Sunday 16 September 2012

how to make potassium chlorate at home

Ok, before we start, i would recommend that this experiment be done outdoors or in a well ventilated room as trace amounts of chlorine is evolved during the first half of the experiment and i would also recommend that this experiment should be carried out with a small amounts of the ingredients. This is purely educational.
-please use suitable glass apparatus-
stuff you need:

1)CHLORINE bleach
2)Potassium Chloride (substitute for table salt)
3)Source of hat
4)Filter paper

First you need to get your hand on some chlorine bleach, this can be found at any hardware store and is inexpensive. Now we need to keep adding bleach to 500ml of water in a beaker till it forms a saturated solution, filter out the excess bleach and start boiling the solution (THE SOLUTION MUST BOIL this reaction will not take place if the solution is not boiling) at this point very small amounts of chlorine gas will be liberated but this shouldn't cause a problem as long as the location is well ventilated. When a white precipitate is observed at the bottom o the flask stop boiling the solution. Now wait for the solution to cool down and filter the solution.the liquid contains Sodium Chlorate (NaClO3)

After filtering discard the white precipitate and hold on to the liquid, get hold of some potassium chloride(this is sold as a substitute for normal table salt and is a breeze to obtain) and make a saturated solution of the the same amount as the remaining liquid and mix it with the liquid in a third beaker, to maximise the yield cool the solution to obtain a potassium chlorate precipitate, just filter this and dry the crystals to obtain a descent amount of potassium chlorate.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Slime

Ok i would like to begin by saying that i know that most people find chemistry boring but that doesn't make the subject boring but it just shows by excelling in it you stand out from the crowd so i urge you to follow chemistry for a bit you might just fall in love with just as i did. Well this is something really cool i found

ok this one is something I came across in school it was probably the first time I thought chemistry was the coolest thing ever, it was a simple experiment in the chemistry that taught you ‘how to’ make slime

All we need is:
1)20 ml water
2)20 ml fevicol (white adhesive)
3) Borax powder
4) Food coloring

In order to make the slime first add exactly 20 ml of fevicol into a beaker or an appropriate measuring utensil after which simply add exactly 20 ml of water (use pure water for better results ) make a even solution by mixing it and adjust the texture (depends on the purity of water) required by adding more water if needed. Once required texture is obtained, add 1 table spoon of borax powder (after the borax is added the texture and consistency cannot be adjusted) along with the food coloring, one drop would suffice as excess color would simply leak out after a while. Stir till the solution becomes viscous and remove the slime from the utensil and hold the slime under running water till excess materials wash off. You are now holding a perfectly good blob of slime that will good for at least the next 3-5 days and can be preserved further if kept away from the atmosphere. Try it, it’s not expensive and can provide a lot of entertainment. Cool right?