Chemicals You Should Never Mix (it's dangerous!)

so what do we have here do not mix with acids or other cleaning agents sounds interesting hello everyone many of you might have read the label of some cleaning product especially when you were sitting on your porcelain friend have you ever wondered what's in them and what else they should not be mixed with well let's find out you may have been warned not to mess around with household chemicals and mix different reagents with one another since childhood as their interactions can result in completely unpredictable chemical reactions which can be both spectacular and dangerous for example in a previous video I showed you how to extinguish Burning metal and it turned out the best remedy is common table salt all my fire extinguishers only intensified the flames and ordinary water was especially good at it but what about so-called dry water after all it's used for putting out fires in server rooms to avoid damaging expensive electronics and minimize harm let's see what happens when you mix it with burning metal a substance called No 1230 is commonly used in firefighting it's a fluo ketone in other words an organic carbon compound in which all the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by Florine since it evaporates quickly and doesn't dissolve in any substances this compound is called dry water take a look a computer works perfectly in a tank of this unusual liquid for the experiment on extinguishing Metals with dry water I decided to take a rather active Alkali metal potassium this piece of pottassium has been stored for quite a long time in a vacuum bag as a result it got covered with a layer of potassium peroxides and carbonates first it should be cut into smaller pieces that are more convenient to work with and then placed in a jar of kerosene for storage as you can see potassium is a very soft metal and can be cut with a knife like butter after which it oxidizes instantly in the air finally I cut several cubes of pure potassium without oxide film leaving quite a lot of scraps on the table which did not fit into the jar of kerosene well I think we can get rid of these pieces by simply pouring water over them but as you can see mixing potassium with water is strictly forbidden the glass bowl managed to withstand this powerful reaction as soon as the bucket is dry we can try to mix the burning potassium with dry water I pour dry water into the upper container and then set a piece of potassium on fire due to its high activity and low melting point pottassium ignites quite easily well I guess it's time to put it out but it looks like it got even worse many hallogen derivatives including dry water or for example chloroform react perfectly with active metals like sodium pottassium or lithium that is why it's absolutely forbidden to extinguish burning Metals with these substances by the way I have an unused bottle of chloroform so I'll try to extinguish burning potassium with it as you can see the reaction is slightly stronger than with dry water besides potassium I decided to experiment on extinguishing another active Alkali metal with dry water I took lithium as it's even more commonly used nowadays than potassium the reaction is not very active still it can hardly be called an extinguishing I'd say it caused an intensification certainly potassium and dry water are quite exotic substances and they're rarely found in homes but are there any substances that shouldn't be mixed in ordinary life of course for example manganese and glycerin can be easily found in pharmacy in Eastern Europe manganese or to put it scientifically potassium permanganate is a powerful oxidizer even a weak solution of it has excellent antiseptic properties in other words it oxidizes and destroys almost all microorganisms that get into it pouring a little glycerin representing polyatomic alcohol on potassium permanganate initiates a Cascade of chemical reactions during which the hydroxy group of the glycerin molecules oxidize to alahh Ketone and carboxy

groups strongly heating the mixture at a certain point the generated heat becomes so intense that the mixture boils and spontaneously combusts nevertheless this reaction can be useful in some situations for example it allows you to make a fire without matches still you've got to be very careful however there is a substance that mustn't be mixed with manganese under any conditions concentrated sulfuric acid this chemical reaction results in permanganic acid which decomposes into dangerous manganese heptoxide this is a greenish dark liquid with rather powerful oxidizing properties as soon as any organic matter comes into contact with this dangerous liquid it will immediately ignite in my case it was ordinary ethanol the effect is quite interesting and of course grinding potassium permanganate just like any other oxidizer with any Organics like sugar is definitely a bad idea after all the mixture can spontaneously ignite because of strong friction to go along with pharmaceutical manganese we may encounter another strong oxidizing agent at home sodium hypochlorite it's a component of common chlorine bleach usually the concentration of sodium hypochlorite does not exceed 20% but still there are some risks associated with it if you accidentally mix this substance with ordinary vinegar then because of the change in acidity sodium hypochlorite will decompose into ordinary table salt and gaseous chlorine released in the form of small bubbles chlorine itself is a dangerous gas that was used as a chemical weapon in World War I so I probably don't need to explain that it will have a horrible effect on your health besides chlorine containing sodium hypochlorite you might find granules of calcium hypochlorite also known as chlorinated lime typically this substance is used for shot chlorination of swimming pools for very fast and strong disinfection of water just like the bleach it should not be mixed with vinegar to avoid the emission of toxic chlorine another substance you can't mix with ordinary bleach is break fluid I don't even know who could come up with this brilliant idea but let's check what happens if you mix these two unusual reagents to start I make a small Hollow in the sand and then I pour about a kilogram of calcium hypochloride into it the only thing left is to pour a sufficient amount of brake fluid consisting of a mixture of polyethylene glycol borade Esters and other substances the more important and interesting component for us is the polyethylene glycol in other words a long chain of connected ethylene glycol molecules coming into contact with the powerful oxidizing agent calcium hypochlorite the long molecule of polyethylene glycol begins to fall apart into component parts but it's hard to determine the exact composition and amount what we know for sure is that this reaction results in the gradual heating of the mixture until it reaches the boiling point of brake fluid and the peak of the reaction as you can see this mixture easily self ignites and burns like Rocket Fuel the most dangerous thing about it is that when you mix two substances there's no visual effect at first and it can up to 2 minutes before the mixture suddenly catches fire so be extremely careful with bleach and do not mix it with anything as you might have picked up by now mixing oxidizing and reducing agents in ordinary life is definitely a bad idea but just in case here are some more examples ammonium nitrate is a popular nitrogen fertilizer that can be bought at any hardware store like many nitrates the substance can oxidize some materials incl including some metals if you accidentally mix ammonium nitrate with salt impurities and Zinc powder it will require only one drop of water to cause a reaction as in any redo reaction ammonium nitrate serves as an oxidizing agent taking electrons from the zinc while the salt and purities and water serve only as cataly for the reaction so keep your fertilizers away from metal particles besides ammonium nitrate you can buy another fertilizer like potassium nitrate or salt peter this substance is also the main component of black powder interestingly before the invention of gunpowder in the 11th century ad ancient Alchemists experimented by mixing it with sulfur and potach obtained by burning wood in theory if you mix these three components in specific proportions and them at one

