Smelling Isocyanides: The REAL Stinkiest Chemicals On Earth (WAY Worse Than Thioacetone)

A moment of silence for Matt's nose.

Crafts chemical weapon in public. Drops it on the ground. Refuses to elaborate.

The intro makes me want a video of Nilered’s cameraman reacting to all these chemicals 😂

"Normally, it would be done with a mixture of tin and hydrochloric acid, but sadly, I’m not normal - and I didn’t have any tin."

Kinda interesting how the impetus for making this was to understand what it smells like, since all sources reported it only as "indescribable"... Only to discover that it's smell is, in fact, indescribable.

I think context has a big role in how awful something smells. I remember as a kid, sitting in class and smelling the worst fart I'd ever smelled. It turned out to be one of those glass "stink bomb" ampoules, and breaking one and smelling it again later, not having nearly the same reaction. It wouldn't be ethical, but I think the best reactions would be from randos who have no idea what is going on or where the smell came from. Anyway, the worst thing I've ever smelled, was a bucket full of fish parts and pork trimmings that a coworker had mistakenly lidded and was left in an unused building for several months. We popped the lid thinking it was a bucket of semolina and every single one of us threw up.

Most people can honestly call a smell indescribable and it's no more an exaggeration than people commonly make in casual speech. Most people don't talk about smells in a lot of detail, and lack the vocabulary when they attempt to do so. If I needed to talk about smells with precision, first I would have to smell enough things to serve as points of reference. Presumably this is what people do when they actually need to discriminate smells for a professional purpose. Such as a chemistry youtube channel :P

Normally when YouTubers involve their parents in stuff I find it a bit cringe, but your dad is really wholesome and it's clear that he's actually interested in this kind if stuff beyond the usual level of "supporting your kid's hobby.

I worked with tert-butyl isocyanide in undergrad. It….has the most IMPOSSIBLE to explain smell. It was definitely unpleasant, but I’d say that thiols smell worse to me. The best description i can give for its scent is: “If you took the juice that falls out of a garbage bag, microwaved it with a rubber tire until the tire burned, and then bubbled chlorine through it.” It truly smelled awful, but in a way I truly CANNOT accurately describe.

I glad I found you through Nile Red, he’s great but his nose has been throughly destroyed by chemicals and I sincerely doubt his judgment on stink.

NileRed: Tentatively takes small cautious sniff of nastiness, plays up reaction. LabCoatz: Huffs nastiness like a crackhead, has to downplay reaction and resist the urge to puke. Truly a trailblazer.

I recognize that white box your benzene was in. Backyard science 2000 recently hooked me up with a free hotplate since mine died, some wp, and sodium borohydride. Great guy, I've got to get going making videos.

I love how all you online chemists help each other out despite taking the micky out of each other and possibly be a bit competitive. It's so fun to watch. Cheers !

CaCl2 can react with amines, so thats probably why it didn’t work well to dry the aniline. Great video by the way! You should do some synthesis of perfumery chemicals for future videos. Also its good for clickbait titles “Turning lice remover into cherry flavor???” for benzyl alcohol —> benzaldehyde for example.

I love how despite being quite professional, this has a vibe of hillbilly chemistry

You're crazy for doing chemistry in the back of your car. People are going to think you're the next Walter White.

My poor roommate just received my delivery of n butyl isocyanide because I'm out of state right now. He said it was absolutely vile, made his stomach turn, and smells like "maybe overheated rusted tar aluminum". It's still in the envelope. He literally had to find a place outside to keep it

Now you've got to do the same but with the nicest smelling chemicals you can synthesize. That would be a nice counterpoint to this saga of videos!!! Esters, long chain aldehydes, terpenes or something like that. Great videos!

Entertaining video, give your old man a medal for putting up with your stinky stuff.

Hes just collecting bad smells like infinity stones now