From Food Preservative to Toxic Solvent ⚗️ #chemistry #science

#chemistry #science #shorts #curious
This demo shows how sodium benzoate, a food preservative, can be decarboxylated with sodium hydroxide to produce benzene. Benzene is an important industrial chemical, used to make styrene (for polystyrene plastics), phenol, detergents, dyes, and pharmaceuticals. Safety note: Benzene is highly toxic and carcinogenic; this experiment should only be performed in a controlled laboratory with proper PPE and ventilation.

Clip source: NileRed — original upload How to make benzene (2015) (Archive.org mirror of YouTube). Transformed under fair use: narration, music, trim (~30s), reframed visuals, educational subtitles.

https://archive.org/details/nilered-youtube-archive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X10VZeQmFDo