Chemistry

Challenge students to deduce the chemical reaction that leads to dramatic color changes when a sample of copper carbonate is heated. Copper carbonate is added to a flask and a wine airlock containing bromthymol blue solution is placed on top of the f...

Demonstrate simple electrolysis in a very colorful and dramatic way on your overhead projector. A 9-v battery supplies the power and universal indicator provides the color show. As electrolysis occurs in the Petri dish, the pH changes at the anode an...

No one is exempt from an occasional “bout with the blues.” The blues come and go as in this demo. Two colorless solutions and an indicator are mixed producing a blue solution. Upon standing, the solution becomes colorless. The solution alternates bet...

Watch metallic copper appear instantaneously as aluminum foil is added to aqueous cupric chloride. Try adding aluminum foil to aqueous cupric sulfate-no copper forms and aluminum survives! Add a catalyst-copper appears and aluminum is foiled again! S...

This is one of the safer fire, brimstone and smoke reactions. When you add a small amount of glycerin to potassium permanganate, your students will witness the oxidation of glycerin by a permanganate. The reaction is very dramatic with lots of smoke ...

Because of its beautiful multicolored compounds, vanadium, atomic number 23, was named after the Scandinavian Goddess of Beauty, Vanadis. In this demonstration, a yellow vanadate solution goes through a series of color changes when shaken together wi...

Grow a beautiful “tin-man” crystal tree using this electrifying demonstration! This quick and simple demonstration will teach oxidation-reduction principles and show students the components of a simple electrolytic cell. Students will enjoy watching ...

When you shake this flask of solution, the color of the solution will turn from a soft yellow to a bright red to a light, grassy green and then shift back to yellow again. Your students will love this reaction because they can help shake the flask an...

Take a test tube which “appears” to be absolutely clear, add a few drops of different chemical solutions, swirl the test tube around and place it in hot water. Before your students' very eyes, they will see a beautiful film of copper develop and depo...

Before your very own eyes, you can actually see the formation of shiny tin crystals. The tin is produced by the addition of zinc to a tin(II) chloride solution. Bubbles of hydrogen produced in this reaction float the aggregate tin to the surface like...

Demonstrate to your students what the alchemists only dreamed about. Turn an ordinary copper penny into silver and then into gold. Students will watch as you place pennies into a chemical solution which turns the pennies silver. Then, over heat, the ...

Produce a rainbow of colors by demonstrating how hydrogen peroxide can both oxidize and reduce. Hydrogen peroxide (which is a colorless solution) will cause another colorless solution to turn yellow then red-orange. It also has the ability to make a ...

Astonishing, fascinating, amazing and incredible are just a few words to describe this easy-to-do demonstration. A warm, clear, blue solution starts to bubble, the temperature rises, the bubbling becomes vigorous and suddenly the solution becomes an ...

Reward student achievement or creativity with the “silver mirror award,” a beautiful silver-mirrored flask that you create in the lab. Simply combine four solutions in the Florence flask provided with the kit, swirl, and voilá-a thin, reflective silv...