Growing Crystals And Making a Mirror with Gallium.

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• published: 20 Jul 2015
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Greetings all. Today I'll talk to you about one unusual element - gallium. Gallium is a fusible metal which is in the Group 3 of elements of the Periodic System. This metal was discovered by a German scientist and was named in honor of France, and more precisely, its Latin name which is Gaul. Let's examine some of the properties of the metal. For this I’ll put a few beads of gallium on my hand. The melting point of gallium is 29.8 degrees Celsius. Since the human body temperature is 36.6 degrees, the gallium will just melt right in my hand. However, melting does not occur immediately as gallium previously was at the room temperature. I’m trying as hard as possible to press the pieces of gallium into the hand, so they would melt faster. After some time gallium does melt and we finally see a very beautiful phenomenon - the liquid metal directly in our hands! To melt the remaining gallium beads I pour them into the hot water. Gallium simply melts faster in there. Molten gallium can be poured into a syringe for easy transportation and carrying out experiments. I’m trying to release as much gallium as possible into my hand from the syringe. It’s a very strange feeling when you hold the liquid metal in your hand. And unlike mercury gallium is not toxic. However, gallium does have one big disadvantage, it is just very dirty. Since gallium has a low surface tension it moistens many surfaces. If you put a drop of gallium in the glass jar and shake it, you can get a beautiful gallium mirror. Also, gallium may create a supersaturated solution. Or to simply put it, it often does not harden when cooled down below 30 degrees. This property can be used for growing crystals of gallium. To do this, I have cooled down gallium to the room temperature. Next I’m throwing a piece of solid gallium into the liquid one and waiting about 10 minutes. After that the metal turns into a small crystal. I've made a few of these. As you can see, they are all very beautiful. Also, if you dip such crystal in warm water, it is possible to hear a so-called "singing metal." With the rapid melting of gallium crystals its structure collapses and instead we get a sound. Gallium is now mainly used in electronics. LEDs and semiconductors are made based on it. The compounds of gallium can now be find inside of any mobile phone. You can learn more about the other interesting properties of gallium from my later videos. Thank you for watching. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thoisoi2 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Thoisoi?ty=h Music: http://audiomicro.com