I am a Ph.D. student working with aluminum-gallium alloys in energy production and I would like to clarify a couple things I see in the comments regarding the idea. A lot of people are suggesting that this is actually a poor idea to use in cars, airplanes, etc. and I believe they are right. But that doesn't mean it isn't going to be useful. The major interest in Al-Ga alloys is its use as an energy carrier. As good as batteries are for some applications, the energy density of batteries are actually quite horrible, which is an issue if you want to store energy rather than just have it be portable. For example, wind, solar, and nuclear energy are difficult to throttle on demand. In other words, you only get energy from the wind when it is blowing and from solar when it is sunny. Conversely, you will be getting energy from wind and from solar whether you need it or not. To solve this problem, a lot of ideas are to use batteries to store unused energy from these "clean" energy sources so that it can be used at a later time. However, due to the really poor efficiency of batteries, a lot of energy is lost. This is where Al-Ga may come in handy. We can use excess solar, wind, and nuclear energy to produce aluminum from aluminum oxide. The aluminum now acts as a "battery" to store the energy. Then, when we want to release the energy again (e.g. in the middle of the night when the wind isn't blowing, etc.), the aluminum gallium can produce hydrogen which can then be burnt in a powerplant to create on-demand energy. This process of storing energy in aluminum is actually a lot more efficient than most batteries. So while this may not be terribly useful in cars or vehicles themselves, it may be useful as an energy carrier for large-scale powerplants.

This is super cool, I love that the gallium isn't consumed. I think I'd rather see fuel made from garbage with gasification though so we can recycle the aluminum. Aluminum is a great metal.

My main issues with this hydrogen production method is that it’s energy intensive. Like using electrolysis for hydrogen sourcing. Large scale it’s a greener hydrogen source than nat gas but only if the aluminum was produced green. Global aluminum demand is already pretty high and the recyclability of aluminum is pretty good. It’s mathematically energy cheaper to remelt aluminum than it is to reduce aluminum from ore. I never see this method used for industrial H2 production but rather as a H2 source for small scale labs kinda like how zinc is used

I'd kinda expect that it saves more net energy when scrap aluminum is recycled back into aluminum products (vs. refining brand new aluminum) than the energy you could produce by oxidizing the scrap and capturing hydrogen. But it's entirely possible that I could be proven wrong, so I suppose it's good that someone's looking into the economic feasibility of such a process.

By any chance, did you weigh how much gallium you got back from it? Even though the yield should remain 100%, it's still fairly interesting to see how much was lost in the clean-up process.

Just tried this out for myself, I think it’s cooler that just water and sodium. I love your vids, keep it up.

Have you considered cutting a thicker piece of aluminum in a vacuum chamber to prevent it from forming the protective oxide layer and then experimenting to see it if it reacts with water etc? I know it would be difficult but you are a master of Macguyvering in a vacuum chamber!

It's a good thing I keep a stockpile of Gallium for times like this.

Great content 👍🏻 just the stuff for inspiring young minds in this new energy storage mindset we are creating . Awesome

This channel keeps surprising me with it's excellent content. Keep going 😁

2:23 goofy laught, the mark of a true scientist.

Many industries use heat-intensive processes that generally require the burning of fossil fuels, but a surprising green fuel alternative is emerging in the form of metal powders. Ground very fine, cheap iron powder burns readily at high temperatures, releasing energy as it oxidizes in a process that emits no carbon and produces easily collectable rust, or iron oxide, as its only emission. Burning metal powder as fuel sounds strange, the next part of the process will be even more surprising. That rust can be regenerated straight back into iron powder with the application of electricity, and if you do this using solar, wind or other zero-carbon power generation systems, you end up with a totally carbon-free cycle. The iron acts as a kind of clean battery for combustion processes, charging up via one of a number of means including electrolysis, and discharging in flames and heat.

For those wondering, if it's this simple, why isn't it used? Bare in mind that I'm no chemist or have any scientific background on this, so please, experts feel free to correct me and add up relevant info. Sorry and thanks! The answer is kinda in the video already - you need lots of energy to produce aluminum, so much so that it makes much more sense to recycle and reuse it rather than decomposing and turning into fuel. As aluminum is optimally recycled and has lots of uses... it just doesn't make much sense to expend it as fuel. It might be interesting as alternative source, but tit for tat, electrolysis is still probably a better alternative in terms of total energy expenditure to produce hydrogen as fuel. Gallium is... not quite as bad as something like lead or mercury, but also not super great. It doesn't occur naturally, as a free element in Earth's crust, but rather comes out as by-product of zinc and aluminum mining. It's valued at just bellow silver and indium, but not too much below.... so it's pretty expensive to get. Used in lots of electronics products.

