CO2AtmosphereGuy
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What is the coolest experiment you've tried/completed?
I'm trying to overcome my chemophobia and learn about chemistry, but there doesn't seem to be many exciting experiments for the novice. What keeps you
interested in your home lab? What excites you about chemistry? What's the coolest thing you've done? Your answer doesn't have to be a beginner's level
experiment.
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Pyro
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For me it's just the most dangrous things, (yes, I am an adrenaline junkie  ) such
as P4 and Br2.
for A beginner I suggest reading woelen's site:
http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/index.html
for a beginner the best things are experiments that involve color change, chemical chamelion,...
all above information is intellectual property of Pyro.  |
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WGTR
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I electrolyzed a gram of sodium metal right into a sealed light bulb.
I picked out an incandescent bulb that was under a vacuum (one where the filament is a long,
straight or single spiral tungsten wire; and not a double-spiral) like this:
The filament when energized became a thermionic emitter, and as such was the cathode. For
best results the end of the filament closest to the tip of the bulb was chosen for the (-) connection.
The higher the wattage of the bulb the better, as the filament is carrying not only heater current,
but cathode current as well. A sacrificial graphite rod was the anode, and the bath was
barely-molten pure NaNO3. Connections were soldered to the base of the light bulb, and it
was suspended upside-down in the molten bath. With 200V DC from cathode to anode, it wasn't
long before a silvery mirror began to form in the top part of the tube. After several hours quite
a bit of sodium had formed around the base of the bulb, and cool air was passed constantly
across its surface in an attempt to keep the metal solidified.
After several hours the vapor pressure of the sodium crept upward, until "BINK!" The
current shot upward, the pure yellow glow of the sodium flare lit up the room.
The sodium began to melt in the tube, and suddenly a blob of it ran down to the tip of the bulb.
When this happened the bulb abruptly cracked, sucking in molten NaNO3. A lot of the
product was thus lost, but not completely since the salt solidified in the bulb quickly,
and its decomposition with sodium filled the tube with nitrogen gas, creating positive pressure
in the bulb.
Here is a picture of one that I did on a smaller scale, using a 7W "night light" bulb:
The sodium in there will stay bright and shiny as long as the vacuum in the bulb lasts.
I noticed that the stem inside the bulb turned black. This is probably silicon that was reduced
out of the glass by the sodium vapors. This part of the bulb would be quite hot, due to its thermally
isolated position. The outer envelope of the bulb was faintly darkened after the experiment.
[Edited on 14-11-2013 by WGTR]
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nezza
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I'm with Pyro. The preparation of bromine and the preparation and purification of white phosphorus from red phosphorus starting material. Also
recently the preparation of various ethylene diamine perchlorate complexes (Thanks Woelen).
At a beginner level many interesting double decomposition reactions. Silver nitrate plus Ferrous sulphate is nice - you get lovely silver crystals in
an equilibrium reaction.
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Random
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Smells are quite exciting and maillard reactios are usually harmless. Mixing various amino acids with different sugars and heating will produce
different tasty smells. Proteins can be used in place of amino acid.
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BobD1001
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Some of the most fun and exciting experiments I have done include Methyl Salicylate (smells great!), Nitrocellulose (magicians flash cotton), Bromine,
isolating Boron from Boric Acid, and Making elemental Potassium. Looking into methods to produce elemental Sodium next for my element display.
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Agricola
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Quote: Originally posted by CO2AtmosphereGuy  | | I'm trying to overcome my chemophobia and learn about chemistry, but there doesn't seem to be many exciting experiments for the novice. What keeps you
interested in your home lab? What excites you about chemistry? What's the coolest thing you've done? Your answer doesn't have to be a beginner's level
experiment. |
Preparation of chloroform from bleaching powder or sodium hypochlorite and acetone or alcohol is very nice plus the product can be used in other
experiments such as preparation of 1,1,1-trichloro-2-methyl-2-propanol and extraction of caffeine from coffee or other sources.
