How to make hydrogen foam

How to set a foam on fire

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Reagents and equip­ment

  • liq­uid soap;
  • wa­ter;
  • glass;
  • zinc gran­ules;
  • hy­drochlo­ric acid so­lu­tion;
  • flask;
  • cork with a gas tube.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Mix liq­uid soap and wa­ter in a glass beaker to make a soapy so­lu­tion. Pour a so­lu­tion of hy­drochlo­ric acid into a flask with zinc gran­ules, stop­per the flask with a cork with a flex­i­ble tube poked through that leads into the soapy wa­ter. Let the gas that forms in the flask pass through into the soapy so­lu­tion. Foam forms, which burns when set on fire!

Process de­scrip­tion

The in­ter­ac­tion of zinc and hy­drochlo­ric acid gives off hy­dro­gen gas. If it pass­es through a soap so­lu­tion, bub­bles of hy­dro­gen will form, which will burn, as hy­dro­gen is a com­bustible gas.

A sim­i­lar ex­per­i­ment is wait­ing for you in the MEL Chem­istry sub­scrip­tion!

Try it