“Foaming Genie” experiment

Do you re­mem­ber how the Ge­nie emerges weird­ly from the lantern in the car­toon “Al­addin”, in all kinds of dif­fer­ent forms? In this ex­per­i­ment you can turn your fa­vorite char­ac­ter into foam

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Con­duct the ex­per­i­ment in pro­tec­tive gloves, a mass and glass­es, in a well-ven­ti­lat­ed room. Ob­serve safe­ty rules when work­ing with con­cen­trat­ed hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide so­lu­tion: avoid it get­ting on the skin, in the eyes or in the mu­cous glands. Af­ter mix­ing the so­lu­tions of potas­si­um io­dide and hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide, im­me­di­ate­ly back away from the con­tain­er, so that the foam doesn’t get on you.

Warn­ing! Only un­der adults su­per­vi­sion.

Reagents and equip­ment:

• liq­uid soap (20 ml);
• con­cen­trat­ed potas­si­um io­dide so­lu­tion (30%);
• con­cen­trat­ed hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide so­lu­tion (30%);
• 2 beakers;
• con­ic flask;
• food col­or­ings.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Pour liq­uid soap and potas­si­um io­dide so­lu­tion into the con­ic flask. Pour food col­or­ings over the edge of the neck, then add the hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide so­lu­tion. Watch the foamy Ge­nie ap­pear.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

When so­lu­tions of hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide and potas­si­um io­dide are mixed, an ox­i­da­tion-re­duc­tion re­ac­tion takes place. The re­ac­tive mix­ture heats up. Oxy­gen and wa­ter va­por is re­leased in the re­ac­tion, which froths up the liq­uid soap. As a re­sult, the liq­uid soap spurts out of the foam, like a Ge­nie from a lamp.

3H₂O₂ + 2KI= I₂ + O₂ + 2H₂O + 2KOH