We use this at work to bond power MOSFETs to copper bus bars. The trick is that the surfaces you want to bond should be tin-plated. You don't need solder film, and the joints are incredibly strong. I have tried breaking them apart by hand and cannot.

@sophiophile

Жыл бұрын

This is actually really useful information! I am building a TMS unit, and want to minimize losses/heating at the connections. Do you just use bath electroplating? Do you use/make those 'electropens' (not sure what the proper name is, I've only used them for jewelry) that have a tip soaked In solution, current source and an alligator clip? (I can't afford to put a $1000 transistor in a bath and ruin it if it's not safe)

@flomojo2u

Жыл бұрын

​@@sophiophileI would be very curious if you found a simple way to electroplate things with tin, as it's a very tricky metal to do so since it always tends to form sharp branches instead of a thin layer. The only ways I know of that don't require melting the tin either involve alloys with zinc or hydrofluoric acid baths, obviously something you'd want to avoid.

@sophiophile

Жыл бұрын

@@flomojo2u I don't have personal experience with this, and am looking for guidance from the OP (who does). I think that tin whiskering during plating might not be an issue, if you are going to follow it up with soldering via the method in the video, since all those whiskers would probably be melted down and form a well-bonded surface? That's just a guess though. Let's wait for the OP!

@benjaminshropshire2900

Жыл бұрын

@@sophiophile I'm also interested in what the OP has to say as well. Regarding whiskers, I wonder if the trick to texture to surface so you get a dense carpet of very fine whiskers and then mechanically press that flat?

@imaginitivity7853

Жыл бұрын

How dangerous is this stuff to store and handle? Seems like you'd want to have only small quantities in any given space

I have talked to the person that makes these in the UK. They make it by metal evaporation in a vacuum chamber. It's pretty expensive stuff.

@pranavvaidya3634

Ай бұрын

Can u share please on this evaporator technique, or uk person details

It's a narrow range of solder thicknesses that this can work in. Al embrittles tin joints so you can't make the solder too thin either. If the surface isn't wetting then you may need to flux to remove the oxidation barrier. That and sometimes the solder you are using just doesn't form the right intermetallic with the surface finish. You probably need to get application engineer support from Indium Corp directly to get this to work, which explains why nanofoil hasn't really taken off despite being around at least 10+ years.

@billn8555

Жыл бұрын

Its the price that limits its adoption. Hard to compete with the cost of reflow or soldering iron.

@samuelleesteelmd1931

Жыл бұрын

Hello Sir, I really enjoy your videos. The material you mention sounds like it is similar to laser phenomena in that the energy state is lower than the “inverted” populated state. All It takes is something to start the cascade of energy flowing to a lower level. I nice heard of a “gravitational laser” that worked like dominoes falling. (Although it was not stimulated emission of light.) This material does release energy-I wonder if it is at the same wavelength??? Hmmm?

I wonder if you could make a version of that by electroplating on the thin alternating layers by alternating the material between two different electrolysis containers.

@JurekOK

Жыл бұрын

maybe, but you would have to somehow stop oxidisation on the way. The way I have seen this being made is by cyclic evaporation of the two metals in a vacuum chamber, balanced with cooling it with ballast.

@AndyHullMcPenguin

Жыл бұрын

Certainly if there is a way of plating thin aluminium layers by electroplating it sounds possible. I wonder if there are any other similar arrangements of metals that might show this behaviour.

@DUKE_of_RAMBLE

Жыл бұрын

🤔 Electro Vapor Deposition, maybe? (or whatever it's called; how metal layers get deposited to plastic, glass, etc, inside a vacuum chamber)

@randacnam7321

11 ай бұрын

@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE Physical Vapor Deposition. The metal or whatever is evaporated in a vacuum and condenses on the substrate.

@DUKE_of_RAMBLE

11 ай бұрын

@@randacnam7321 That. Yes. Thank you!

