"Chemical Teleport" experiment

Sublimation of iodine

This is a tru­ly im­pres­sive ex­per­i­ment: a beau­ti­ful vi­o­let cloud forms from un­re­mark­able black gran­ules of io­dine and grad­u­al­ly dis­si­pates when cooled.

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

  • Wear pro­tec­tive gloves and con­duct the ex­per­i­ment in a well-ven­ti­lat­ed room.
  • Ob­serve safe­ty rules when work­ing with elec­tri­cal de­vices.

Reagents and equip­ment

  • crys­tal­lized io­dine;
  • heat-re­sis­tant beaker;
  • con­i­cal flask;
  • ice;
  • hot plate.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Pour a few grams of crys­tal­lized io­dine into a beaker and cov­er the beaker with a flask of ice. Place the beaker on a hot plate or oth­er heat­ing de­vice and turn on the heat. Ob­serve as io­dine va­por ap­pears and set­tles on the flask.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

When heat­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly, the io­dine tran­si­tions into a gaseous state. As it ris­es, the form­ing io­dine va­por set­tles on the flask of ice and crys­tal­lizes. This prop­er­ty of io­dine is used to rid it of var­i­ous im­pu­ri­ties.

Try it