Turning paint thinner into cherry soda

This video has been sponsored by Opera. A few years ago I turned plastic gloves into grape

soda

and now I want to try

turning

paint

thinner

into

cherry

soda

. This is something I've wanted to try for a while and at first it may seem pointless. Especially because of the horrible taste and toxic

paint

thinner

it has. However, just like grape soda and all the other transformations I've made over the years, it should be possible. This is because many paint thinners contain a solvent called toluene which I assume is good for thinning paints. On its own, toluene isn't very special, but what I find interesting is how similar it is to this chemical called benzaldehyde that is commonly used as a

cherry

flavor.

In my opinion, it's almost surprising how close they are and the only difference is this little extra part here. Other than that, they are basically the same and it's really strange to me that such a small change would make it go from gasoline flavor to fruit flavor. But anyway, in theory, considering how close they are, it should be possible to convert one into the other. Based on this, my goal was to get some paint thinner and extract the toluene, convert it to cherry flavor using chemistry and science, and then use it to make a hopefully tasty cherry soda.

On paper this all seemed relatively simple, but in practice this conversion can be really annoying and I wasn't even sure how to do it. I decided to start anyway and the first thing I needed was some paint thinner. I was a little worried that it would be hard to find a toluene-based one, but apparently they had exactly what I was looking for at my local hardware store. In fact, it was advertised as being entirely toluene, which I was very happy about because it meant I might not have to purify it. At the same time, it said it was of professional quality, which really meant nothing and it was quite possible that it contained some unpleasant impurities.

I was going to have to do a quick test by sucking up a bunch and shooting it in a mixture of sulfuric acid and something called isatin. What I was most worried about were some stinky sulfur impurities and in theory if they were present it should cause it to turn blue. After sitting there for about 10 minutes, there was clearly no blue, which was a very good sign. This told me that the toluene was probably pure enough to use directly and the only thing I needed to do now was get rid of any water it might contain.

Luckily this was pretty easy and I just poured a bunch into a small bottle along with something called 3A molecular sieves that I bought on Amazon. These little beads are capable of selectively drawing out water and all I had to do was let it sit here for about a day. Now that I had my paint thinner practically ready, all I had to do next was figure out how I was going to do it. In theory, there were probably several methods I could have used, but I felt like I only had one real option. This is because one of the methods called the Étard reaction seemed to be the easiest and also used a chemical that turned out to be one of my favorites.

This particular chemical is called cromyl chloride and I actually made this entire tube a few years ago. It was sealed in glass because it is toxic, carcinogenic and highly volatile, but finally it was time to open it. When I felt ready, I poured it into the flask and was greeted with a really nice blood red liquid that was all chromyl chloride. It also released a lot of unpleasant fumes and it was very important not to breathe any of this. But anyway, with everything safely in the flask, I sealed it temporarily and could now start doing some chemistry.

So I went and got a large flask and carefully added 10g of toluene paint thinner. In addition to this, I poured 40 ml of a solvent called DCM which would dilute the toluene. I'll explain why this is very important in a moment. After that, I set up a stir bar and lowered the entire flask onto a large plate that was on top of a stirring plate. With all of this in place, things were looking pretty good and now I just had to add a few things on top of the flask. I quickly set up a thermometer, addition funnel, and condenser column.

At the end of the condenser I also added a small tube filled with calcium chloride that would prevent moisture from entering the installation. With all of this glassware in place, I returned to the addition funnel and poured in 45 ml of DCM. On top of this, what I needed to do next was add my beautiful cromyl chloride, so I walked over to my little jar and carefully opened it. Even more carefully, I was going to have to pour some into a graduated cylinder. The goal here was to measure just over 15 ml and I had to be very careful not to spill anything.

Fortunately, everything went very well and when I was finally done, I took all of this terrifying blood red liquid and poured it into the addition funnel. With everything loaded, things seemed to be going pretty well so far until I noticed the funnel was sucking and leaking cromyl chloride. This was actually a big pain, but I was able to quickly transfer it to a new funnel and washed it with a little more DCM. I also stirred it to make sure it was completely mixed and that was it. Now that that whole crisis had been averted, he was almost ready to start the reaction.

All I had to do was go back to the big plate, add some water and ice and turn on the stirring. This cooling step was actually extremely important and I found many sources saying that if it was not cooled properly it could explode. I even found a first hand account of this on a chemistry forum and I'd be lying if I said this didn't make me a little nervous doing it. However, it was supposed to be fine as long as you kept the temperature below 45°C, which shouldn't be difficult if you did it slowly and carefully.