What an interesting material. That stuff really shows how reactive some metals are when combined. Would love to see some more experiments with it!

@jamgreg

Жыл бұрын

​@@sometimesleela5947 Solves our problem of how to bond MOSFETs directly to copper bus bars.

@leovalenzuela8368

Жыл бұрын

Fascinating!

@mudfossiluniversity

Жыл бұрын

There appears to be an element of unbalanced energies in the foil and could be dark matter related. You will see the same effect using light. We found dark matter exactly as CERN now agrees...it is literally 1/2 of light. This vid explains and shows dark matter. kzread.info/dash/bejne/iaiYyKSCpcmdcrA.html

@lazyman114

11 ай бұрын

I've seen a lot of slow-motion footage before and I've never seen anything as cool as 0:30

Seeing a HUGE sheet of this, or roll that is unrolled, would make for an AMAZING episode on one of those Slow Motion Channels!

@oliverer3

Жыл бұрын

Sounds scary, this seems close to an explosive so handling a large sheet does not seem fun

@user255

Жыл бұрын

@@oliverer3 You are wrong. Explosions are fun.

@ericlotze7724

Жыл бұрын

@@oliverer3 Valid Point Though, USCSB had a video specifically on how scale can impact the safety of a reaction. Definitely would need to consult experts and maybe even do it in a special location!

@ericlotze7724

Жыл бұрын

*Also it may end up being expensive as hell*

@jamgreg

Жыл бұрын

You can order letter-paper sized sheets. The idea being that you would die-cut the shapes you need. So the possibility is there.

I wonder if ESD static discharge is enough to set it off ... would be interesting to see a video where you tried

@jamgreg

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it is! I have done it. Impact from sharp objects also works, but not reliably.

@WalterSamuels

8 ай бұрын

What about high frequency vibration?@@jamgreg

Ben, I am very local to you and am a goldsmith. I've got many tools in my workshop that I feel would be very useful to many of your projects. Some of these tools are a rolling mill (would have been useful in today's video) and a powerful ND-YAG 80-joule laser welder that is normally used to weld micro scale for repairing things that are heat sensitive and casting equipment for lost wax casting. My friend recently contacted you regarding some holographic and interferometry equipment I wanted to donate to you, however, you simply don't have space for it. I get it, I have a fairly large workshop, and still, I have run out of space. my shop is in Albany CA, I offer you free use of it and any tools I own, and do feel I can occasionally be of great help to some of your projects. bye bye and maybe you will read this :)

I look forward to posts from this channel more than any others by a long shot, with few exceptions outside of Tech Ingredients and a few machining channels I watch.

@Taygetea

Жыл бұрын

we're all watching the same stuff you know. one big audience all consuming the same maker/science channels 😅

This is sick! I’d love to see you try making some in your sputtering chamber. I bet if you had one sputter gun for each metal you could just rotate a stage between them at a prescribed time interval and somewhat automate the production

@tissuepaper9962

Жыл бұрын

could also just set both of them going and start rotating the specimen very slowly, building up the layers in a helix.

@theafro

Жыл бұрын

you'd have to make the foil layers seperately, the chamber might be a bit too energetic for the complete composite to hang around for very long!

@taiconan8857

Жыл бұрын

@@theafro Inclined to agree, to reach sputtering level energy you have active plasma in the chamber. May not *always* trigger if the proper conditions were met, but I think it's important to expect it in this instance. Nice catch!(was considering trying some myself and this has likely just saved me some headache.)

@cylosgarage

Жыл бұрын

@@theafro oooo yea that’s a tricky one to get around

@11macedonian

Жыл бұрын

I bet you could make it with a sheet metal roller. Just start with the aluminum layer 33% thicker than the nickel and just rol it out, cut it and stack it and then roll it out. Repeat until you have the desired number of layers and then roll it out until you have it thin enough

Nice one Ben! It's like 'sheet thermite' (without the gassing). 👍😎

I love the mug! That analogy works on so many levels.

