Description of experiment
Below follows a plain text transcript of the selected experiment.
Needed compounds:
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sulphuric acid : H2SO4
potassium chlorate : KClO3
Class:
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elem=Cl
redox
Summary:
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When potassium chlorate and concentrated sulphuric acid are mixed, a very
dangerous and strong oxidizer is created, which reacts explosively with
organic matter.
Description:
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Put a drop of concentrated H2SO4 (appr. 98 %) on a few cubic millimeters of
KClO3, the whole mixture being on a flat clean piece of glas: The drop becomes
orange and starts foaming a little bit.
Put a little piece of paper (appr. 0.5 square cm) on the orange drop: After
appr. 2 seconds the paper reacts explosively with the orange mixture. The
mixture makes a fairly loud crackling noise and sparks of light can be seen.
Finally a little explosion blows the piece of paper away (appr. 15 cm from
the reaction mixture) and no more crackling and fire-like reactions are
observed anymore.
Around the orange drop many little splashes can be observed with a distance
from the reaction mixture at up to 20 cm.
BEWARE: This must be done with a minute quantity of potassium chlorate, a few
cubic mm at most, on which a drop of H2SO4 is put!