Nigel Baldwin | Chemical volcanoes 2 DSCN0808 @nigelbaldwin3184 | Uploaded January 2021 | Updated October 2024, 11 hours ago.
Greenhouse chemistry

Chemical volcanoes in the greenhouse.

Fun with chemistry under lockdown.

Experiments you can do at home.

For this experiment we used sodium bicarbonate, white vinegar and food colour

Blue and yellow food colours were added to small samples of white vinegar before being added to the sodium bicarbonate.

The volcanoes were constructed from pens, paper etc we had around the home. Ground up Crunchie bars make great lumps of pumice in the larva flow!

Questions

1 What kind of chemical reaction is this?

2 Can you write an equation for the reaction ?

3 What is the name of the gas given off?

Answers

1 The reaction is that of an acid with a carbonate. In this example the carbonate is sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda.
Another name for sodium bicarbonate is sodium hydrogen carbonate.

The general reaction is acid + carbonate = salt + water + carbon dioxide

2 Sodium hydrogen carbonate + ethanoic acid = sodium ethanoate + water + carbon dioxide

CH3COOH + NaHCO3 = CH3COONa + H2O + CO2

3 The gas given off is carbon dioxide