Exothermic reaction

They say that ev­ery chemist should be just as good at cook­ing as they are at con­duct­ing ex­per­i­ments. Af­ter all, chemists pay a lot of at­ten­tion to de­tails, and this trait also comes in handy in the kitchen. In this hot and in­ter­est­ing ex­per­i­ment, we will en­counter the con­cept of the exother­mic re­ac­tion.

Reagents and equip­ment:

• potas­si­um ox­ide;
• wa­ter;
• eggs;
• a heat-re­sis­tant chem­i­cal ves­sel;
• a lid.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

In a heat-re­sis­tant glass, sprin­kle a lay­er of potas­si­um ox­ide of a thick­ness of 2-3 cm, place eggs on top and then add an­oth­er lay­er of potas­si­um ox­ide of a thick­ness of 5 cm. Add wa­ter and cov­er with a lid.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

Exother­mic re­ac­tions are re­ac­tions which take place with re­lease of heat into the sur­round­ing en­vi­ron­ment. What can these facts tell us? With the for­ma­tion of new chem­i­cal bonds in re­ac­tion prod­ucts, more en­er­gy is re­leased than is re­quired for the break­down of chem­i­cal bonds in reagents. The ex­cess of en­er­gy is re­leased in the form of heat, and some­times light as well. One such re­ac­tion is the dis­so­lu­tion of potas­si­um ox­ide in wa­ter – so much heat is re­leased that the liq­uid boils and the eggs are cooked.

СаО + Н₂О = Са(ОН)₂ + Q

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

When con­duct­ing the ex­per­i­ment, wear gloves and pro­tec­tive glass­es. The ves­sel in which the re­ac­tion takes place should be cov­ered with a lid to avoid splash­es of boil­ing wa­ter and to stop potas­si­um hy­drox­ide from get­ting on the skin or in the eyes. Don’t eat the cooked eggs.

Warn­ing! Only un­der pro­fes­sion­al su­per­vi­sion.