mauricethegangsteroflove
Harmless
Posts: 5
Registered: 2-2-2026
Member Is Offline
Mood: The cat is in charge here.
|
|
Favorite beginner experiments
What are the experiments you remember most fondly from your early days? I'm looking for some things to play with and learn from, and I'm curious what
got you guys hooked.
Not looking for step by step instructions for anything, just want to hear your favorite stories and any tips or tricks. Maybe a cool reaction or
synthesis, maybe figuring out how to make something useful that helped you down the line, or something that was simple but taught you skills that you
now use all the time.
|
|
|
Sulaiman
International Hazard
Posts: 3938
Registered: 8-2-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
recollections of my early chemistry
oxidisers : eg nitrates, chlorates, permanganate etc.
with
fuels : eg sugar, paper, metal powders
(flash, bang boom, woosh etc.)
my favourites were potassium permanganate with glycerine/glycerol, or magnesium powder.
nitrogen triiodide
measuring pH of stuff with pH papers or red cabbage water
calcium carbide & hydrogen peroxide to make a high temperature flame generator
with unintended auto-detonation option
invisible ink
diy FeS to make far too much H2S
I liked doing titrations, and making smelly organic molecules in school.
[Edited on 10-2-2026 by Sulaiman]
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6472
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: Limbo
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just got through yet another "take this job and shove it" moment.
|
|
I have lots of thoughts on this.
I will update later.
|
|
|
charley1957
Hazard to Others
Posts: 196
Registered: 18-2-2012
Location: Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Hotter than the hinges of Hell!
|
|
I had chemistry sets growing up in the 60s and 70s. I remember I used to make a really dark blue liquid using, I think, ferric ammonium sulfate, and
another chemical. I was totally fascinated with how it just magically turned this dark dark blue color. I did that one dozens of times every
different way I could: slow, fast, more water, less, one chemical first, then the other one first, etc. I made fake blood, and did things with the
alcohol lamp, boiling stuff in test tubes, making ammonia fumes. I really enjoyed bending glass tubing, and got my first ever chemistry scar trying
to push a piece of glass tubing through a one hole cork. Good memories.
You can’t claim you drank all day if you didn’t start early in the morning.
|
|
|
teodor
International Hazard
Posts: 1165
Registered: 28-6-2019
Location: Netherlands
Member Is Offline
|
|
Photographic printing. Black and white, toned, color processes. Inventing my own process.
Making black powder.
Making nitric acid.
Getting all available chemicals and seeing what other important chemicals can be synthesized from this starting set.
Reading books on the topics related to the interests developed during all mentioned experiments.
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6472
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: Limbo
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just got through yet another "take this job and shove it" moment.
|
|
Ok. Here are some cool projects that I can recommend – mostly beginner stuff.
Thermite reactions. I cut my teeth following MrHomeScientist on YT, who was also an active member here. For larger scale and non-standard
metal extractions, I recommend thegayestpersononyoutube
Copper chemistry is surprisingly fun. And you will learn some good skills. I usually direct people to the copper carnival which was a
competition we ran here a few years ago. The write-ups from that have some good procedures.
Element collecting – especially extracting elements from OTC items.
Extractions – steam distillations will get you all sorts of interesting things and then get you into purification techniques
Battery dissections – a good source of quite a few elements and useful compounds. Carbon-zinc batteries are probably the most rewarding.
Lithium batteries give you a nice strip of the element. Ni-Cd batteries may be fun although I confess I have not tried it. Lithium-polymer batteries
give you copper or aluminium foil, and can be a source of cobalt compounds and lithium carbonate if you put some work into it. (I recommend staying
small scale if you do Li polymer batteries. The mess is incredible.)
There are some useful and relatively straightforward syntheses that you can do. Nitric acid is one. Diethyl ether, dioxane, toluene sulfionic
acid. Less useful but equally fun are fisher esterifications, chevreal's salt, rochelle's salt. I recently did sodium nitroprusside and will do it
again.
Pick up something from a pottery supplier and explore the chemistry of a single element. For example, buy some cobalt carbonate or nickel oxide
and see what salts you can produce. My recent experiments in this area involved praseodymium oxide (Pr3O11) and cerium oxide. Cerium ammonium nitrate
is useful too if you can make it. Chromium is a great combination of fascinating and frustrating. So many possible complexes.
electrolysis projects – chlorates, acids, plating, metal crystal growing, electro-refining, or if you are keen on high temperature, attempt
some alkali metals.
