shaheerniazi - 25-11-2013 at 06:15
I recently did an experiment with the following:
I poured 30ml Hydrogen Peroxide and dropped a pellet of lead in it, as always it started oxidizing, then I took some tablets of Folic acid medicine
and dropped them in it, nothing seemed to happen, then I slowly added 3% Sodium Hypochlorite solution in it, it bubble releasing a gas that seemed to
go to the floor probably oxygen. The real situation is that a green mossy substance formed on the lead pellet after all the hydrogen Peroxide turned
to water, What may that be?
Galinstan - 25-11-2013 at 06:49
What were you trying to achieve from your "experiment" ?
woelen - 25-11-2013 at 07:04
I also moved this thread, because it is not organic chemistry. Your experiment looks like a real beginner's experiment, using stuff in or around the
house.
This kind of experiments is the kind of things, which I also started with when I was 13 or so (well over 30 years ago). I was just curious what would
happen. I even poured some HCl (30%) on a concrete tile and kept a flame near it to test whether the bubbles from it were flammable So, I recognize this type of experimenting.
Nowadays, however, we have internet and have much more information available. I suggest you to try to get more understanding of chemistry first and
try to do experiments with pure chemicals. If you really want to go further, then you'll see that you want chemicals (reagents) for your experiments,
especially purchased for the purpose of doing experiments with them.
You already have three pure chemicals, being lead, bleach and dilute hydrogen peroxide. The bleach and H2O2 react with each other, giving oxygen and
sodium chloride:
NaClO + H2O2 --> NaCl + H2O + O2
I have a question for you. What level of knowledge/education do you have already about chemistry? If you provide us with that kind of information,
then we can adjust our answer to the level of knowledge you have. If you don't understand chemical formulas then even the equation, given above, may
be beyond you. If on the other hand, you know a lot already of salts, ionic compounds and redox reactions, then you'll find that the equation is an
oversimplification of what happens in reality and a more detailed answer may be in place.
Use of tablets with all kinds of fillers and a plethora of ingredients is not useful in experiments. The result is unpredictable and cannot be
explained. Pure chemicals are really needed for meaningful beginner's experiments.
shaheerniazi - 25-11-2013 at 07:36
No problem woelen I realize, there is just a problem that in my country chemicals are mostly unavailable or difficult to get and there are no labs
around here that can assist in these experiments, and my parents don't allow me to do so many experiments and the internet doesn't have so much
information. Anyway I am 13 and I don't know how to balance equations but I do
understand salts, ionic compounds, electrolysis, e.t.c. I just want to know what happened to my lead, you can give a complicated explanation to make me understand.
woelen - 25-11-2013 at 07:47
The lead indeed gets oxidized. But you don't get simple lead oxide, but due to low solubility of lead chloride, you almost certainly also get lead
chloride. Lead chloride is white, lead(IV) oxide is brown when pure, lead(II) oxide can be orange when pure. A mix of these can be anywhere between
bright orange (minion) and brown/orange. I think that the yellow color is due to formation of mainly lead chloride, contaminated with some lead oxide,
possible even a mix of lead(II) and lead(IV) oxide in your mix.
I think that the presence of that tablet does not do very much. Just repeat the experiment with only lead and bleach and with lead, hydrogen peroxide
and bleach. Leave out the tablet.