I get hyped every time you post a piece of content Ben. If memory serves you’re still working at verily? I can’t imagine trying to balance my brain between the two. Kudos and keep doing what you’re doing my guy 🤛

the best part of this channel is that everything here is INDUCTRIAL level and he presents like a secondary school level of difficulty level .............. excellent content

Holy crap that's incredible! how is it made? i had no idea something like that existed. But now i've seen it in action, it feels like something super obvious that i should have known. Amazing stuff. Are there special procedures to cut it? i'd imagine you wouldn't want the roll/sheet to go off before you could use it.

@AppliedScience

Жыл бұрын

I think it's made by sputtering Al and Ni alternately, but I'm not sure if the process is reel-to-reel or batch -- either way very expensive! One patent claimed it can be made by physically rolling out the metal and folding it repeatedly. The tech sheet claims it can be cut with a laser with different parameters since a laser is also recommended for initiation!

@JurekOK

Жыл бұрын

It is made by evaporation of metals in a vacuum chamber, onto a sacrificial substrate. No need for a sputtering gun, but it needs a very good vacuum. In any case, it is still very expensive. Moreover, low demand means that it is effectively hand-made (that is, no mass production) for each tiny batch.

@dandan-gf4jk

Жыл бұрын

​@@AppliedScience You should test whenever it can be initiated with mechanical shock like a hammer blow, might yield interesting results 😊

@Broken_Yugo

Жыл бұрын

I would think you'd want very sharp tools to disturb the material stack as little as possible.

@aarons3166

Жыл бұрын

@@AppliedScience look into "arrested reactive milling", it's another way to make this metastable material.

soldering a joint that big would be impossible with an iron so the reactive foil is actually super impressive it made it stick at all

Beautiful high speed footage

kind of reminds me of thermite, except without the exchange of oxygen. i wonder if this would work with aluminum and nickel powder?

@BioTechproject27

Жыл бұрын

definitely, if there is no oxide (or any other compound for that matter) layer. Many materials do that already, it's not like the concept is new. For example mercury and sodium form an alloy (amalgam) and release a lot of energy. Most others release much less though.

As a ground plane in PCBs, this'd be neat for self-destructing electronics, although soldering it up without setting it off would be tricky.

@jamgreg

Жыл бұрын

It would be impossible to build and handle such a PCB outside of a lab, I think. Nanofoil is very touchy stuff. It is sensitive to ESD and mechanical shock.

Try initiating the reaction by squeezing it real hard and then adding a bit more by striking it with a small hammer. This might enable it to initiate in multiple points at once, creating an even faster heat pulse.

Couldn't be any simpler could it? That's amazing. Never heard of this before.

Your process for making flat solider was on point. Thought it was a brilliant cheap solution.

5:34 for something as large as that (high thermal mass) preheating all parts to say 100C or 120C will help. As an experienced "big" PCB reworker, the bond had all the visuals of a way-too-cold joint. On smaller parts (1-2% of the mass you used ) it would have probably been a much better bond. Heck even a domestic hairdyer may help (I use one as a preheater to do PCB work on large PCBs and large components with lead-free solder such as power transformers, large RF screens and stripline filters)

@jamgreg

Жыл бұрын

The magic of nanofoil, when done properly, is that it can effectively bond large thermal masses at room temperature, without flux or special atmosphere. This makes it possible for an engineering shop, rather than an EMS or rework shop, to do the work.

Awesome! I don't recall ever seeing this material or even property before. Very awesome!

Ben + flammable solid = interesting video! That's a really unique way to provide the heat source for soldering.

Nity as always ! Yes, use it in a project soon.

I need that coffee mug in my life.

Fascinating stuff, thank you for stretching my horizon with every video!

I never regret the patreon deduction as it means I get to see another excellent video by you.

This is super stuff AS. Look forward to try this stuff myself. Nice work.

