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Hey guys! Today I will show you the most toxic substance of all that have ever been on my channel.
As you can judge by the title of the video, I’m talking about hydrogen selenide.
To start with, I will show you the reaction of sodium and selenium
that results in forming of sodium selenide we need
To do this, I will melt selenium that I melt before in one of my previous videos
about selenium granules
and then add metallic sodium to the selenium
These are the spots left by selenium that burst out during the reaction
In a best case scenario, sodium selenide is a white powder,
but it’s no surprise that, as a result of the reaction we performed to synthesize it,
it turned out to be red-brown due to impurities of elemental selenium.
So, let's add a few drops of hydrochloric acid into it
Hydrogen selenide is a colorless gas,
notice how much red selenium is produced as a result of decompounding of formed hydrogen selenide
As a result of this reaction,
not all of the hydrogen selenide decomposes,
a small amount of it manages to leave the bonds of the test-tube,
we can detect it by bringing a torch’s flame to the edge of the test-tube.
A much calmer and more visual reaction of the formation of hydrogen selenide
can be observed during the hydrolysis of aluminum selenide.
Aluminum selenide is formed by heating stoichiometric amounts of selenium and aluminum
at a noticeably high temperature.
For this reaction I use a quartz tube and more selenium than necessary,
because during the heating of the test tube with the mixture,
a little bit of selenium will evaporate before it reacts with aluminum
Now I will remove selenium subsided on the walls of the test-tube
so we can clearly see the formation of hydrogen selenide
Now I wait until produced aluminum selenide cools down and then add a few drops of water into it
See how selenium hydrogen is formed,
that, being decomposed, leaves traces in the form of red selenium on the walls of the test-tube.
Thanks for watching and being with me during this toxic chemical experiment.
If you enjoyed it make sure to like the video and leave a comment below -
all this helps to promote the channel and gives me more inspiration to make new videos.
Seeya