Syn the Sizer
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A day of summer chemistry.
I have a couple friends who have been interested in doing a little "fun" chemistry. I was thinking of a day project that is fun and not dangerous to
do with people who aren't even hobby chemists and can demonstrate some techniques.
I was thinking start with an extraction of ASA from 20 500mg Aspirin do demonstrate and extraction. Hydrolyze half of it to salicylic acid to
demonstrate hydrolysis, then re-crystallize bot to demonstrate re-crystallization and purification.
Meanwhile as the products are drying with air to speed it up. I was thinking of making basic copper carbonate with copper sulfate and sodium carbonate
to demonstrate a double replacement reaction and how solubility can change by mixing 2 soluble products.
From there since the products don't need to be super dry I would demonstrate the synthesis of an organometalic compound by synthesizing copper
acetylsalicylate.
To finish the day a synthesis of methylsalicylate to demonstrate fischer esterification which they can take home.
The most dangerous part is handling the sulfuric acid and HCl and everything is OTC, but I would be using 98% reagent grade sulfuric acid.
I have been in the midst of preparing to move and haven't been doing much chemistry right now but was planning in the summer running through this with
a couple friends.
Any thoughts or concerns?
[Edited on 1-7-2020 by Syn the Sizer]
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DraconicAcid
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Nice! (And happy Canada Day!)
But copper acetlysalicylate isn't organometallic- there is no copper-carbon bond present.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Syn the Sizer
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Thanks for the correction, I will have to correct my Organic instructor lol. Is it a complex?
Thanks for the Canada Day and I don't know if you are in Canada but Happy Canada day to you too.
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karlos³
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It's a chelated complex.
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Syn the Sizer
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Yes, that makes sense.
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DraconicAcid
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The anion may be coordinated to the copper(II) cation, but I don't see the use in considering it a complex rather than a simple carboxylate salt.
Nobody calls copper(II) acetate an organometallic compound, and very few people care that it's actually dimeric and has a copper-copper bond; I
suspect the acetylsalicylate has a similar structure. if it stayed coordinated in solution, then the distinction would be important, but copper(II)
acetylsalicylate doesn't have much solution chemistry of importance.
If you expand your definitions of various kinds of chemistry, you dilute the usefulness of the term. If I have a book on organometallic chemistry,
and it spends 75% of the text on carboxylate salts, it's not useful for organometallic chemistry.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Chemorg42
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Well, I was going to suggest ASA myself, but now I don't need to.
Not sure what kind of friends these are, but, if appropriate, you could always spice things up with a good old rock candy smoke bomb or two, during
the reflux steps maybe.
Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood a single word. (attributed to Niels Bohr)
I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. (Richard Feynman)
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Syn the Sizer
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@DraconicAcid What would you consider it.
Quote: Originally posted by Chemorg42  | Well, I was going to suggest ASA myself, but now I don't need to.
Not sure what kind of friends these are, but, if appropriate, you could always spice things up with a good old rock candy smoke bomb or two, during
the reflux steps maybe. |
I am sure these friends would love that.
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woelen
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A very nice one, which I did at a kids party (12 year old kids) was a mix of 5 grams of Sr-nitrate, 2 grams of magnesium/aluminium alloy (a.k.a.
magnalium), 1 gram of sulphur, 2 grams of finely powdered PVC. This mix burns with a lovely bright red flame. The PVC is essential, without it, you
get a dull yellow/orange color. The chlorine from the PVC gives the red color. Any other material, containing a lot of chlorine, also can be used
(e.g. chlorinated rubber). Even some SrCl2, mixed into the material, can be used.
Use fine powders. PVC powder can be made with a little saw or a file from PVC tubing. Getting 2 grams of powder does not take that much time. I think
that the Mg/Al can be replaced by Mg or Al, but I used what I had available at that time. The mix must be put on a concrete tile, in a line of 20 cm
or so, not on a single heap. Light the line of mix with a propane burner at one end. Fun is guaranteed!
Barium nitrate also is very nice, it gives a deep green flame, but the smoke of this is fairly toxic. With non-chemist people in a group, it is hard
to avoid some inhalation of the smoke, so I decided not to do the barium variation.
