This daddy isn't something that I planned to do,
and I kind of just stumbled onto it.
Instead of just showing the final results, though,
I figured it could also be interesting
to go over my discovery process
and to show how I got there.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a video where I grew lead crystals
by adding zinc metal to a solution of lead acetate.
I got a few good runs, and I was generally happy with the results,
but I was still really curious to see if I could do it on a much larger scale.
I wanted the lead to grow as long as possible,
so I used a really big container.
The major issue, though, was that I didn't have enough lead acetate to properly scale it up to this size.
In theory, I should have used about 400 grams,
but instead I settled on 100, and I figured the process would just be slower,
but... I was wrong.
When I went to put in the zinc, it quickly turned black and initially seemed okay,
but it just didn't really progress from there.
I even left it overnight, and by the morning barely anything changed.
When I took a closer look, it seemed to grow outwards at the top,
but it just never moved down.
I'm not exactly sure why,
but I'm assuming the low concentration of lead acetate had something to do with it.
In any case, my attempt was a complete failure,
and I was stuck with about 3 liters of lead solution,
which is exactly what I feared would happen.
I was honestly really tempted to just pour it all into a waste container and call it a day,
but I figured I should at least try to do something interesting with it.
I had some powdered zinc metal lying around,
and I thought that it might be cool to see what would happen
if I added it to the lead solution.
As the zinc was added, it quickly reacted with the lead acetate,
to form zinc acetate and lead metal.
The zinc acetate dissolved into the solution,
But the lead metal deposited onto the surface of the zinc powder
The lead forms as extremely small particles,
and between them light tends to get trapped.
The light gets stuck continually bouncing around between small particles and with each
reflection a small amount of it is absorbed. It eventually gets completely absorbed,
and because of this no light is reflected and it appears black
To try and highlight this color change, I shone in my flashlight and it seemed to help.
I then turned off the lights hoping that it would make it even cooler,
but it kind of just ruined the contrast. It might have worked better though
if I had a more powerful flashlight.
Anyway, at this point I turn the lights back on and I figured I was done.
Sure, the results here were kind of interesting but nothing too exciting
however, that all changed when I turned on the magnetic stirring.
Immediately, a bunch of powder gets knocked upwards which I expected,
but there was also some solid stuff.
I was honestly really surprised by this and I tried taking it
out using my glass rod but it was really soft and delicate.
I was able to squish it a bit though, which seemed to harden it and make it easier to lift
What I recovered was really interesting and at first I had no idea what it was
I mean it had to be some combination of lead and zinc but I had never seen
anything like it before it was malleable like a very soft clay
but it also broke apart really easily. When I squished it, it had no elastic
properties and a lot of water came out.
I broke it up into a few more pieces and then I squeeze them down as hard as I could.
By doing this, that became some really hard pellets and you can hear the clink
when I drop them in the dish. I then put them all in my toaster to get rid of the
water and in the meantime I did some research. It only took about five minutes
to find that what I have here is known as lead sponge. I couldn't really find
exactly what the sponge was structurally, but I assume it's just a very weak
network of lead. There are many lead extensions growing
from each zinc particle and these extensions overlap with other ones.
This creates a very weak pseudo solid structure that's held together just by
friction. Using zinc isn't the only way to make it though. It's also possible to
directly inject gas or to add foaming agents to molten lead. This method
basically just produces puffed up metal and it's a much more stable and sturdy
product. Sponge lead has a lot of potential uses but the most common one
is probably in lead acid car batteries. The lead sponge acts as the negative
electrode and it's very useful because of its extremely high surface area.
When they were dried, they looked exactly like little rocks you just find on the street,
the only give away though is that because they're made of lead they're
really heavy. Also, because it's just made of weakly compressed powder, it lets off
a lot of residue when it's touched. I then tested its strength using some
pliers and it just crumbled into pieces. What I have here is a mixture of lead
and zinc but it might be a useful way to make lead powder if the lead sponge were
first soaked in hydrochloric acid before squishing it down. The zinc could be
pretty easily removed. The next thing I wanted to try was to see what would
happen if I dried some of the sponge without compressing it first. By the time
I went back to the container everything had settled down and a bit more had
formed. I did my best to take out the two pieces here without squishing them at
all but it wasn't really possible.
They were quickly dried using a paper towel, and then I went to make more.
There were actually some pieces still at the bottom, but I wanted to make some
really large ones so I dumped in some zinc on top of them.
I waited for everything to settle to the bottom and then I turned on the stirring
to push everything to the sides.
I turned the stirring off after about 30 seconds and then I was ready to start
taking it out again. I did my best to squish it as little as possible, but it
was kind of unavoidable. I didn't have one at the time, but I really should have
invested in a cheap plastic spatula.
