[smithbryanf2]

Hi guys, just had did a few simple experiments and was hoping someone could shed light on what happened.

I first mixed potassium iodide( dissolved in small amt of water) with hydrogen peroxide.  I was hoping for maybe some iodine to form, and I MAY have accomplished that.  not sure.  but after mixing, the mixture bubbled pretty heavily and the solution turned yellow.  what leads me to believe some iodine formed was that the solution turned yellow, and dilute iodine could be the cause.  upon heating the mixture, however, no iodine vapor escaped.  anyone have an explanation?

for my second experiment, I mixed hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide.  i was expecting chlorine gas to form, but upon mixing these two chemicals in a test tube, no reaction was observed.  when I heated the mixture with a propane torch, the solution bubbled and when the heat source was removed, the bubbling was observed to be self sustaining, letting off trace amounts of white gas.  since i didn't smell chlorine gas(or just may not even know what chlorine gas smells like...)I thought maybe the peroxide was decomposing.  When I tried heating pure H2O2, however, the bubbling was not self sustaining, and that didn't last very long.

sorry for being so long winded, but any insight into what happened for both of those would be greatly appreciated.

[Hunter2]

The first one reacts under acidic conditions. You have to add some acid to the iodide and add carefully the Peroxide. Without you get oxidation to iodate.
The second one should work, add a little amount of copper as catalyst. Chlorine is dangerous and poison and smell like the swimming pool water.

[Arkcon]

Its possible you produced some free iodine.  If you want to check, mix the first reaction (either the original or the better one Hunter2: suggested) with an immiscible non-polar solvent.  I'd suggest gasoline for the home user, just a few drops, but auto gasoline has dyes added.  At any rate, if you produce a purple solvent layer, then you made iodine.  Not that is is a remotely practical way to get elemental iodine, potassium iodine is pretty expensive.  It is somewhat  illegal to have bulk iodine, as its a drug of abuse precursor.  But you're only making a few drops anyway.