You are a truly remarkable scientist. I work in a scientific enviroment for 8 years now and even in face of all the theoretical competence only a few are able to demonstrate and explain their work in a language that is very understandable and informative. This extra effort makes a good scientist in my book. 👍

Yet another piece of knowledge to show how much I struggle to understand thermodynamics.

I always enjoy your subjects and videos. I'm just an ol Tennessee mountain hilbilly, but I always learn a new thing or two each time you upload. Thank you.

Your videos almost always introduce me ro something ive never heard of.

Alright that might be one of the coolest things ever filmed on a kronos. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for showing off this niche soldering tech, good to have in the bag of tricks.

Looks like something a machine could do during a manufacturing process;. Great video, that slo-mo really helps.

Never knew something like that even existed!!! You have the most interesting experiments.

That’s a really nice mug.

Love the capacitor mug in the background!

I imagine if we can make a grid/mesh/brush-shape from the heating material, experimenting with surface area, we can get interesting results

Fascinating material!

This is so cool! Also i love that capacitor mug!

We need more science guys like you. Bravo!

Thank you! This is incredibly useful. I didn't know of such material. This would definitely be useful for transducer/signal source mounts without destroying parts with extended heat.

You're so cute when you show us awesome products!

Really cool application👍

So wait, this material is literally just super-thin laminations of nickel and aluminum? That's wild.

@JurekOK

Жыл бұрын

more like an evaporated nickel coating over an evaporated alu coating, carefully repeated 512 times over

Wow, this is yet another glimpse into the future of manufacturing, like ultraviolet welding, and sonic welding.

Thanks for sharing this fascinating material!

Like a mini Higgs mechanism sombrero! So cool. You do the best science vids on the whole website 😊

Love the can capacitor coffee mug !!

You should be able to use this to solder a heatsink to a CPU to maximize thermal coupling, improving the thermal dissipation, thus allowing one to overclock for higher performance.

@pizzablender

Жыл бұрын

But that works fine with other metals that just have a low melting point.

@kaelandin

11 ай бұрын

I feel like there’d be a lot of bubbles from the heated air.

always enjoy your videos

Indium corp. has a half-decent YT-channel too, where they showcase all these fancy nanolayer-materials. Another "hidden gem" is nickel-plated (electroformed) bellows made by one "Servometer" co. They use a sacrificial aluminium (turned) mandrel, deposit nickel on it, then melt away the core. Amazing properties in the thin and isotropic nickel-layer deposited thusly ..

That’s really cool. Thanks for sharing!

"This message will self destruct in 10 seconds."

Thanks for the videos!

Really enjoyed the video

Holy crap, that coffee mug is awesome

I didn't expect it to be such a quick video. Knowing this channel I woul've thought you'd try to make it yourself.

Great video, interesting material

Thank you, I have found it quite interesting

Really cool! Thanks for sharing!

Quite a lot of light, reminds of old flash bulbs

**I WANT THAT LIQUIDENERGY MUG RIGHT NOW** It would be even funnier if it had the capacity be the actual amount of fluid it holds!

Great as always!

This is extremely fascinating!!

Fascinating -thanks.

Palladium/Aluminum wollaston process wire is impressive, if I remember correctly. The heat of solution of these two metals is enormous.

I believe there is an explosive smokeless delay fuse that works in a similar fashion. I know it uses a wire passed through a dissimilar metal tube. One of the metals is Palladium the other is aluminium or a silver copper mix. When heated at one end,the metals, melt, forming an aloy, releasing considerable amounts of heat. The advantage is ignition without the release of any smoke or gas. I think it is sold under the trade name pyrofuze.

Just after this material was invented, and I would swear they were using aluminum-titanium layers at that time, I saw a company chemist demonstrated it at a chemical industry convention. Item 1, he had brought the material to the convention in his personal luggage on an airplane (gulp). And 2, a potential app was using it to glue ceramic armor to armor plate for tanks. Funny stuff.