Not my thing, but there are some good introductory energetics projects you could do: black powder, white powder, touch powders, sugar rockets,
experiment with adding metal powders, maybe nitrigen triiodide.
Pick a textbook or similar resource and work your way systematically through it. Some suggestions: Len1's book on small scale synthesis, Robert
Bruce Thompson's course which he designed for home school curriculum, chemplayer's videos are on bitchute. There are suitable resources in our
library. I have some resources that were put together as compendiums of dramatic presentations for lecture audiences. I am drawing a blank on exact
titles at the moment, but send me a U2U if you want some links for any of these. I have them stashed away somewhere.
THere are some ideas. Take your pick.
[Edited on 11-2-2026 by j_sum1]
|
|
|
Varungh
Hazard to Self
Posts: 70
Registered: 23-6-2025
Location: India
Member Is Offline
Mood: Bad mood
|
|
Some of the classics i did
Making zinc acetate using vinegar and a AA cell
Plating zinc using zinc acetate
Making a simple zinc and copper cell
Making magnetite (highly reccomended)
Making MnCO3 and subsequently MnO on heating from MnSO4(Note-fairly recent)
Making sodium and lead chromate (note-recent)
Making ZnI from Zn and betadine
Message me if you need exact synthesis, reiepes, help, what things and in what quantities you need them in
|
|
|
Varungh
Hazard to Self
Posts: 70
Registered: 23-6-2025
Location: India
Member Is Offline
Mood: Bad mood
|
|
A few more
Making basic copper carbonate from CuSO4 and then Making CuO
Making ammonia solution using urea and NaOH
Making FeCl2
|
|
|
mauricethegangsteroflove
Harmless
Posts: 5
Registered: 2-2-2026
Member Is Offline
Mood: The cat is in charge here.
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  |
Battery dissections – a good source of quite a few elements and useful compounds. Carbon-zinc batteries are probably the most rewarding.
Lithium batteries give you a nice strip of the element. Ni-Cd batteries may be fun although I confess I have not tried it. Lithium-polymer batteries
give you copper or aluminium foil, and can be a source of cobalt compounds and lithium carbonate if you put some work into it. (I recommend staying
small scale if you do Li polymer batteries. The mess is incredible.)
|
Lithium carbonate sounds interesting. I recently watched a Doug's Lab video where he made copper carbonate, and explained how it could be converted
into various salts with different acids. I assume something similar could be done with lithium carbonate? If lithium carbonate and hydrochloric acid
would make lithium chloride, maybe there's a homebrew path to lithium chlorate. I don't know if that's feasible or safe, but at my first uneducated
glance it at least looks possible.
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6472
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: Limbo
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just got through yet another "take this job and shove it" moment.
|
|
Definitely doable.
One of the problems with alkali metal salts is that they all appear the same: white crystalline powders. You end up not really knowing what you have
produced or how pure it is. It is primarily for that reason I find transition metal chemistry more interesting.
Lithium carbonate has a property of having very low solubility and so is easy to isolate. And of course, carbonates release carbon dioxide when
reacting with acids which means you get rid of the pesky anion that you don't want. The purity of your product depends largely on the quality of your
acid.
When doing this kind of thing, remember the range of acids you may have access to: hydrochloric, sulfuric, nitric, obviously. But you can also make
acetates, propionates, citriates, tartrates, aspirinates, benzoates, and heaps more. Raid your medicine cabinet, hardware store or supermarket and see
what you find.
|
|
|
mauricethegangsteroflove
Harmless
Posts: 5
Registered: 2-2-2026
Member Is Offline
Mood: The cat is in charge here.
|
|
Well, I just failed my first attempt to get lithium carbonate from a battery, likely due to mistaking it for an impurity and discarding it like an
idiot. I do have some neat purple cobalt carbonate though and that part seems to have gone well. I have plenty of material left to take another shot
at it and do it better.
I also successfully made black powder and nitrocellulose, which have been fun. When I get lithium extraction figured out, I think I'll take a shot at
using it for a red flare mixture, I think the chloride salt should burn red.
Got some more glassware on the way and looking forward to exploring more. Thank you all for the insight and suggestions!
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