But anyway at this point it should have been cold enough and I guess it was time to start the reaction. To get things working, all I had to do was slowly open the funnel and some chromyl chloride started dripping into the flask. Almost immediately everything turned brown, which I felt was a good sign. This is because the reaction between chromyl chloride and toluene is supposed to form a complex called Étard complex which is described as brown. The only problem is that the formation of this complex is also supposed to release a lot of heat which, as I mentioned above, could cause an explosion.

That's why it was very important to add things slowly and cool them and it was also very important to dilute everything with DCM. By doing all this, it would be much easier to keep the reaction under control and, in theory, there should be little to no risk of explosion. That being said, I kept adding the cromyl chloride in small spurts and was very careful to keep the temperature low. This ended up taking a few hours and when I was done it didn't seem like much had happened. I still had some dark black liquid and by some procedures I just had to let it stir for a couple more hours.

However, there were others who said it might explode if the stirring was stopped too soon, so I decided to let it stir overnight. When I came back in the morning, luckily it hadn't exploded and what I had to do next was take this whole thing apart. I quickly removed the condenser and took out the funnel and thermometer. I was then able to remove the flask from the stand and what I now had was a nasty mixture of DCM and non-reactive chromyl chloride and, hopefully, a bunch of Étard complex. The only problem was that it looked like the complex had turned into thick sludge and was all stuck to the bottom of the flask.

In many newspapers it was also said that it was not just the reaction and that the complex itself was explosive that made the situation even more difficult. However, I thought the best way to loosen it was to simply hold it over a stirring plate and let the stir bar gently separate it. This actually works surprisingly well and after several minutes I felt like it looked pretty good. So I decided to try pouring it all into a beaker and was happy to see that almost everything transferred. Just to make sure I had it all, I washed the flask a couple of times with some DCM.

Now that everything was safely out of the flask, the next thing he had to do was break down Étard's terrifying complex. However, doing that was supposed to be pretty simple and you just had to get another glass with some water and add something called sodium sulfite. When everything had dissolved, I added a lot more and continued pouring ice on top. I finally had an ice-cold, saturated solution of sodium sulfite and it was time to rush back and grab my reaction mixture. To destroy the complex all I had to do was carefully pour it in very small portions.

It was difficult to tell what was happening, but it was assumed that the complex was reacting with the water. The water should have split it into my hopefully beautiful and surprising cherry flavor and a bunch of nasty chrome junk. The only tricky part here is that benzaldehyde is somewhat sensitive and prone to oxidation and that's why I included a lot of sodium sulfite. All sodium sulfite should react almost immediately with anything that could harm the benzaldehyde and help keep it safe. What was also a very good sign was that from time to time I would get a strong, sweet cherry smell, which told me that I was probably producing benzaldehyde.

But anyway I finally added the last part of my reaction mixture and fortunately the risk of explosion was gone. Then I let it stir for another 20 minutes and now, assuming the benzaldehyde was really there, I had to get it out somehow. However, it wasn't supposed to be very difficult and I just had to pour it all into a large funnel and it quickly started to separate. The bottom layer was all the DCM from the reaction and should have contained most of the benzaldehyde. To separate it I simply open the valve and carefully drain it into a beaker.

I then went back to the water left in the funnel and poured in a bunch of fresh DCM. After that, I covered it and shook it vigorously and did this to try to get out as much of the benzaldehyde as possible. This is because it is much more soluble in DCM and, in theory, if there is any left, it should be extracted quite easily from the water. I then drained this DCM into the same glass as before and just to make sure I got everything out, I did this washing step a few more times. When I was done I was left with a cloudy, disgusting yellow liquid and I was going to have to clean it up a bit.

I transferred it all back into a new separatory funnel and washed it with a little distilled water and then a little saturated salt water. This made it change quite a bit and made the milkiness disappear for the most part and I felt like it looked a lot better. It was still a little cloudy, probably because there was some water and I was going to have to dry it off. I transferred it to a stir plate placed on a stir bar and added a little magnesium sulfate. This would selectively react with whatever water was there and draw it out of the DCM.

After stirring for a while I felt it looked good and filtered it directly into a round bottom flask. I was really hoping to see a nice, clear solution, but it honestly looked the same except maybe a little lighter. Anyway, up to this point things seemed to be going very well and to isolate the benzaldehyde I just had to get rid of the DCM. I started setting it up for a distillation by adding a three-way adapter, a thermometer, and a condenser column. Then I put the rest together and this is what the whole setup looked like. To start I simply turned on the heating blanket and stirred and within a few minutes it was boiling.