I love how you drank that water to prove that it was indeed water 😁

Worth subscribing the channel.. the way you make things simpler is amazing..

Great video. This guy always has some cool & sometimes weird projects. I learn something new every time I visit!

This method also beats out using copper (II) chloride to demonstrate aluminum's high reactivity since gallium isn't toxic like copper (II) chloride. Pretty cool that elemental aluminum under the hood is actually quite a highly reactive metal (as this video demonstrates) even though it doesn't seem like it under normal conditions unlike other highly reactive metals such as sodium!

So I don’t know if you read comments or not, but if you do, I just wanted to tell you, thanks for the great content. You are always a personality that I look forward to seeing an upload from. Your interest in what you do makes it clear that you’re into what you’re teaching and it honestly makes learning that much more enjoyable. Keep it up, and thank you!

Excellent video and nice experiment! It's always great to learn something new! 👍

This is an amazing video. Thank you for making this!

The interesting part is production - you can run a n aluminum smelter at massive scale on hydro/solar/wind, then use the aluminum gallium on demand in a small reactor (car scale) by burning or running it through a fuel cell. Essentially, aluminum becomes an infinitely recycle able battery with strong existing production and recycling infrastructure.

Two points. One an awful lot of energy is wasted in the exothermic reaction so whatever reactor you build you want to take advantage of that heat. Two carefully store the aluminum oxide byproduct then using entirely renewable energy sources such as solar concentrators, solar panels, etc process the oxides back into aluminum as a form of long-term energy storage or as part of an energy cycle.

I've been looking into this for a while now, and am planning on creating an engine or power source of some kind, that runs on aluminum. I live on a farm with loads of scrap metal, and having all this energy on hand is really useful.

Another cool video man! Keep up the good research. Great videos and shorts!

'Well it turns out there is!'...and I mentally heard the Vsauce theme song 😂😂😂

The thing is, that aluminium was likely first purified using electrolysis. I wonder what the efficiency of using this gallium -aluminium composite to make hydrogen would be compared to just using straight electrolysis.

Energy outputs are one of my favorite topics. I love hearing about new and innovative forms of energy!

Well played old bean. Love your channel. Keep up the good work.

I think the challenge is the energy required to convert the aluminum to its oxide form again. With solar, this wouldn’t be an issue, as we could use electric furnaces to re-melt it. The separation phase would be very important, but given how exothermic the reaction is, the water-gallium-aluminum would have to be cooled first before separation, or there would need to be a significant cooling component during the reaction cycle. As long as we can recover a very high percentage of the gallium and account for the other factors, it should be possible to use it as a hydrogen extraction process. However, I don’t see that being better or less complicated than the current electrolysis process when its being run on solar.

The excess energy is coming from the aluminum production. It takes a lot of energy to break the aluminum oxide bond to produce pure aluminum, so no, between the energy loss of the aluminum going back to aluminum oxide and the loss of some of the gallium in the process, I'm sure it turns out being an energy net loss.

Formidable ! Merci Action Lab !😀

Super interesting! You do a great job, and I really enjoy your efforts. I always learn something useful and that matters. Great health to all.

Although I enjoy your content, it would have been amazing to see a Gallium-water control as well as the Aluminium-water control you presented :) Also, as a side note, Aluminium is an amphoteric metal, which means that hydrogen is produced in the presence of either an acid OR a base (naturally, in an aqueous solution) :)

The issue, of course, is that the energy it takes to make aluminum and the efficiency of the produced aluminum make make this not viable-and it still takes energy. It isn’t a source of energy, it’s a storage mechanism

