Going supercritical.

For a while now, I've wanted to make aerogel, but for that, I needed to use supercritical CO2. I didn't really know what that was though, and I figured the best way to learn about it was to make it myself.

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[AppliedScience]

Awesome!! I'm glad the chamber is serving you well. Your videography skills are outstanding, and have such a recognizable style. I'm also glad the chamber didn't explode on you :)

[BlackGryphn]

15:05 Considering that opal is fractured, water-impregnated silica, the effect might actually be very similar to opal! The cracks are thin enough to refract light and scatter its wavelengths, causing iridescence (like in hummingbird feathers or certain beetle wings)!

[stoutlager]

2022 Nilered/blue: "I've been thinking a lot about fission bombs. The materials for that are really expensive but... I bought some."

[SnowTiger]

The Beads suffered "Thermal Shock" which resulted in them shattering internally. Those iridescent looking bits are the surfaces of internal fracture plains refracting the light.
You can often see this in natural crystals (eg: Quartz).

[Aquavenn]

Hey I’m a bit of a gem nerd, I know that there are other comments but I felt like giving you my opinion.
Using silica and introducing it to high pressure and temperature is exactly how synthetic or man made gems can be made. Specifically I’m going to quote milky/greasy quartz first as it’s a silica that’s introduced to co2.

“Milky Quartz is Trigonally structured gems are made of silicon dioxide, their full chemical compound being SiO2. Milky Quartz is a milky white translucent to opaque variety of crystalline quartz of somewhat greasy luster. It is the commonest variety found in pegmatites and hydrothermal veins. The color is generally caused by numerous bubbles of gas and liquid in the crystal. The milky color is caused by small cavities filled with numerous small fluids and CO2 in liquid condition. It is used as a gemstone, and also called greasy quartz.”

Next this is how ‘titanium quartz’ / “aura quartz” is made.

“...aura is created in a vacuum chamber from quartz crystals and gold vapour by vapour deposition. The quartz is heated to 871 °C (1600 °F) in a vacuum, and then gold vapor is added to the chamber. The gold atoms fuse to the crystal's surface, which gives the crystal an iridescent metallic sheen.”

It seems the process is highly similar. Hope this helps.

[retnikt]

"it didn't blow up and kill me, so huge thanks to Ben"

[autonomousanonymous]

Ben: "it's somewhat dangerous and might explode if you aren't careful"
Nile: *shakes it around in his hand while it's pressurized*

[owenwhitman]

I love it when a scientist says "I have no idea what's going on." That's when REAL science happens.

[DrakeRiddle]

The rainbows look really similar to the rainbows found in stress-fractured Quartz. The rainbows are probably caused by the cracks made by a very high pressure environment.

[jackmills]

Get a torque wrench for the bolts, one of the most handy tools to have.

[genildomiranda]

"and it didn't blow up and kill me so.." that's what I love about science.

[minorcomet]

NileRed: strict and is usually safe
NileRed Shorts: has a little fun, and edges the line of dangerous
NileBlue: "I've been thinking alot about Neutron Bombs, the materials for that are really expensive, but..."

[clemensruis]

It's so beautiful! At 13:40 you can see a perfect example of Rayleigh scattering.
First you can see a flash of blue haze (particles less than 1/10th of a micron = Rayleigh scattering) which quickly turns into 'white clouds' (particles larger than 0.5 microns) which is in the Mie scattering domain.
You should try to shine a white light through it from behind whilst going through the Rayleigh scattering phase - the light should turn orange (just like during the sunset).

It's like you have a sky in a jar.

[henrycgs]

NileRed: this is basically a bomb
also NileRed: *shakes it

[mariekebuiter]

NileBlue’s channel in a nutshell: “he warned me that in theory it was kind of like a bomb and it could explode at any time, but it should be safe”

[Brandon-vobw]

The cracked silica beads would probably look pretty interesting under a polariscope. Also having one is useful for seeing stress in your glassware so it might prevent the need to smash all your beakers again in the future.

[lochnessamonster]

When you’re tightening bolts on something like this, do one and then the bolt directly across from it. Repeat until all are tight. That’s the safest way with high pressure applications.

[TheMobBuilder]

NileBlue: “I did a pressure thing and it didn’t explode so I shook it around. It still didn’t explode so I shook it harder. It was still fine so I came in with a hammer-“

[sarahmanier]

“It didn’t blow up and kill me, so a huge thanks goes out to Ben.” Agreed.

[StarSwarm.]

That multicoloured opal-like feature in the silica crystals is called the Schiller Effect. It’s common in a lot of gemstones.