Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: zzzvivi on December 26, 2018, 02:45:20 PM
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I’m doing oxidation as my topic for the science fair, and I have thought of many experiments such as the apples, lemon juice, steel wool, etc... however, I feel as if they’re kind of too easy, and I have done experiments with chemicals to oxidative iron ( which I find fascinating enough to make it my topic) but I don’t know how to start. I I want to learn, but researching is hard when I don’t know what experiment is best. I’d love recommendations for oxidation experiments and good, reliable research websites. Thank you!
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Look for reactions of H2O2, KMnO4, K2CrO4.
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Using fruit, and more generally biological material, makes me a bit uneasy because their transformations are so diverse and complex that it's hard to give a simple and correct cause for them like "oxidation".
I feel this compound shouldn't be missing in your fair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrakis(dimethylamino)ethylene
it serves in luminescent toys like collars. Just display a few such toys with posters of the molecule and its reaction with air.
Reactions with air that speak to many people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_oil
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linseed_oil
you can varnish a new surface every hour.
A zinc-air battery? Not very spectacular, so you must add big posters with explanations.
If you find a gas heater that ignites thanks to a catalyst when you open the valve, it has some "magic" in it, nice for a fair.
Illustrate the flash point by a compound that burns only with a wick or when hot. Maybe turpentine, well chosen petroleum, or Diesel oil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_point
add some candles and explanations.
Pour glycerol on potassium permanganate at room temperature, it ignites if the crystals are well chosen.
Sow iron power on a flame to show it burns.
Burn cotton in air. Compare with a telephone book to show the importance of tight air mix.
Burn ordinary and easily recognized sugar (saccharose in usual cube form) in air using a catalyst (ash).
If you access oxygen, show that fires are more intense than in air.
Need much more preparation and are potentially dangerous:
Ignite something like cotton by compressing air (like in a Diesel engine)
Burn flour in an air stream.