It was also picking up nice clean DCM in the glass and now all I had to do was wait. Over the next 20 minutes, the DCM slowly evaporated and I was finally left with a dark oily liquid. In theory, this should have been mostly benzaldehyde, but it looked awfully dirty and if I was planning on eating it, it would have to be at least a little cleaner. I carefully transferred everything to a much smaller flask and figured I just had to do another distillation. This time, however, the setup was going to be a little more complicated because it had to be done under vacuum.

If I did it with air present, the benzaldehyde could be destroyed and this was the setup I prepared. It was very similar to the first, except for this part with three flasks attached, but that will all make sense in a minute. Either way, when I felt it was ready, I just turned on the heat and stirred and waited for it to heat up. Finally it started to boil and the vapors went up the column and I started to collect something in the flask. At this point though everything that came was just side products and other garbage.

However, the temperature of the vapor increased slowly and when it finally reached the boiling point of benzaldehyde, I carefully transferred it to the next flask. Then the temperature stopped increasing and remained solid at the boiling point and this was a very good sign. It meantgood. In addition to this, I also added some diethyl ether and extracted it several times. Then I did the same thing on the other half and combined everything, washed it, dried it, and transferred it all to a flask. After that I did the same distillation as before to get rid of the solvent and I honestly expected it to fail again.

However, at some point it seemed like the volume stopped decreasing and I was actually left with a lot of slightly yellow oil. Apparently adding the foundation had done something magically and the moment I saw this I got very excited. I had no idea how much of this was actually benzaldehyde, but even if it was half, it would be much better than the first recovery. For that one I got a lot less and it was a lot more yellow, but there was probably at least some benzaldehyde, so I decided to combine everything. At this point, things were looking much better than I ever expected and I'm so glad I didn't quit.

The only problem was that all of this was still very impure and definitely not something he wanted to eat. Although to purify it there weren't many options and because of that byproduct of tear gas with such a similar boiling point, I definitely couldn't distill it. In my opinion, this left me with only one real option and that was to try and use sodium bisulfite. I added a small amount to a beaker along with about 15 ml of water. Then I turned on the stirring and when it finally dissolved it was time to add all the oil. Considering when I first did this it was a total fail.

Honestly I was a little scared. It's finally the moment I've been waiting for. However, there was nothing I could do about it and I just threw it all away. I really expected it to solidify almost instantly, but it seemed like it did on the first try. It was just a bunch of oil floating in some water and honestly I started to get really worried. It's not doing anything. However, over the next few minutes it slowly became more and more cloudy and finally formed a small ball. The moment I saw this I knew I had successfully produced benzaldehyde and I was immediately relieved.

It actually worked. But anyway what was forming here was something called a sodium bisulfite-benzaldehyde adduct. At this moment everything was piled up like a ball because the reaction was not over yet. I just let it keep stirring and over the next 20 minutes the ball slowly fell apart. In the end it completely disintegrated and what I had to do next was isolate this entire bisulfite adduct. I quickly poured it all into a filter and turned on the vacuum pump to extract the water. Then I poured in some diethyl ether, except now none of the benzaldehyde would be soluble because it was all trapped as an adduct.

The magic part, though, was that anything other than benzaldehyde was still soluble, especially tear gas, and it would all wash away. Just to make sure it was as clean as possible I washed it several more times with ether and when I was done I was left with a crispy white powder. In theory, this was a nice bunch of pure benzaldehyde adduct, but it didn't smell like cherries and I was going to have to convert it back to benzaldehyde. Fortunately, this was supposed to be fairly easy to do and I only had to add a concentrated solution of soda ash to a small separatory funnel.

Then for the reaction to start I just had to pour in all my powder. By the time it hit the sodium carbonate it should have reacted and the bisulfite adduct was supposed to be falling apart. It was supposed to decompose back into normal sodium bisulfite and release the benzaldehyde. To really make sure everything reacted, I shook it up and added a bunch more foundation and after that I was really excited with what I saw. On top there was clearly a layer of oil forming and this was my nice, pure benzaldehyde. In an ideal world, I could have sucked out the layer of oil from the top, but the water was still very cloudy, which told me that much of it hadn't separated.