point the mixture will simply detonate to verify this experiment I made this mixture and started with a small amount about 200 mg which I put in a heated cup on a regular stove after about 3 minutes the mixture melted and predictably detonated next time I took two times more of the mixture let's see what happens it was pretty good I think it would be dangerous to experiment with larger quantities in fact scientists still have difficulties in determining why this happens and what role pottassium carbonate plays in the reaction maybe it reacts with sulfur forming polysulfides which in turn react with potassium nitrate if you're interested in this topic write your ideas in the comments so far I've been mixing stuff that theoretically can be found in your everyday life but in case you ever happen to work in a chemistry lab remember the following reagents are strictly forbidden to mix for example in many Labs you can find a reagent chromium trioxide which is used in combination with sulfuric acid for deep cleaning glass or some metals chromium trioxide is a strong oxidizing agent and it's also carcinogenic so it should be handled very carefully like many oxidizing agents it reacts with reducing agents like ordinary alcohol as you can see when alcohol comes in contact with chromium trioxide granules the mixture immediately boils throwing toxic spatter around to neutralize it you can just ignite the chromium trioxide together with the semi-oxidized alcohol after which the mixture will burn and the hexavalent chromium oxide will turn into a harmless trivalent one obtaining a nice green color in case chromium trioxide is initially well ground then it will immediately self-ignite once it comes in contact with alcohol so you should be extremely careful with these reagents the following substance can be found not only in Labs but also aboard a submarine namely sodium peroxide this substance is used on sub Marines to purify the air from carbon dioxide as sodium peroxide reacts very well with it producing a useful byproduct pure oxygen in addition it's often used for wood bleaching as it forms hydrogen peroxide a powerful bleaching agent when mixed with water if you mix sodium peroxide with something combustible for example sweet cornflakes and pour some water into the mixture the resulting concentrated hydrogen peroxide will oxidize everything thus accelerating the chemical reaction even more by the generated heat as you can see this mixture can also spontaneously ignite so you need to be very careful with it apart from forbidden domestic reactions there are some you're allowed or even encouraged to do for example the most common chemical reaction occurring in every home is mixing baking soda and vinegar this mixture results in sodium acetate water and carbon dioxide which is heavier than air from which it collects at the bottom of the glass if you dip a burning match into this container it will immediately go out because carbon dioxide doesn't support the combustion of ordinary materials however if you put burning magnesium into the glass it'll start to burn even stronger as magnesium can react with carbon dioxide tearing out oxygen from its molecule and leaving only pieces of black carbon the second substance formed during the reaction of soda and vinegar is a sodium acetate solution which can be used for a very interesting experiment to do this I first heat a beaker with reacting baking soda and vinegar in a water bath because when carbon dioxide is released the mixture cools down thus slowing down the chemical reaction itself after that I wait until the reaction is fully complete and occasionally add more acidic acid as it easily escapes with the released glass once the reaction is complete I pour the contents of the beaker into a saucepan and then begin to evaporate the mixture the point here is to concentrate the sodium acetate solution to a saturated state

but it should remain liquid and not form crystals the saturation limit can be easily traced by the crust of crystals forming at the edges which should be gradually dissolved after the excess water has evaporated from my mixture I add a few drops of water back into the pot to make that crust of crystals disappear otherwise the experiment May Fail now I pour the hot sodium acetate solution into a regular plastic bottle while the solution is hot it's an ordinary mixture of sodium acetate in water whose solubility at 194° F is 161 G per 100 ml but if it's cooled for example in cold water the solubility of sodium acetate begins to fall and the solution becomes super saturated if you carefully poured into a seemingly clean container in this form the super saturated solution will crystallize even from the smallest dust particle and that looks very beautiful since crystals form right before our eyes we can even build a salt tower out of them it's interesting that during crystallization sodium acetate also heats up pretty well up to about 120° F which is why it's often used in salt hand warmers the crystal growth can be triggered by a physical impact from which the heating pad quickly acquires a pleasant warmth as a matter of fact sodium acetate is not the only substance capable of creating super saturated Solutions there's also Ura sodium thiosulfate and many other compounds that are unfortunately hard to find in ordinary life in addition to baking soda there's another substance you can find that definitely shouldn't be mixed with vinegar and I'll show you why costic Alkali for the experiment I took 30% acidic acid and poured sodium hydroxide which I often use for cleaning pipes for safety I'll perform the experiment remotely using a test stand first I pour the vinegar into the bucket fixed on the stand and pour the LIE into the lower container as soon as I pull the Rope the vinegar immediately mixes with the LIE releasing a huge amount of energy in contrast to the reaction of vinegar and baking soda moreover the obtained heat rapidly boils the mixture which is still quite costic as I took too much lie if this solution gets on your skin you'll get a chemical burn so don't do that well I think after watching this video you've learned what substances should not be mixed together and what can happen if you do and if you enjoyed this video as always don't forget to give it a like And subscribe to the channel to see many more new and interesting things