Hi The Action Lab, Nice video. Depending on the molar ratio (or the weight) of the reactants of aluminium and water you can have different outputs: 2Al + 3 H2O --> Al2O3 + 3 H2(g) Al + 2 H2O --> Al(=O)OH + 3/2 H2(g) Al + 3 H2O --> Al(OH)3 + 3/2 H2(g) and Al2O3 + 3 H2O --> 2 Al(OH)3 HO-Al=O + H2O --> Al(OH)3 You spoke about NaOH and the way it is consumed into the water decomposition reaction from aluminium by chewing the oxidized protective layer of the naked metal: Al(OH)3 + 3 NaOH -->(NaO)3Al +3 H2O HO-Al=O + NaOH --> NaO-Al=O + H2O --> NaO-Al(OH)2 NaO-Al(OH)2 + 2 NaOH --> (NaO)3Al + 2 H2O and O=Al-O-Al=O + 4 NaOH --> (NaO)2Al-O-Al(ONa)2 + 2 H2O --> 2 (NaO)2AlOH + H2O 2 (NaO)2AlOH + 2 NaOH --> 2 (NaO)3Al + 2 H2O ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Al2O3 + 6 NaOH --> 2 (NaO)3Al + 3 H2O That is the usual NaOH prills / Al dust to declog plumbig; (beware caustic and dangerous for eyes (possible permanent blindness) and for mucosas; so wear personnal protective equipment (PPE-googles, face shield, labcoat, glooves) --> heat, --> soap making from greases, --> strong base to decompose proteins by hydrolysis (like fibrous hair clogs) --> and H2(g) generation as a foaming inside the clogging liberating some pressure with a physical action inside the clogging. Of course you forgot the famous acidic reaction of HCl: Al + 3 HCl --> AlCl3 + 3/2 H2(g) and the spontaneous recycling of the HCl due to hydrolysis of certain Al salts: AlCl3 + 3 H2O --> Al(OH)3 + 3 HCl 2 AlCl3 + 3 H2O --> Al2O3 + 6 HCl So a little HCl or NaCl in acid media can litteraly chew through a lot of aluminium down . Last advantages HCl is gaseous, and can be concentrated by dissolution to about 35% by weight into water (that is almost 10 M solution or 10 mols/L (350g HCl/kg water); so it could be also endlessly recycled by vaporisation and recondensation-dissolution; of course this depends onto the side reactions of the "pollutants" inside aluminium foil (there are always others metals as traces into it because it is not chemically pure (thus far from lab grade ingredient) as an industrial product and finally ending as a garbage. The funny and beautifull part of this acidic process is that the after garbage of Al2O3 can be recycled into corrundums (saphires and rubbies of nearly all rainbow colors even colorless leuco-corrundum) but that is a totally different story flying far above most people heads. Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)

My friends gonna' love it! He's been talking about a home project of his about making hydrogen. He can't speak English, so I'll have to show it to him in person and explain, but I think he'll like it. Thanks ActionLabMan!!!

Man sometimes I really wish I had my own gallium to play with

But isn't it more efficient to clean up and re-melt the waste Al to make new Al?

This also is true for magnesium. Magnesium metal fires actually intensify when water is used, but metallic magnesium still has almost no reaction with water at room temp. This is also due to oxide passivation

Very good video. The only thing missing was a description of the byproducts of the reaction.

THIS IS AMAZING. I'LL BUY SOME GALLIUM INSTANTLY.

I knew that Aluminum is energy-intensive, what about Gallium? Is it something that requires some nasty open-pit mining? I assume it does.

Your reactions are so childish and genuine! I love it!

It's always a good day when you learn something extremely useful like this. Thanks for enlightening me! One question though. I assume that the oxide is a waste product. This should be saved and recycled. On the base reaction what base gives the best result and what is the byproduct? Thanks again.

🤔.. so. A couple weeks or few ago, he throws a party for time travelers. He doesn't show the footage of who shows up. Now he's making fuel for a time traveling car. Pretty sure he just doesn't want the government knowing he's skipping around in time. He better hope they're not as smart as me!

I got a scholarship into space camp after I made project that involved gallium and aluminum. That fact that what I did a few years back might be a fuel source is very exciting, only problem I could see with this so far is making a tank store so much aluminum

Nice shirt! Thanks for the video. Best regards.

It's a little concerning you show yourself drinking from a beaker. Unless the beaker is brand new it's incredibly dangerous to drink from a beaker. Some chemicals only require trace amounts to kill you or give you cancer. Since your audience probably has a decent portion that isn't familiar with lab safety it might be good to put in a warning against doing that.

Hello, this was fun, i hope we can do it again😊

This man bring new info that r I never heard about it. U r video's r amazing 🤩.

always awsome content !!

I read a paper that describes such a mix of metals as an "Amalgam" Now Amalgams are normally thought to be based on Mercury. But some of us think an Amalgam is the suspension of one metal in another with particles that display a gradient of dissolution usually at room temperature, making it different from an alloy.

I worked in a placed where they coated antennae dishes with aluminum by spraying aluminum dust and igniting it as it comes out of a spray gun. What a fascinating metal.

This is the new age of 'better living through chemistry'. Awesome stuff. Thanks.

I used to do this with just alluminum and the HCl you buy to clean your house. I always thought it was the HCl which reacted to form H2, not the water

This showcases ultra resourcefulness!

Mind Blown! Thankyou for such interesting information. Be careful with the Gallium, very poisonous.

great content thanks

I would like to see the stochiometric equation to visualize the equilavence betwee start and end products.

The alloy also works great for chemistry for gentle reductions. The amount of gallium needed is quite small, the ideal consistency is like crumbly metal sand. Mercury works quite well for this too, but its a toxic metal.

Any chance you could show us the casimir effect in your vacuum?

Hey awesome reaction! Would the Ga be needed if this was preformed in space?

