The noise he made when he dropped the gel, “U N H H H”

Aerogel: I’m 99% air Chip bags: *pathetic*

I felt the joy with you when at the end the aerogel finally had no cracks! I watched the whole 40m and feel fresh after it, learned a lot and it was super entertaining! Thank you!

NileRed: TMOS Subtitles: tea moss NileRed: **Shredding The Wax** Subtitles: [Music]

i love how he casually just said that the best part is how it gets trapped in your eyelids and causes permanent blindness

you know you've have reached peak chemistry when you grate some candle as a mold base to make aerogel

that frustrated "MMM" at 12:03 was priceless

Can we just appreciate how labour intensive this is to make and how Nile actually came up with some great solutions even improving on the instructions he was following. Aerogel is like unobtainium, almost impossible to make. It's a material that literally can not exist without supercritial drying, yet here's a full video on KZfaq showing exactly how it can be made. Amazing.

The entire video "the instructions said to do this but instead, I did that"

2:08 "the best part..." *proceeds to talk about how silica can cause permanent blindness*

>Me reminiscing over his old video budgets after he just spent over $8,000 (mostly on pure gold) in his latest video (late December, 2023) about making purple gold. Our Red-Boi's come a long way over the years! Here's to more success and growth in 2024!

Watching the liquid reach supercritical was super cool. The way the reflection from the bottom of the surface transitioned to refraction and then to transparent was awesome and ithe border between the two phases disappeared was awesome.

"I had never done anything like this before, but I had faith that I could do it." What a life motto.

"- it can form in both your lungs and your eyes" oh

Just watched the Veritasium video on aerogel. He went to the Aerogel Technologies in Boston and when they showed the super critical drying process I noticed something that would have made your process much smoother. It appears they poured the gel into small molds and did not remove the gel from the mold until AFTER the super critical drying process was complete, doing so gave the smooth perfect appearance you were looking for.

I thought all you needed was a gel sack and a Ruby.

"My favorite thing about it is that it reacts with water and turns back into silica, and it can do this in both your lungs and your eyes. The best part too, is that the particles form in the eyes under the surface, and they're way too small to remove so it can lead to permanent blindness." Oh yeah, that's what I love about it too

"I used a dollar store grater" "I bought a 2000$ chamber"

Even if you can't see the aerogel at 23:34's shooting, like Nile wanted, the scene still looks really pretty to me in an abstract way. Something about the lighting around the chamber walls and the liquid CO₂, and the straight-on perspective, is such a visually-appealing shot to me. I don't know.

Addressing the orange light in the chamber: CO2 not only absorbs in the IR area of the EM-Spectrum but also in the VIS area at about 430 nm (blue to violet), resulting in the light passing it to be orange (complementary color).

It amazes me that I can watch a full 43 minute video about aerogel but yet cannot watch my videos for school

One of the reasons Nile is so relaxing to watch is because his voice sounds like how a lab report looks.

“My favorite part about this chemical is that the fumes turn your eyes and lungs into literal quartz and cause permanent blindness” Thank you NileRed, very cool.

Thanks for all your hard work.❤❤

“I came up with a very scientific solution” Proceeds to punch table

"I found a very scientific way of seeing if theyre dry" *Proceeds to destroy his table*

i watched this at night for 43 mins (including sponsor and outro) i made my own now i gave it to my brother, he loved it. without you i couldnt have been happier, Nile! and also now my brother and oldersister watch you for science, hope you live as a legend!

Watching this as a chemical engineering student genuinely about 500 million more times more interesting than the stuff we do in lectures and labs fair play

*Scientifically punches table* "Yeah I think the aerogel is done"

I'm convinced that "A Local Hardware Store" is just the name of a chemical supply company in Canada

Excellent description of your method, three years later and you're as thorough as you are now. Love your content dude

Thanks for the rundown of a simple high pressure CO2 setup; we've made this setup in our lab for experiments (with modifications ofc)

Hexagon gel: breaks just slightly Nile: audible pain

792 dollars for some little windows, so the dude could get some "cool shots" for us. what a legend.