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Syn the Sizer
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That sounds fun, I will consider that too. Anything with nice coloured flames is always exciting.
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DraconicAcid
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Honestly, just a carboxylate salt.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Syn the Sizer
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Sounds good.
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j_sum1
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That sounds like a really interesting demo, woelen. I am guessing the same might be done with copper nitrate, calcium nitrate, lithium, potassium and
sodium nitrates. I don't have the strontium salt (I thought I did), but I can do all the others.
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Texium
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Reminds me of a rather more exotic demo that I did with Brain&Force several years ago. He came to visit with his lanthanides collection. We took
some ytterbium and samarium powders, and some PTFE plumbing tape, and wrapped pieces of the tape tightly, lengthwise, around lines of the metal
powders. Lighting one end would cause it to burn down the line like a fuse. Ytterbium yielded an intense green color and samarium a bright red.
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Sulaiman
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Still one of my favourites is "Miniature explosions in a test tube"
https://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/mini-expl/i...
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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Syn the Sizer
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These are all great ideas. I will consider adding more to the day since what I originally planned really isn't that much.
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woelen
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@j_sum1: With copper nitrate it does not work, there is too much water of crystallization in copper nitrate. With calcium nitrate and potassium
nitrate the effect is not that interesting. The strength of the flame colors is not sufficient for these metals. The white of the Mg/Al and orange
glow overwhelm the color of the Ca-flame or K-flame. With sodium nitrate you get an intense yellow/orange flame, and with lithium nitrate you get a
red color, much like that of strontium. The strontium variation is much cheaper though. A really nice one is cesium, which gives a beautiful
cyan/blue, but unfortunately Cs-salts are very expensive. I have done some flame color experiments on a small scale with Cs though:
https://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/exps/barium_brom...
What can be interesting is using KNO3, with a little anhydrous CuCl2 added, or even better, copper oxychloride, which is a basic copper(II) chloride.
The latter is a perfectly dry green powder. A mix of KNO3, copper (oxy)chloride, sulphur, Mg/Al and a little PVC most likely will give a nice green
color.
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Brain&Force
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| Quote: Originally posted by Texium (zts16) | | Reminds me of a rather more exotic demo that I did with Brain&Force several years ago. He came to visit with his lanthanides collection. We took
some ytterbium and samarium powders, and some PTFE plumbing tape, and wrapped pieces of the tape tightly, lengthwise, around lines of the metal
powders. Lighting one end would cause it to burn down the line like a fuse. Ytterbium yielded an intense green color and samarium a bright red.
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Ah yes, I was thinking of this recently! I finally got access to my lanthanides again, and I have some plumbers tape...I just need a file now. I now
have some erbium and thulium and I think I'll test those out as well...I just can't do it in my apartment.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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arkoma
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| Quote: Originally posted by woelen | A very nice one, which I did at a kids party (12 year old kids) was a mix of 5 grams of Sr-nitrate, 2 grams of magnesium/aluminium alloy (a.k.a.
magnalium), 1 gram of sulphur, 2 grams of finely powdered PVC. This mix burns with a lovely bright red flame. The PVC is essential, without it, you
get a dull yellow/orange color. The chlorine from the PVC gives the red color. Any other material, containing a lot of chlorine, also can be used
(e.g. chlorinated rubber). Even some SrCl2, mixed into the material, can be used.
Use fine powders. PVC powder can be made with a little saw or a file from PVC tubing. Getting 2 grams of powder does not take that much time. I think
that the Mg/Al can be replaced by Mg or Al, but I used what I had available at that time. The mix must be put on a concrete tile, in a line of 20 cm
or so, not on a single heap. Light the line of mix with a propane burner at one end. Fun is guaranteed!
Barium nitrate also is very nice, it gives a deep green flame, but the smoke of this is fairly toxic. With non-chemist people in a group, it is hard
to avoid some inhalation of the smoke, so I decided not to do the barium variation. |
man, have this stuff laying around, except I have parlon instead of pvc. still a chlorine donor,
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