TOP 10 chemical reactions that you can repeat at home

1. The pow­er of bub­bles

Ma­te­ri­als:

• plas­tic bot­tle;

• 150 ml of hot wa­ter;

• yeast;

• sug­ar;

• bal­loon;

• tea­spoon.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Pour three tea­spoons of dry yeast and two tea­spoons of sug­ar into a bot­tle.
2. Slow­ly pour hot wa­ter into the bot­tle.
3. Put the bal­loon over the bot­tle and wait for half an hour.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The liq­uid starts to foam, and the bal­loon in­flates.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Yeast is a mi­cro­scop­ic fun­gus that con­sumes sug­ar and re­leas­es car­bon diox­ide. The nu­mer­ous bub­bles of this gas rise to the sur­face, caus­ing the liq­uid to foam and the bal­loon to in­flate. In chem­istry, this process is called fer­men­ta­tion. This par­tic­u­lar chem­i­cal re­ac­tion in­volves the re­lease of ethyl al­co­hol and car­bon diox­ide:

С₆Н₁₂О₆ → 2С₂Н₅ОН + 2СО₂↑

2. Smoke

Ma­te­ri­als:

• am­mo­nia;

• hy­drochlo­ric acid;

• two strings;

• two sticks.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Tie the sticks to the strings.
2. Low­er one string into the bot­tle of hy­drochlo­ric acid, and the oth­er into the am­mo­nia. Let them soak.
3. Bring the strings close to­geth­er.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

White smoke be­gins to ap­pear be­tween them.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

This ex­per­i­ment re­lies on the for­ma­tion of am­mo­ni­um chlo­ride – the white fumes you see. The hy­drochlo­ric acid re­leas­es gaseous hy­dro­gen chlo­ride (HCl). The hy­dro­gen chlo­ride re­acts with the am­mo­nia (NH₃), and am­mo­ni­um chlo­ride forms as white “smoke”:

HCl + NH₃ = NH₄­Cl

3. Soot (burn­ing)

Ma­te­ri­als and tools:

• can­dle;

• lighter;

• knife.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Light the can­dle.
2. Hold the knife blade in the cen­ter of the flame for sev­er­al sec­onds.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The blade turns black.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Tiny car­bon par­ti­cles, formed as a re­sult of the in­com­plete com­bus­tion of paraf­fin from the can­dle, grad­u­al­ly cov­er the blade:

2С₁₈Н₃₈ (paraf­fin) + 55О₂ → 36СО₂ + 38Н₂О

4. Re­lease of gas

Ma­te­ri­als and equip­ment:

• sodi­um bi­car­bon­ate (bak­ing soda);

• vine­gar;

• wa­ter;

• glass;

• match.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Fill a glass 1/3 full of wa­ter.
2. Add a tea­spoon of bak­ing soda and a lit­tle vine­gar.
3. Light a match and gen­tly low­er it into the glass, not touch­ing the mix­ture.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The match goes out.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Sodi­um bi­car­bon­ate (soda) is a com­pound of the fol­low­ing el­e­ments: sodi­um, hy­dro­gen, car­bon, and oxy­gen.

The re­ac­tion be­tween sodi­um bi­car­bon­ate and vine­gar forms un­sta­ble car­bon­ic acid, which im­me­di­ate­ly de­com­pos­es to wa­ter and car­bon diox­ide. The car­bon diox­ide gas ex­tin­guish­es the flame:

NaH­CO₃ + CH₃­COOH → CH₃­COONa + H₂O + CO₂↑

5. De­struc­tive vine­gar

Ma­te­ri­als and equip­ment:

• eggshell;

• vine­gar;

• glass.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Put an eggshell in a glass.
2. Fill the glass half full of vine­gar. Ex­am­ine the con­tents af­ter 12 hours.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The eggshell dis­solves in the vine­gar.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Vine­gar is an acidic sub­stance. It has the abil­i­ty to break down sev­er­al sub­stances, such as the cal­ci­um car­bon­ate con­tained in the eggshell:

Ca­CO₃ + 2CH₃­COOH → Ca(CH₃­COO)₂ + CO₂↑ + H₂O

6. Col­or ex­per­i­ment with liq­uid am­mo­nia

Ma­te­ri­als:

• am­mo­nia so­lu­tion;

• cop­per coin.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

Take a coin with a dark coat­ing and pour liq­uid am­mo­nia over it.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The so­lu­tion will turn blue, ei­ther im­me­di­ate­ly or af­ter sev­er­al min­utes.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Un­der the in­flu­ence of oxy­gen, cop­per forms a com­plex com­pound with am­mo­nia.

