Halloween Hijinks

I have always been fascinated by chemical reactions’ awesome visual effects, so this article is a must-read for me. Some of them are suitable enough for the upcoming Halloween parties, so do check them out! 

There are ten reactions listed, which I will summarize here:

1.     Disintegration: The aluminum object will rust as mercury is applied to it, causing a cool melting, coat-changing effect. 

2.     Pharaoh’s Serpent: As Mercury (II) Thiocyanate is burnt, it reacts with oxygen in the air under heat to create the effects of a snake being born out of a white cube of solid, hence its namesake. Looks creepily cool to me! 

3.     Explosive Gummy Bear: Drop a gummy bear into heated Potassium Chlorate and the gummy bear will explode. 

4.     Copper Displacement: When iron rods are placed in Copper Sulfate solution, the rods will “expand” as copper deposits form on the iron rods. The solution changed color as well, as Copper Sulfate solution turned into Iron Sulphate solution. 

5.     Fire Bottle: Pour a little Isopropyl Alcohol into a bottle, shake to mix it with air. Lit the bottle from the tob, and voila, you have yourself a ghastly-blue burning fire bottle. 

6.     Instant Snow: Pour some water into Sodium Polyacrylate, and the Sodium Polyacrylate instantly “erupts” into heaps of snow-looking substances. 

7.     Explosive Polymerization: 4-nitroanaline reacts with sulfuric acid and heat, causing an explosion and a black column of foam will be erected. 

8.     Elephant’s toothpaste: Pour both Potassium Iodide and Hydrogen Peroxide into a test tube. White, toothpaste-looking foam will erupts out of the test tube, and the foam is huge enough that it kind of looks like an elephant trunk. 

9.     Dry Ice Light: stick some magnesium into dry ice (solid Carbon dioxide), and instantly the dry ice cube will flash brilliant bright light. Copious amount of gases and heat is formed in the process as well. 

10. Rocket Combustion: React Nitric Acid with Nitrile Gloves. The mixture will burn brilliantly with a really pretty orange flame.

Since most of them involve chemical substances which can be found in the laboratory only, seeing those reactions in gifs are probably the closest I can get. Also, as cool as the fire bottle is, better safe than sorry this Halloween! 

http://www.iflscience.com/10-chemical-reaction-gifs-will-amaze-you

Submitted by Chau Nguyen