Liquid Metal Embrittlement – Gallium vs. Aluminium

42 thoughts on “Liquid Metal Embrittlement – Gallium vs. Aluminium”

1. Sanding the whole thing by hand prior to filming probarbly not only weakened the surface, maybe enabling long fissures to form more easily. You may also have throughly shaken up the contents, which temporarily increases the pressure, but also spreads around small bubbles that make things much more explosive by suddenly turning into larger bubbles as the can fissures, releasing more CO2 from the liquid. So try sanding and shaking. Also making scratches with a blade seems rather crude. Can you add some abrasive, like corundum sand, into the gallium and then rub it on using a Q-tip or something?

2. When you removed the paint from the exploding can you work hardened the aluminium making it slightly more brittle. You also used a different scratching technique that removed a larger area of oxide.

3. I reckon you might have mixed some powdered menthosin with the gallium ?

4. guess on why the can exploded: if the sanding scratched a line down the height of the can, that line would serve as a defect for the can to split rather than just puncture, much like scratching a line on glass gives it a direction to crack along.

5. I imagine when the can was sanded, the drink inside got shaken around a bit and pressure built up making it explode when the gallium weakened it.

6. i think so tye main reason why can exploded was that the can may be pressurized before when u take it means it may got a jerk and get pressurized and when u put gallium jt gives it a path to blow out through the can

7. Haaa nice

8. When you had the can in your hand, it was tilted so the gas was in the top and the weak part had liquid behind it, making it explode. When laying it flat, only gas will escape.

9. That phenomenon is really amazing.

10. My guess is that because the can that exploded had been sanded and the others hadn’t, the sanding and associated shaking action done by sanding had pressurised the liquid inside, therefore the sanded can had higher pressure and the liquid wanted to escape faster, hence the explosion.

11. So why does this work with gallium and aluminium? Does it work with aluminium and other metals? Aluminium and other metals? Why didn't it make your skin brittle?

12. My guess, for what made the o e can explode, is the handling. Leaving it and letting the gallium work its own way, led to a small fissure. But handling the can, shaking it and raising the pressure made it fail catastrophicly just before the gallium reached the inside, so a bigger gap could tear open through the thin layer of still uncompromised aluminium. Am I making sense?

13. shake the can, perhaps the gassy drink could explode spectacularly.

14. The pressure (co2 gas build up) in that particular can was more the others (probably from being dropped), any weak areas will allow that pressure to be rapidly released over small area and hence explosion

15. Thanks, man. That was ahhmaze ing!!!

16. This one needs a super slow motion recording. Because SCIENCE!

17. My guess is that the scraping of the paint off the can was too aggressive and made a weak spot that ended up exploding, while other cans weren't scraped as much and remained strong.

18. but if gallium can penetrate, why water does not..?

19. That one can probably just has a problem with premature exploderation?

20. Was the can shaken before experiment?

21. If you drink Gallium will you pee liquid metal?

22. Maybe the ink or paint on the cans?

23. Well, it's "completely" safe. Don't go drinking the stuff. It's still a trace heavy metal.

24. Nice, right to the face without eye pro. Probably in your eyes and mouth. You should season your food with cilantro for a few weeks. Poor mans chelation therapy, good for you every once in a while anyway.

25. There appeared to be a pressure difference in the first can, and there my have been a temperature difference as well. Was the can shaken, or was the can heated before the experiment was performed?

26. In 'slowmo' the tear is shown in two stages, first halfway, then the pressure of the coke does the rest of the tearing. You also smeared the gallium out a little bit. Things different on other run: 1) Precondition/storage: shaking? hot lamp? storage? 2) Warmth of your hand at the bottom of the can, non-conductive (no grounding) 3)
    salt on finger? 4) straight tearing indicates weak welding line? 5) Sanding (removing label) of the can?

27. The can in your hand had been disturbed more immediately before application of Gallium, and it was also warmer than the other can. Higher internal pressure could be the explanation for the difference.

28. Was the exploding can shaken prior to adding the gallium? What temperature was the can that exploded vs the cans that didn't? It has to be pressure, the can that exploded ripped open where the other cans simply punctured open.

29. I think you created presure in soda can by shaking before applying liquid gallium. It pops strongly because little hole due to gallium causes it to burst.

30. What was different is the sphere of oxygen influence that surrounded the can. The first experiment was not contained in a box but the room itself and all the rest of the shewn experiments were contained in a smaller area.(the transparent container/box)

31. Was the can shook before and was it the same brand? Also it looked like it split open down the seam of the can maybe placement is key.

32. 4:11 The ink on the unsanded cans was protecting the aluminum against penetration of the gallium.

33. my guess is that the gallium was mid-can. the can was tilted allowing the co2 in it to rise to the top. it weakened below causing the co2 to expand. liquid rushed out first with more force. when you did the experiment again the cans were flat. the point of weakening was exposed to the co2 directly which was far less explosive. but that's my guess not fact ;D

34. Safety glasses please!

35. If you would heat up the aluminium would the gallium evaporate so the aluminium would become hard again?

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37. Why does mercury not do this? Or does it?

38. Is it because of dynamic embrittlement that lead to a tensile force sepearating the grain boundaries and same time ga liquid penetrating between the grain boundaries ?

39. Think the explosion was due to the aspect ratio of the scratch. It seems to me the one that exploded had a more linear scratch. This creates non uniform stress field with stress concentrations at the ends. These stress concentration move ahead of the crack tip allowing it to propagate at close to speed of sound for the material, giving the crack time to grow before the pressure in the can is released. A low aspect ratio scratch will produce a circular hole with no substantial stress concentration allowing the pressure to dissipate without further cracking.

40. Hi! Cool video. We want to do the same experiment for school and wanted to use 20 grams of 99.99% Pure Gallium Metal, will this work as well? Grtz

41. It was the only one you were holding at the time. As you showed, once LME starts you need barely any force to break the metal. The small amount of force from your hand putting pressure on the can to hold it in place was enough to make it "explode"

42. When your parents lock you inside of a basement and the door is aluminum then you can easily get out if you have some gallium on you

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