Tag: gold

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Golden Rain

 Golden Rain

The silver tree was beautiful, now let’s perform a golden experiment.  This experiment kind of failed and pass. What I mean is that the experiment failed, and it was a success, you know what I mean. So don’t trust my steps, but be sure to follow the video at the end of this post.

This experiment is hard. Even I fail. So you shouldn’t handle this unless you’re an experienced chemist.

Things you’ll need: potassium iodide, lead (II) ni-  (wait, why am I posting this even it’s a fail? Ok then, I’ll show you what I did).

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This is when I took the flask from the alcohol burner. Yup, it looks like a disaster. This doesn’t even look like the video! Well to the next photo.20170702_114426

Yay! it worked! You could see the shiny particles coming down to the bottom. Success and fail. It looked really nice, I like this experiment.20170702_114538

Yes, Gold, Au everywhere!20170702_115440

This is when I filtered it out. Looks like golden paint.20170702_115434

A closer look.20170702_115622

This is the water that is filtered out. It still has some golden particles in it.

Well, after all of these photos I would say that it’s a success. Follow the video to do it:

 

Golden rain demonstration is made by combining two colorless solutions, potassium iodide solution and Lead(II) nitrate solution at room temperature to form yellow precipitate. During the chemical reaction, golden particles gently drop from the top of erlenmeyer flask to bottom, similar to watching the rain through a window. The golden rain chemical reaction demonstrates the formation of a solid precipitate. The golden rain experiment involves two soluble ionic compounds, potassium iodide (KI) and lead(II) nitrate (Pb(NO3)2), as formular : Pb(NO3)2 + 2KI → 2KNO3 + PbI2. They are initially dissolved in separate water solutions, which are each colorless. When mixed, a the lead from one solution and the iodide from the other combine to form lead(II) iodide (PbI2), which is insoluble at low temperature and has a golden bright yellow color. At higher temperature, this substance easily re-dissolves by dissociation to its colorless ions. To explain, a double displacement reaction occur when potassium iodide and lead(II) nitrate mixing together causing metals changing their position in both two compounds forming lead (II) iodide and potassium nitrate. Lead iodide is strong insoluble in water at room temperature causing yellow precipitate of lead iodide.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rain_demonstration

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How to Make an Amber Fossil

How to Make an Amber Fossil

Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.

There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams.

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An ant inside Baltic amber.

I will show you how to make one from resin (glue)

Things you’ll need: resin, hardener for the resin, a paper cup, and a specimen (like a sea shell, an ant or a piece of hair).20170522_150440

  1. Pour the resin into the cup (about ¼ of the cup).
  2. Put the specimen (I used a beetle) into the cup with resin in the middle.20170522_151246
  3. Pour the hardener into the cup and mix, make sure the specimen is in the middle.
  4. Wait for 24 hours and wash your hands.20170523_123508The color depends on a different resin. Mine is light yellow.

Formation of amber: Molecular polymerization, resulting from high pressures and temperatures produced by overlying sediment, transforms the resin first into copal. Sustained heat and pressure drives off terpenes and results in the formation of amber.

For this to happen, the resin must be resistant to decay. Many trees produce resin, but in the majority of cases this deposit is broken down by physical and biological processes. Exposure to sunlight, rain, microorganisms (such as bacteria and fungi), and extreme temperatures tends to disintegrate resin. For resin to survive long enough to become amber, it must be resistant to such forces or be produced under conditions that exclude them.