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Haven't posted for a while.

Not a real volcano, but enough to amuse a 5 year old.









Thanks for looking

Alex

Alex, good set of pics showing the reaction. On a side note you do realise that this experiment is banned in schools due to the carcinogenic vapours and the high exothermic properties. A few science class rooms have burnt down over the years where the teacher did not know what they were doing.

Details man, details! I want to make one for my boy too....

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Big V. Your are spot on about the exothermic nature of the reaction and certain precautions have to be taken.

Chromium VI which was the orange stuff in the beginning of the experiment is indeed carcinogenic. However, the vapour is simply nitrogen gas that is being released during the process and is non-toxic. We stood pretty far away from it and used a telephoto lens . I cleaned the area very carefully after the experiment which was done in open air.

Cheers

Alex

Raskill wrote:Details man, details! I want to make one for my boy too....

 LOL. You need ammonium dichromate for this. If you have an access to a chemical lab then you can get it but very hard to get otherwise... sorry.

Alex

its great to see someone experimenting
looks great what exactly is it a chemistry experiment?

wendellt wrote:what exactly is it a chemistry experiment?

Yes it is.
It used to be a standard school chemistry demonstration of an exothermic reaction. Its use was strongly discouraged abut 20 years ago, and I believe it is now banned in schools because of the danger involved.
I can't remeber whetehr you just add a match or add another chemicla to the Ammonium dichromate. It's been a LOOONG time.

Thanks for the comments, Wendell.

As Mr. Darcy said, yes, it is a chemical experiment. It was banned at schools, at least in Australia a long time ago, but unfortunately everything with even remote risk gets banned. Soon the kids will only be allowed to look at the cotton wool LOL!
This particular experiment only requires one chemical which is ammonium dichromate. It can't be openly purchased. The chemical is toxic and carcinogenic if swallen or mistreated but pretty safe if handled correctly and appropriate precautions are taken. The powder is lit with a match and a self-propogating exothermic chemical reaction starts. Very simple and effective. Great for little kids amusement. To be safe I did it outdoors in my backyard.

Cheers
Alex

Don't worry about it impressing as five year old.. I was impressed!..

so impressed I'm thinking of doing a search of the chemicals cupboard at the lab tomorrow..

I like the first shot with the smouldering pile of what is left at the end. Are they grass clippings that you have used to build the outside of the volcano?

Thanks Steve.

The first image is actually the initial stage of the reaction and the orange crystals are the starting material.

What looks like green grass clippings is actually the product of the reaction (a chromium compound).

Cheers
Alex

Ha - i got it totally around the wrong way then...