To remove it all, I would have to use diethyl ether again and I added a decent amount to it. Then I shook it as usual and when I was done, the difference was pretty obvious. Basically all the benzaldehyde was now in that top layer of ether and I drained the water carefully. Then I did the super lazy method and just poured the drying agent directly into the funnel. Now the only thing left to do was get rid of the ether. Hopefully last time I filtered everything into a small flask. I also chose to skip the distillation entirely and just hooked up my vacuum pump and did the vacuum.

Then I waited patiently and watched the volume slowly decrease and finally, thankfully, it stopped decreasing. What I was left with looked like a very pretty, almost colorless oil and the moment I saw it I was really relieved. I was almost 100% sure it was pure benzaldehyde and the fight was finally over. Just to be absolutely sure it was pure, I had to do something called H-NMR. I took a small sample and loaded it into the machine and this was the result I got. It basically confirmed that it had a nice pure benzaldehyde and now I could try it without worrying that it would kill me instantly.

I was finally able to use it to make my cherry soda, but before doing so I felt like I had to know what pure benzaldehyde tasted like. Okay, not this little pipette tip. Oh, that's a lot worse than I thought. Oh. It is awful. Burn. It's bitter. Awful. Well, that was as bad as I expected because the flavors alone are usually quite unpleasant. That being said, it was finally time to try making an amazing cherry soda and I decided to follow the same base recipe I used for the grape soda. The only difference was that I used even more sugar and added about 65g.

Then on top I added 1.5g of citric acid and 0.1g of ascorbic acid and filled it with plenty of distilled water. Of course, it wouldn't be a true cherry soda without the color, so I added a little green food coloring as well. Then I added a stir stick that was coated in red dye and mixed it together. In the end it looked pretty good and I already had the base of the soda. At this point it was just red sugar water and the last thing I had to add was my tasty benzaldehyde. I wasn't exactly sure how much to use, but according to something I found online it said that fruit juice usually contained 124 ppm and up to around 300.

However, most juices also have many other flavors and considering that only When using benzaldehyde, I decided to use the maximum amount. I quickly scooped out about 0.15 ml and shot it into the soda base. Normally benzaldehydes are almost completely insoluble in water, but I think the citric acid I included acts as an emulsifier and allows it to dissolve. Either way, now I had really artificial cherry juice and all I had to do was carbonate it. To make this, I simply used one of those homemade carbonation things and added a bunch of CO2 gas to it. Then when I finally felt like it looked good, I carefully removed it and was apparently done.

I finally got to try the cherry soda I had worked so hard for and I just hoped it wasn't terrible. Smells good. It smells like a super fake cherry. It's really nice. I'm like in shock. I feel like this is one of the first things I've done that's good. It just tastes good. I think it tastes pretty close to regular cherry soda. I mean, just with bean aldehyde it's not exactly the most complex flavor profile, but it's 90% there just as an objective rating. It's like an eight out of ten, maybe a seven. No, okay, no, an eight against ten.

I could 100% serve this to people and they would have no idea it was made with paint thinner. Well, my paint soda turned out to be a lot better than I thought and I'm still a little surprised that it actually tasted like regular soda. For me this made it even more of a success and I'm glad I didn't completely abandon this project. I still don't really understand why it was so painful, but I think trying to extract the aldehyde with a solvent like many procedures are said to do just doesn't work very well. Either way, I'm happy that I was able to do it in the end and that I was able to turn a horrible combination of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals into a beautiful cherry soda.

Now, on a slightly more personal note, I think some of you may have noticed that I haven't been posting many videos lately. The reason for this is complicated and is a combination of moving workspaces causing shorts to work on many large projects and, honestly, a lack of organization. However, this whole year I've been working on fixing it and I've also been working on over ten videos for this channel. I can't make any promises, but I plan to post at least three more videos after this before the end of the year. There are more videos in six months than I have published in two years.

I also hope to pull off at least one of my really big projects, which has been much more expensive and difficult than I ever imagined. All of this would also not be possible without the support of all my sponsors, so I want to thank them and I also want to thank Opera for sponsoring this video. Opera is an Internet browser that I have been using for a while and honestly, it is the best browser I have ever used. Not only is the entire experience super smooth and enjoyable, but it's also packed with a ton of extra features that I now can't imagine not having.

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That's all. As always, thank you very much to all my followers on Patreon. Everyone who supports me can watch all my new videos at least 24 hours before I post them on YouTube. You will also have access to all the old videos that I had to delete and if you support me with $5 or more you will get your name at the end like you see here.