Extracting the citric acid from lemons

Today we are extracting citric acid from some large large lemons. Citric acid is quite a useful molecule in general, but I don't have any particular uses for it. It is mostly used as a pH buffering agent in chemistry and isn't use in direct synthesis.

A buffering solution is a solution that resists pH change. It is useful in synthesis when you need to keep the pH relatively constant during a reaction.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(when signing up with this link, a portion of your membership directly supports the channel)

Join the community:

You can also find me here:

[Arctic_and_The_FX]

*I love how formal he is about juicing lemons*

[bingbangitsprime]

My science teacher showed us this video in class but I had already seen it, so I watched it again, in class and enjoyed it even more.

[flame]

idk why but he reminds me of Bob Ross, the chemist version lol 'If the ph is a little higher than 9 that's ok', 'I'm not sure how much I added', 'will make a nice orange color'

[spiderdude]

For a purer product, it probably would be a good idea to re boil the calcium citrate in fresh distilled water after filtering, washing and drying in the frit, then filtering again after a short boil. This should really clean the calcium citrate for the reacidification step.

[koooyle]

when life gives you lemons, extract citric acid.

[ygbot]

I wish this guy would be my chemistry teacher

[ChairLord]

I have zero knowledge about chemicals or extraction but after watching several of his videos, I could guess what process would come after each step. Very clear and thorough explanation helped a lot

[NuttyCuts_]

“When life gives you lemons, make methamphetamine”
-Sun Tzu

[WeeabooShipPoster]

ok but, how about extracting potassium from Bananas?

[victoryfirst]

Citric acid is really good for removing rust from ferric metal. Work's really fast as compared to other methods. Keep up the great work too.

[hattocatto]

i love how he also explains and describes the process of extracting the juice from the lemons.

[ethankoeus]

I've used citric acid before as a metal chelator in reactions which are sensitive to the presence of said ions, or in reactions where something might oxidise. I've used citric acid to chelate iron ions in solution when synthesising potassium salicylate (I was attempting to synthesise a soluble salicylate salt) as well as to slow the oxidation of salicylate in the presence of light.

[devanthe]

this channel taught me one of the important facts of life.








never underestimate coffee filters.

[slickish]

"A glass stir rod is added to the beaker." Like its an ingredient lol.

[stevenspangenberg]

Nile, love your videos. I used to study citric acid crystals. It appears to me that you actually grew a batch of citric acid monohydrate crystals. The hexagonal plate you saw in crystal 5 is indicative of anhydrous citric acid, as these crystals form hexagonal plates. Crystal 3 to me just appeared to be a twinned citric acid monohydrate crystal. Citric acid monohydrate crystals can actually grow fairly large when they are pure and left to sit if you were looking for something to do with them. I used to get them larger than a cm in diameter in a day or two. If you keep the crystals out for a day or two in a higher temperature environment, you would probably be able to see the crystals dehydrate and turn amorphous. Keep up the videos!

[ArtsyKnox]

I can sleep to his videos all day, and watch them all day too. His voice is soothing and he explains things very well.

It's nice to hear before I fall asleep and in the morning waking back up to another of his videos. These are super well done, very educational, and entertaining, but also can put me to sleep because it's just such a soothing thing to hear!

I dunno why I'm like this- HELP-

[mrt]

My dad heard me listening to this and asked what drugs im trying to make...

[brentoctaviano]

So we used 2 acids to extract a single acid...
p r o f i t

[Magnum_Bone]

Alternate title:
Science man messes up his lemonade

[oak_corvum]

what amazes me is this dude's patience- I could never wait for 2 weeks like that