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Dr.Bob
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I loved doing chemoluminescence experiments, such as making and oxidizing Luminol with and the bisphenyloxyoxalates with H2O2 and other oxidants. I
also liked making rocket engines and other pyrotechnics, although I did quickly learn that they are best done outside wen you are starting to protect
the house from fire, smoke, spills, and screaming parents. Colored fire, smoke, spontaneous combustion and other tricks are fun.
I even volunteered to make a "volcano" for a science class. The teacher thought I was being meladramatic when I said it had to be "erupted" outside,
but once she saw it erupt, I think she was surprized by how much fire can come out of a students volcano model. I covered most of the school in
smoke (from the outside, fortunately), having more than a pound of various pyro compositions in my tin can built into the top of the volcano. Now, I
would be arrested for building a weapon of mass destruction...
I also remember freezing mercury onto a stick with LN2 in middle school to make a hammer which could drive nails. One of my friends built a dye
laser in high school, that was pretty cool. But for some reason it did not attract girls as well as I would have thought. 
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Brain&Force
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I don't have much chemistry experience, but here goes. It's a simple list...
Mixing potassium permanganate with homemade lemonade. It's like the chemical chameleon, but ends up with the dark purple disappearing and becoming
clear. (Just don't drink the lemonade afterwards.)
Transition metal acetate synthesis can end up with all sorts of different colors. I particularly like copper(II) acetate's color.
Several extreme color-shifting complexations, such as cobalt(II) to tetrachlorocobaltate(II) and pretty much all chromium(III) complexations. I
haven't tried the tris(ethylenediamine)nickel(II) complexation, but I will as soon as I can.
The Winkler test for oxygen goes through a variety of color changes.
Burning magnesium is fun, but burning zinc powder ends up with a green flame. I've seen a video of ytterbium burning green as well.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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Galinstan
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A good source of relatively easy and interesting experiments, that will teach you the basics of experimenting is to get your hands on an undergraduate
lab manual, as a lot of the experiments described within are quite simple and will teach some basic chemical principle e.g coordination chemistry
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mayko
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My most involved project thusfar was a route to phosphorus from sodium phosphate via thermal decomposition of phosphine. I have only had the nerve to
run it once, and it made my hair stand on end.
The process started with a thermite-style reaction between magnesium and sodium phosphate to form sodium phosphide. This was put in a 3-neck round
bottom flask. This was connected to a Pyrex glass tube (a former chromatography column) with the far end packed with dry ice. A tube led off into a
container of sodium hypochlorite solution. The apparatus was flushed with CO2 by connecting a separatory funnel with dry ice in it to the RBF. A weak
HCl solution was added to the phosphide to produce phosphine. The apparatus was kept at positive pressure with dry ice in the sep funnel; this pushed
the phosphine through. The glass tube was heated with a torch on the near end. The reasoning was that the generated phosphine would decay with heat
and phosphorus would condense on the dry ice. It didn't work, but I haven't ruled it out as a procedure yet.
al-khemie is not a terrorist organization
"Chemicals, chemicals... I need chemicals!" - George Hayduke
"Wubbalubba dub-dub!" - Rick Sanchez
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BlackDragon2712
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I love working with liquids and crystals. I think that one of the best feelings in a lab is when you see crystals forming because it is an indication
that you made something good! Also my passion is into organic chemistry. Such an enormous world of different chemicals!! If you ask me what experiment
I love the most I think that that is a difficult question to answer, at least for me because every experiment has something different. Remember that
you’ll never get the same results in an experiment even if you do the exact thing over an over again, always something will change and I think that
that is what makes me love chemistry the fact that in your blackboard may be some reaction planned but then in your lab another totally different
reaction occurs.
Damn we got excited here! hahahahaha!
I started doing copper chemistry. try it out! it's pretty safe and it'll give you some very good time (considering the easiness that copper has to
form complexes) Also what about some halogenation of alcohols to begin into organic chemistry? the first I made was iodo ethane, gosh I can still
remember that ether like odor! also phenol production from salicilyc acid is very interesting and easy to do, and safe if you planned it in a right
way! But that may be for when you get a little more advanced in chemistry. Try out the haloform reaction! it's very, very interesting.
[Edited on 06/11/2013 by BlackDragon2712]
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bfesser
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Life.
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confused
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i dont think that experiment has come to its completion yet
INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
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