The final recovery was two major pieces, but they both ended up falling apart.
I used the portion that fell off the one on the left for a couple boring tests
that I didn't bother filming. The other pieces were allowed to dry a bit more,
and then they were combined with the ones from the previous run.
Before putting them in the toaster though, I wanted to try one last thing:
Instead of using zinc powder, I wondered how it would turn out if I used zinc
granules, so I poured in a bunch and I time-lapse did over a few hours.
The result was honestly really cool and I'm sad that I kind of messed up the focus.
A little later on I tried to recreate the effect, but unfortunately it didn't work
for some reason. I'll cover this as an added bit at the end though, for those
who are interested.
Anyway just like the other runs, I turned on the stirring when it was done.
The spongy material lifted up, and underneath it was most of the zinc.
I was almost able to get it out as one solid piece, but it broke at the last second.
I managed to recover three major pieces though, and I put them all on some paper
towel to dry. I decided to sacrifice one of the pieces to see how tough it was,
and I wasn't really surprised that it fell apart quite easily.
The zinc granules are relatively large, so they compromise the strength of the lead
sponge network that grows around them. Unlike the powder runs, with the granules
it's actually possible to grow crystals, but I don't think these are gonna last
for very long when exposed to air - they're gonna react relatively quickly
and get pretty dulled out or turn white. In the end, these were all the pieces
that I got, and I put them all in a toaster at a relatively high heat for a
couple hours, and just like before they all ended up looking like rocks. In my
opinion, the ones from the powder runs were the most interesting because of the
color. I think this happened because I didn't wash any of them, and they were
all still covered with zinc and lead acetate. As the water was evaporated and
boiled off in the toaster, both of these salts showed up as white spots then
under the heat of the toaster I think some of the lead acetate decomposed to
yellow lead oxide. I honestly thought the final result was really cool and it
looked exactly like a rock with a bunch of mineral deposits. The main giveaway in
this case though is that they're way too light because I tried to not compress
them at all. They're not very dense, and feel a lot more like a brittle foam.
When I move them around and scratch them together you can just hear how hollow
and brittle they are.
In my opinion, the granule run was a lot less interesting. It did kind of retain
its shininess though, which honestly surprised me. I checked back on it a few
weeks later, and it was definitely dulled out but it was still kind of shiny.
Anyway, the last thing that I wanted to test was their conductivity, because
they're all made of lead and zinc metal; they should all be conductive. To do this,
I'll be using a meter which beeps every time an electrical connection is made.
The first one I tested was the compressed stuff which immediately gave
a beep. Then I went with the piece from the granule run, and it also conducted.
The uncompressed powder ones though were much harder to get a signal from because
the surface was covered. To get it to beep, I had to dig the probes in a little.
So, basically, in conclusion, they're all conductive. What they could be used for
though I'm not exactly sure. I could probably try molding it and making
different shapes which might be useful for something. If you guys have any cool
suggestions, let me know in the comments because it might be worth making a
follow-up video. Earlier on, I mentioned that I tried recreating the time lapse,
and these are my attempts. The first thing I tried was to just pour a bunch
of the granules in, but it was a total failure - it just ended up getting furrier,
and it never grew any crystals. I figured that maybe at this point the
concentration of lead acetate was too low, so I made a fresh batch. I used the
same concentration as my original large-scale setup, and I dumped in a
bunch of the granules like the last run. It all initially puffed up, but then the
crystals just grew everywhere at the same time. Also, for whatever reason,
it didn't seem like the density of the lead crystals was nearly as high.
I decided to try it again but this time I covered the entire bottom of the
container. The results were very similar though, and the crystals just kind of
grew everywhere at the same time, so I'm not exactly sure how to recreate that
effect. This isn't based on much evidence at all, but I think it has a lot to do
with the concentration of the lead acetate. Although in these runs, I'm
replicating the same concentration as the original run, it is technically not
the same. I started with the same concentration, but before adding the
granules I added a whole bunch of powder which definitely lowered it. I personally
think this put me in the proper concentration window for the effect,
but who knows, I could be totally wrong. If any of you have any theories, I'd love to
hear them. Okay, so just as one final thing - some of
you might be wondering why this month is kind of slow in terms of videos. Well,
the reason is actually kind of an exciting, one and it's because I'm putting
together a proper lab and studio. I've rented out two rooms in an industrial
building, and I've spent the last few weeks prepping it and building
everything. It should be done in the next couple of weeks, and I'll post a video
documenting the whole process as well as a lab tour.
As usual, a big thanks goes out to all my supporters on Patreon. Everyone who
supports me can see my videos at least 24 hours before I post them to YouTube.
Everyone can directly message me and anyone who supports me with $5 or more
will get their name at the end like you see here.