You take practical approaches to making chemical products that bewilder the public. You’re a genius for blending your passions, content and eduction like this.

I love how he takes his time and tries to make the best product he can. He doesn't half ass it and I love it.

We all become extremely interested in science at 3 a.m.

This is a colossal amount of effort to make something that's 99.8 % air

wow this is very helpful I always wanted to know how to make aerogel and thank for all the effort and time it took for this i really appreciate it keep up the good work

I’m just amazed at this guys work ethic and genius. Thanks for brightening the world dude.

He’s definitely on like seven different fbi watch lists with how much pure chemicals he buys

This broke everything I thought about how aerogel felt. Never seen or heard it crushed. That's cool af.

This whole video was so entertaining that it felt like 10 minutes. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for going to this much effort, Nigel. Although quite soul destroying and tedious, you accomplished something truly amazing. If i ever find a spare month I too shall attempt this.

"i used a dollar store cheese grater to shred one whole dollar store candle." ah, yes. chemistry

“and I ideally wanted mine to be crack-free” don’t we all nile... don’t we all

Very cool, thank you for showing us incredible chemistry behind all this

That patience and consistency man....

I love how he actually shows us the measurements and precise instructions as if we were gonna make aerogel

"It broke, and fell back into the methanol." *Drip sound followed by grunt of existential pain and anguish.*

Thats true dedication and persistence!

Your are a good science teacher

"Best part is the particles get stuck in your eyes and cause blindness", he says in the most cheery tone like a psychopath

I wonder what living with him would be "Hey I just bought two little windows for 800 dollars"

Let's build an AeroGel Drone

It was way more difficult to make than I was thought....i appreciate the hardwork ❤

"I found that it was good to punch the table in general." - NileRed, anger management therapist

"I've got 5 minutes to spare - lets watch a quick KZfaq video!" .......................................................................... 43 minutes later, I'm still here! So fascinating to watch! Good stuff Nile!

Wait, slight blue haze? Cracking? Feels like glass? Looks like glass? Our boy is Heisenberg

I am literally speechless. You are amazing man kudos to you 🙌🏽

The grunt of absolute pain when he drops the gel lmao

Me: maybe I should make aerogel Nile: this will cause permanent blindness if it gets in your eyes Me: nvm

Congratulations on your persistence!!! The result was fantastic! Hugs from Brazil

How this guy is not dead amazes me

“My favorite part... leads to permanent blindness” ah yes. This is why I love this channel

Aerogel: ˢʰˡᶦᶜᵏ Nile: *ANGRY DINOSAUR NOISE*

The persistence and patience this man has, is out of this world. Great work

Honestly I would love to see you retruning to this. It's such a fascinating topic and it also feels easy enough to understand as a layman. The sous vide cooker was ingenious. would a taller basin help mitigate heat loss? Also would vibration during the curing help mitigate the bubbles?

Nile is the embodiment of "if it exists, I can make it"

How to make Aerogel: Step 563: Make a Pizza handle

The minimum focus distance of a lens is a given spec. With that distance in mind you measure the distance from the plane of the sensor which is marked with a circle with a line through it on the camera body. That line is the sensor plane.

love the content, been a fan for a while, when assembling use Hercules 'Mega Tape' (the gray stuff with the knight holding a shield) and 'Leak Lock' blue joint sealing compound, put the tape on (at least 3 wraps, then paint the leak lock on the tape that's on the threads in an even layer (going with the tape/threads, not against it so you don't unravel your tape!), then crank it down. never back a fitting out to straighten it up, you'll get a leak, if you have to go backwards more than ~1/16th of a turn then your best bet is to take that fitting out, retape and dope it, then do it again. the worst thing you can do on pipe fittings is back them out for any reason once you've started tightening. -Friendly steam boiler tech :) -edit 'Leak Lock' is produced by highside chemicals. get the 4oz bottles as the larger ones the brush is unwieldy on stuff smaller than 2" pipe thread, and you won't use the larger bottles before they start hardening. if you have a smaller bottle that hardens, get some carburetor cleaner or brake cleaner from o'reilly's auto parts and give it a generous squirt, shake it/stir it and it should fix it right up.

