Thursday, May 31, 2007
Deadly fumes
Yeah, I had chemistry lab today. It's experiment 2 for the record. Anyway, we have ditched titration and moved on to qualitative analysis. What's that you ask? Well, its basically a set of experiments you would carry out to detemine the anions, cations or gases. The first experiment for the semester involves only the formation of percipitate. It's less harmful as the substance remains in the test tube. Unlike gas of course. Well, you've guessed it. Today's experiment involved the formation of gases. Ranging from bromin to oxygen. You name it.
First up was to observe the changes when dilute hydrohloric acid is mixed with sodium chlorate (I). Well, a blue litmus paper is placed just at the mouth of the test tube. What do you think happened? No, the colour did not change from blue to red. It went from blue to colourless. Why? Chlorine is a bleaching chemical. The next test was the bomb. Concentrated sulphuric acid is added to separate portions of potassium chloride, potassium bromide and potassium iodide. I'm sure you can guess that chlorine, bromin and iodine gas would be released respectively. Well, all three gases are foul smelling. Even conducting the test in the designated area didn't help. We were then "banned" from doing the test. Lol. Only a lucky few got to do that stinky test. =)
After that was to heat a little ammonium sulphate with sodium hydroxide. Right, right. Ammonia is released and the red litmus paper changes colour from red to blue. Nothing new here =). Then, a glass rod dipped in dilute acid hydrochloric is inserted into the gas formed. A white coloured gas is visible. What's that? Ammonium chloride. Fast forward to the hydrogen test. Well, a lit splinter is invovled. Expecting to hear a pop sound? Yes, it did happen. But it was a high pitched one. Sounded more like vacuum. The final test was oxygen. Manganese (IV) oxide is added to hydrogen peroxide. I took a little of both and mixed it together. Both substances reacted and somehow it overflowed. Quickly, I went to the sink and poured the excess away. It was hot! I had the chemicals on my hand too. I washed it quickly though. Thank God I didn't get oxidised. Ha ha.
First up was to observe the changes when dilute hydrohloric acid is mixed with sodium chlorate (I). Well, a blue litmus paper is placed just at the mouth of the test tube. What do you think happened? No, the colour did not change from blue to red. It went from blue to colourless. Why? Chlorine is a bleaching chemical. The next test was the bomb. Concentrated sulphuric acid is added to separate portions of potassium chloride, potassium bromide and potassium iodide. I'm sure you can guess that chlorine, bromin and iodine gas would be released respectively. Well, all three gases are foul smelling. Even conducting the test in the designated area didn't help. We were then "banned" from doing the test. Lol. Only a lucky few got to do that stinky test. =)
After that was to heat a little ammonium sulphate with sodium hydroxide. Right, right. Ammonia is released and the red litmus paper changes colour from red to blue. Nothing new here =). Then, a glass rod dipped in dilute acid hydrochloric is inserted into the gas formed. A white coloured gas is visible. What's that? Ammonium chloride. Fast forward to the hydrogen test. Well, a lit splinter is invovled. Expecting to hear a pop sound? Yes, it did happen. But it was a high pitched one. Sounded more like vacuum. The final test was oxygen. Manganese (IV) oxide is added to hydrogen peroxide. I took a little of both and mixed it together. Both substances reacted and somehow it overflowed. Quickly, I went to the sink and poured the excess away. It was hot! I had the chemicals on my hand too. I washed it quickly though. Thank God I didn't get oxidised. Ha ha.
# posted by zerowindez : 11:08 PM
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