO3 (periodic acid and periodate) Meaning bleach can do the job too ;o). Hoping it gives you some wood for your fire. Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum and other alt. engr. newsgroups on old A.O.L.)

I would have used K2SO4 instead of K2CO3 because that's what I got at hand (and CaSO4 being even less soluble than the carbonate), but what ever works, works. Great idea!

Super interesting synthesis and I love the beautiful crystals!

Genius. So much clever stuff in there. And the crystallisation shot was gorgeous. I thoroughly enjoyed that.

Crazy how the crystals just kind of pop into existence

Beautiful! The chemistry seems pretty basic, but is actually quite complex. If I may make a suggestion: the font makes this hard to understand, especially around 7:36. The "I" (upper case i) and "l" (lower case l) are virtually identical. As a grad student, I worked with cobalt carbonyl compounds, so I know how annoying writing this stuff can be.

I'm only an amateur hobbyist but the group 1/2 carbonate swap is my (currently) favorite magic trick 👍

Reminds me of rutilated quartz. Very nice crystals.

oh my god your channel is gem

You have a criminally low number of subscribers. Thank you for doing what you do ❤

I don’t know how I got here or what a single word meant but I enjoyed the video lol thanks for the rad video!

Me: How well does this hotplate work? Sales person: eh? Wellish.

Apparently CsICl4 is more stable than the potassium salt, and can be precipitated from the yellow solution upon addition of a cesium salt