Sulfur moon

How to make a moon on your table

A small moon ma­te­ri­al­izes right be­fore your eyes!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

At­ten­tion! All ex­per­i­ments are per­formed by pro­fes­sion­als. Do not at­tempt.

Process de­scrip­tion

Sodi­um thio­sul­fate de­com­pos­es un­der the in­flu­ence of sul­fu­ric acid, thus form­ing molec­u­lar sul­fur. The more sodi­um thio­sul­fate is added, the faster this process oc­curs. Molec­u­lar sul­fur forms very small lumps, which make the liq­uid cloudy. This lends the Petri dish­es the ap­pear­ance of small moons!

A safer ver­sion of this ex­per­i­ment is in­clud­ed in the “Egyp­tian night” set from the MEL Chem­istry sub­scrip­tion.

Try it