Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
I had continual complaints about the use of deflagrating spoons with the sodium/chlorine reaction. Instead of the familiar expected colourless(white) product, a brown solid appeared. Copper in brass and iron also react with chlorine. Of course people then ask about the reactions of lithium and potassium with chlorine, expecting group trends but chemistry is more complicated than that. Over 20 years, I introduced this “brick” method and still not found in textbooks. Chemistry must embrace modern methods and not hark back to the 19th century.
I had continual complaints about the use of deflagrating spoons with the sodium/chlorine reaction. Instead of the familiar expected colourless(white) product, a brown solid appeared. Copper in brass and iron also react with chlorine. Of course people then ask about the reactions of lithium and potassium with chlorine, expecting group trends but chemistry is more complicated than that. Over 20 years, I introduced this “brick” method and still not found in textbooks. Chemistry must embrace modern methods and not hark back to the 19th century.
