Breaking water down

Water can be disassembled like construction kit parts!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

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

Process de­scrip­tion

The bak­ing soda so­lu­tion con­ducts the elec­tric­i­ty from the 9 V bat­tery. Un­der its in­flu­ence, the wa­ter re­acts with the thumb tacks, yield­ing hy­dro­gen on the first thumb tack and oxy­gen on the sec­ond. So the wa­ter is dis­as­sem­bled into its con­stituent el­e­ments:

2H₂O → 2H₂↑ + O₂↑

Pure oxy­gen ac­tive­ly re­acts with a smol­der­ing splint, al­low­ing it to reignite. Hy­dro­gen very rapid­ly bonds with at­mo­spher­ic oxy­gen if ig­nit­ed, yield­ing a sound and wa­ter. Isn’t it in­cred­i­ble – wa­ter can be dis­as­sem­bled and re­assem­bled like build­ing blocks!

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

Try it