2Cu + 8NH₃ + 2Н₂О + О₂ → 2[Cu(NH₃)₄] (OH)₂

7. Chem­i­cal fire

Ma­te­ri­als:

• potas­si­um per­man­ganate crys­tals;

• glyc­erin;

• wa­ter.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Make a small mound of potas­si­um per­man­ganate crys­tals.
2. Make a hol­low in them and pour a lit­tle glyc­erin into the hol­low.
3. If there is no fire, add one or two drops of wa­ter.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The mix­ture catch­es fire.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Potas­si­um per­man­ganate and glyc­erin en­ter a re­ac­tion ac­com­pa­nied by burn­ing (a flash).

14КМnО₄ + 3С₃Н₅(ОН)₃ → 7K₂­CO₃ + 14M­nO₂ + 12H₂O↑ + 2CO₂↑

8. Vol­cano

Ma­te­ri­als and tools:

• flask;

• wa­ter;

• bak­ing soda;

• cit­ric acid;

• dish­wash­ing liq­uid;

• con­tain­er to mix in­gre­di­ents and spoon.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Fill the flask 2/3 full of wa­ter. Add a few drops of dish­wash­ing liq­uid and five ta­ble­spoons of bak­ing soda.
2. Di­lute cit­ric acid (rec­om­mend­ed 5 ta­ble­spoons per 1.5 glass of wa­ter) in a sep­a­rate con­tain­er.
3. Stir the mix­ture in the flask thor­ough­ly. Slow­ly pour the glass of cit­ric acid into the flask.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

Foam starts to pour out of the flask.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

We get the ef­fect of the foam erupt­ing in the process of a neu­tral­iza­tion re­ac­tion. When in­ter­act­ing with an al­ka­li (soda), the acid neu­tral­izes it, re­leas­ing car­bon diox­ide, which makes the mix­ture foam and forces the mass to flow out of the con­tain­er. The dish­wash­ing liq­uid makes the “lava” bub­ble more strong­ly:

Н₃С₆Н₅О₇ + 3NaH­CO₃ → Na₃C₆H₅O₇ + 3CO₂↑ + 3H₂O

Check here to find out how to make a vol­cano that will glow in the dark.

9. Dis­solv­ing poly­styrene in ace­tone

Ma­te­ri­als:

• bowl;

• small pieces of poly­styrene;

• ace­tone;

• rub­ber gloves.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Put on the gloves.
2. Fill the bowl half full of ace­tone.
3. Low­er the small pieces of poly­styrene into the bowl.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The pieces of poly­styrene dis­ap­pear. Just like this:

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Poly­styrene is ex­pand­ed sty­ro­foam and pri­mar­i­ly con­sists of air. This is why it dis­solves so re­mark­ably in ace­tone.

10. In­vis­i­ble ink

Ma­te­ri­als:

• lemon;

• glass;

• piece of pa­per;

• can­dle;

• wa­ter;

• cot­ton swab.

Ex­per­i­ment pro­ce­dure

1. Squeeze some lemon juice into a glass, add a few drops of wa­ter, and mix well.
2. Dip a cot­ton swab into the so­lu­tion and write on the pa­per with it. Let the pa­per dry.
3. Hold over a burn­ing can­dle.

Ex­per­i­ment re­sults

The text ap­pears.

Sci­en­tif­ic ex­pla­na­tion

Lemon juice con­tains acid, which dark­ens at high tem­per­a­tures.

More ex­per­i­ments you can find in our chem­istry sets for kids.