Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Aesthetically pleasing chemical reactions

cnidocyte - 22-7-2010 at 12:37

Now that I've got a fire proof fume hood set up I'm trying to think of relatively safe, cool looking chemical reactions I can show people. Preferably reactions involving OTC chemicals. I know the alkali metals in water look pretty cool. A flaming ball of lithium rolling around the surface of a beaker of water is sure to fascinate some people but thats all I can really think of at the moment.

chemoleo - 22-7-2010 at 12:47

Please browse the forums, I recall several threads on this.
Search for demonstration , chemistry for kids, pyrotechnics, pharaoh snake etc. There'll be ideas in there to go further! I think there's little need to open yet another thread so please continue posting your own ideas etc in there. cheers.

The WiZard is In - 23-7-2010 at 06:18

Quote: Originally posted by cnidocyte  
Now that I've got a fire proof fume hood set up I'm trying to think of relatively safe, cool looking chemical reactions I can show people. Preferably reactions involving OTC chemicals. I know the alkali metals in water look pretty cool. A flaming ball of lithium rolling around the surface of a beaker of water is sure to fascinate some people but thats all I can really think of at the moment.


There are being any number of Chemical Magic books.
Run it through Amazon.com or same such.

I have yet to see this book :

Chemical Magic from the Grocery Store
Andy Sae


Speaking of good looking reactions —

A Reaction of Potassium Ferrocyanide.
A. Gutbier. Z. anorg. Chem., 1904, 41, 61-62.
In:—The Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry.
23 [18] 915. September 30, 1904.

A solution of potassium ferrocyanide, when warmed with a freshly prepared
solution of phenylhydrazine, acquired a brownish-red colour, changing to bright
red and then to deep red, and finally became suddenly colourless, with the
separation of a yellowish-green precipitate and with vigorous evolution of
hydrocyanic acid and nitrogen. The mixture was now distilled with steam ; a dark-
coloured oil insoluble in caustic soda solution, distilled over, whilst a greenish-
blue residue was left, below a layer of a violet-coloured liquid. The volatile oil,
after purification, solidified, when cooled by a freezing mixture, to a bright red
mass, from which, on a earthenware plate, a yellow oil ran off, whilst a bright red
mass, melting about 45o C., remained behind. The yellow oil, when treated with
strong sulphuric acid, was coloured first green and then brown, with separation of
a solid, apparently crystalline mass.

----------
Well …. I confess to not knowing just what the reactions involved are, and why
Herr Gutbier cooked them up! Me thinks a check of the original source would
prove productive.

However, remembering that some ferrocyanide compounds especially iron ones
are strongly coloured, e.g., “Prussian and Milori Blue”, perhaps Herr Gutbier was
looking for new pigments.

The Chemistry of Ferrocyanides. American Cyanamid Co. 1953. Cites this paper
under Table XV, Ferrocyanides of Miscellaneous Organic Bases.

Hydrazine, phenyl-

Also same author ( Ref. 309.) Chem Cent. 1904, II, 892

mr.crow - 23-7-2010 at 09:02

Resubliming iodine was aesthetically pleasing. The boiling liquid iodine and purple gas was pretty amazing.