@Prophes0r

Жыл бұрын

I don't see the problem with bringing this on a plane. It isn't going to self initiate. Despite it being "hot" and "reacting fast", it is signifigantly less dangerous to the plane than plenty of other benign stuff we carry all the time.

@jamgreg

Жыл бұрын

It has to be well-packaged. Simply snapping a corner off can sometimes initiate the reaction.

Very cool! Would be interesting to see them stacked.

That is indeed, a very cool material

Hmm, love stuff like this, always gets me thinking. If its just heat needed, will the reaction start with a hard hit from a ball peen hammer? or does that mess with the material layers before they have a chance to start reacting?

That's really wild. It's like a corner case in physics.

very interesting material

yay, my favorite notification! love you Ben!

I discovered something similar. I own a heat treating company any while processing Titanimum I noticed a weird in phenomenon. I heated the Titanimum to about 1600° and water quenched. Then back home to the oven and then as it was heating all the sudden a real bright spot started at an edge that was brighter then the black body color of the oven. This bright spot traveled through the entire disk of Titanimum quickly. Now the entire dial was glowing much brighter then the actual inside of the oven. This did not happen the first time I heated it. Don’t know what caused it but it was VERY noticeable and maybe had to do with the crystal structure changing. It was grade 2 Titanimum disks that where about .02” thick.

@steveharper2857

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like your titanium has just oxidised from a catalyst that had migrated onto the disc surface.

At 2:11, you can see that the reaction starts at one electrode. This reminds me of welding talk, where the polarity of the electrode is said to increase or decrease the "heat" in the weld.

interesting it was, indeed, thanks as always!!!

that's awesome it kind of works the in the same manner as a stud welder, an instant burst of heat that does not really heat the bulk material much at all.

looks like a good candidate for Sci-Fi self heating ramen.

A similar alloy reaction was used to make smokeless delay fuses for explosives. The fuses were made from a pair of thin concentric wires made of two different metals. When ignited, the two metals combined to form an alloy that liberated considerable heat in the process. As no smoke, or gas, is generated in the reaction, the fuse can be completely enclosed, it also does not require oxygen.

@stuartrobertson331

Жыл бұрын

I think these nano foils still have a similar application.

came from nilered thank you for supporting him

interesting material, both aluminum and nickel work well to very thin plating so you could be able to plate both in alternating processes

That's the spiciest puff pastry dough I've ever seen! I bet manufacturing this stuff is a little spooky.

seems like a useful material for non-explosive actuators

the biggest detriment to soldering is surface oxidation, also in preparing your thin piece of solder if you didn't use enough flux or kept it molten to long it may have become oxidized

A significant charge stored in this capacitor mug, ~3.5 gigajoules (821 mega calories). Now I see the source of the energy for all this magnificent things you are doing ..

Ben: As usual you kicked ass with this!!

Seems like this would make an excellent ignition source for rocketry. I'm specifically thinking of so-called "solid-state rockets" where the thrust comes from propellent stored in wells on the surface of a block. Each well is able to be individually triggered by controlling hardware. They're intended for use in satellite station-keeping in situations where other methods aren't viable due to mission length or other factors.

@kaelandin

11 ай бұрын

Yes! This would probably solve my ignition source conundrum I’ve been stuck on.

They must have to be super careful in the factory where they make it!

Hope to see it in a project

I'm surprised you didn't prep the surfaces with sanding and flux.

I wonder if it would work better with solder paste. You could either dispense it or vary the pressure to change the layer thickness.

I love that coffee cup. I want it.

Very nice video. I wonder what other application such material can help with.

Great video! Question: doesn't the layer of resulting compound of the aluminum and nickel reaction weaken or prevent a good solder joint?

I heard something similar being used in ETRONX cartridges as an igniter instead of conventional ammo primer. There it was referred to as just "heating foil element", so i didn't knew what exactly it was, but I bet it was this thing.