Your channel is certainly much more appealing than some other first timers I've seen! I really like what you're going for. I'll start with the branding of the channel. I'm digging the banner and user profile, but it seems a bit basic and doesn't unify the channel. Your banner is the first impression and should give a clear idea of what your channel is all about. If you take a look at my channel you will see my channel is very blue and inviting. People love cute pictures of narwhals!
I also recommend putting your name on your banner prominently, rather than keeping it small and somewhat hard to find on your profile pic, but I DO love that it is made to look like an element. I recommend that you spend some yttalk cash on a banner that is made by someone who has experience with photoshop here on the forums. I would ask for them to incorporate the Dc periodic table element/isotope notation or what have you into the banner, so it is more prominent. Perhaps also incorporate what kinds of videos you make. If you make a list, or somehow indicate in the banner to the viewer what kinds of videos you make than they will feel more motivated to watch your content because they'll know what to expect. As far as thumbnails, I'd recommend making them, but at this point the present thumbnails seem to work okay. You should verify your youtube account so that you can make custom thumbnails. A really great free application for making thumbnails is paint.NET. It's much more versatile and has more capability than paint, but is still really intuitive and easy to use. I, with NO photoshop experience, have used that program for easy thumbnails and outro sequences/slides on my gaming channel (You can search for how to verify your youtube account and find solutions relatively easily). As far as actual content goes, your most recent video seems to be a great starting point! I like what you're doing, but you should explain exactly WHAT you're doing before you start. I know you said that you you are synthesizing hydrogen using hydrochloric acid and whatnot but for more simpleminded people, that won't make any sense. Put it in terms that they can understand, because otherwise you're pretty much just boiling water. I'd also recommend trying more unconventional experiments. Do things that are out of the box and that will catch people's attention. If you play with fire, then get an awesome screenshot of some gnarly flames and make it a thumbnail with some big flashy text that is appealing. I like your narration, and your mic quality seems to be good enough for what you're doing. Also, if you haven't already, create social media profiles for your channel, or at least one. I recommend looking at some of the SEO optimization guides we have on the forums. If you can raise your channel and video rankings than I'm positive you'll do great, because your channel content will improve as you go along. Hope this helped! Lemme know if you have any other questions!
(Also sorry if this is really rambly, I just saw your post and started typing away)