“I also found that it was just good to punch the table in general” - NileRed, 2020

I love how the spending range for the materials uses was so extreme. He was like "I spent 100 bucks on this bottle of chemicals" but also "I got this stuff from the dollarstore."

Man this guy is too brilliant. Love it

"that I took out of my IKEA display cabinet" ah yes, professionalism.

What I want to learn: How to make aerogel What I learned: A very scientific way to determine when the aerogel is ready is to punch the table

Fantastic. Just a great project and video. Very well done.

The yellowing 39:04 is likely due to Rayleigh scattering. It is observed when you have bright light behind the gel as seen when you put it on top of the bright white paper. Also it has a bluish tint when illuminated from the side. I have observed similar in my silica xerogel samples.

If you are a person who has successfully created and shaped aerogel, does that make you an Aerosmith?

"It broke and fell back into the methanol." *kerplunk* *pissed off grunting*

25:06 This looks like some sci-fi type black hole. That view is amazing.

Que genio , porque no conocí este canal antes !!

His goals for aerogel are the same I have for my kids. Keeping it crack free.

12:01 *drops his precious aerogel* NileRed: MMMMM

I love all the science. Thanks for making such great videos

Your story telling ability is amazing i would rate it above your expertise in science. I started watching you i know i am not a scientist i would never try this at home but I love the way you explain it and it looks no less than billions of dollars budgeted tv Documentary NAT GEO etc I am in love with your show.

Aerogel: the most confusing substance: Sounds like a brick Breaks like ceramic Looks like jello Weighs like a paper clip And takes heat like a boss

I love Nile's dry humour it's genuinely funny and so refreshing after the mostly hyperbolic and hyperactive humour one the platform rn. GJ nile

These kind of videos from you and dr stone are one of the main reasons why i took science majors

Well done! Subscribed! Makes you wonder how they ever figured out how to make it to begin with without any instructions..crazy! Love this channel ..cheers

let's just take a moment to appreciate all the pain this man has gone through to make a good youtube video

NileRed: The Aerogel is really fragile, so I'll need to make a tiny pizza spatula to carefully load it in to the container. Also Nile: *Shakes the container*

Spent way more money just to make the footage better for us.. *RESPECT*

What a brilliant video , please keep them coming .

My favorite part was the most random, when using tongs to pull out the aerogel on the hex shape, you clicked the tongs a few time - just like a dad about to grill something. Proving it is impossible to use tongs at all, in any way, without clicking them.

NileRed: 2:01 _"My favorite thing about it is that it reacts with water and turns back into silica, and it can do this in both your lungs and your eyes. The best part too, is that the particles form in the eyes under the surface, and they're way too small to remove, so it can cause permanent blindness."_

I love all of your videos! I was curious when I distilled my ethanol and I found some interesting things about distillation. when under a vacuum, water seems to separate out better, the issue is that the alcohol is more dangerous as it's flash point is lowered under lower atmospheric pressures. Also I managed to figure out that Graphene can separate Water out of the ethanol.. I'm not sure if that would work for methanol but graphene should work for all alcohols, I know sieves work but the process takes a long time, The graphene settles overnight, if left for 48 hours in a deep freezer the ethanol can be run in a generator. I imagine different layered graphene has different storage amounts and properties regarding this theory.

Thank you for all the cool videos. You're awesome dude

This guy is so dedicated. Doubt he'll read this but I'm seriously impressed with his work and how far he goes for results that might not turn out as planned. This dude is on another level