Is that why if you chew on foil you feel a weird metalic electric taste. Thats the reaction happening on the new chewn off part of the aluminum with no thin layer.

Thank you teacher👍👍👍

it is possible to see In the video that the gallium can be recovered, but about the AL, where is it after the reaction?

In India just a few days ago CSIR(Coucil of Scientific and Industrial Reserch) and KPIT together have made a Hydrogen fuel cell based bus. Maybe this technique can be used to obtain hydrogen for the vehicle. Green Hydrogen that is produced through electrolysis of water is currently quite expensive.

Hello how to filter out the catalyst gallium on this reaction? are the one spewing out also have a mixture of gallium?

I’ve read a company was setting itself up to do this but ended up going out of business before it ever got going

That's pretty interesting. I was just trying to explain to someone a few days ago the thermite reaction and how reactive aluminum is. How it can reduce iron oxide back to iron by being so reactive it steals the oxygen away from it.

For the reaction with sodium hydroxide, it doesn't consume the sodium hydroxide. It will concert the aluminum into aluminum hydroxide and the atom of sodium react with the water to form hydrogen, so the sodium hydroxide is just a catalyst in the reaction and you don't need to add more during the reaction to keep it going

How did you treat your amalgamation to purify for reuse, surely not just filtering? Had the aluminum been used up?

Please make a video showing how to recover the gallium.

Al powder is used in thermite so it has available energy to "burn" Al -air batteries are being researched and implemented.

But the DeLorean was not running on hydrogen. The upgraded had a fusion reactor, it is even written on the white cover as : Mr Fusion :)

Better to recycle the aluminum back to some product. Because it takes a huge amount of energy when we form pure Aluminum from it's oxides.

Could you use the gallium to dissolve the aluminium in a way to use it as a paint. So an alternative to using electro plating.

The sip of water you took at 2:17 was mesmerising.

We can use super low grade non recycleable (or hard to) aluminum scrap for this. Would be best if we can use bauxite straught away.

Quick question. For the reaction you said 3 to 1 Gallium to aluminum is the reaction 6Ga + 2Al + 3H2O → 6Ga+ 3H2 + Al2O?

It sounds like a great energy source for the apocalypse

First im curious about the left over water solution contents. Second I really wanna know if gallium with gold in it is more conductive then normal gallium.

absolutely we could use this on a bigger scale... but the factory should be a combination of Tech .. 1 addition would be a water tank surrounding the reaction chamber to the water can power a steam generator ... etc etc stuff like that ..

Presumably the AlO can also be recovered and re-refined to metallic aluminum? Feels like an excellent use for end of life aluminum.

Thank you 😍

The Aluminum Oxide on the surface of Aluminum foil and cans is the same Aluminum Oxide as Rubies and Sapphires, just not crystalized in large masses. So it's second only in hardness to Diamond, rather chemical resistant, and very tough. You can actually make gemstones with a blowtorch by getting this oxide to melt, fuse, and crystalize. I've even seen people do it in a microwave oven.

Silly question for you, after you recover the gallium, is the remaining substance just aluminum oxide?

Way cool! But how expensive and toxic is gallium?

What kind of gases and particles are released in the exhaust? If it's hazardous then that would explain why it never took off but if it burns clean then it might work if the process can be altered into a more efficient design

4:11 "Once you've already made the Aluminum, that would normally be thrown away …" "I beg your pardon?" *in all European languages*

Hi Very interesting and I can see it could have uses as a short term emergency supply but as you said the energy comes from the manufacturing of the aluminium which is very energy hungry, probably better to recycle the aluminium into new products Keep up the good work your vids are always interesting

0:24 it's not the hydrogen that explodes. In fact, nothing explodes. Search Thunderfoot's video on it , this is mind blowing. Ok, here watch?v=LmlAYnFF_s8

Remember kids, never drink from anything in a lab, even if the container had been cleaned. Better to be safe than sorry.

How efficient is this process, to store energy by forming deoxidized aluminum?

We need someone with a movie accurate Delorean to make it run off aluminum. Just one step closer to perfecting time travel via spid

It isn't entirely true that you can recover all of the gallium. You can also use lye instead of gallium and on a large scale is equally recoverable and far more available. Gallium is already a pretty expensive material and if it starts being used large scale it's scarcity will become a problem.

It sounds like something that has a very particular application like time travel

Where did you receive your knowledge in chemistry?

Is it exothermic? Does the reaction produce heat? Or is it happening at a lower temperature, due to gallium being a liquid at a little over room temperature? That would make a difference on scaling it up.

Cool video, but how did you get measure the output of hydrogen gas, I believe you said 130 milliliters per gram of alloy. Is there a formula or conversion method I should use?

2:14 **Gets the beakers mixed up**