CHEMICAL JOURNEY

In our Chemical Journey, we experimented with the dehydration of powdered sugar by sulfuric acid and the oxidation of glycerin by potassium permanganate.

THE STORY

• Trial and Error: our first attempt at an experiment was successful (dehydration of powdered sugar by sulfuric acid), yet the next two were not. We hit a rough patch in search of new experiments, until, finally, we tried oxidizing glycerin by potassium permanganate which was successful. Then, we began to manipulate the experiment's color, size, and length of reaction
• However, during our journey we suffered the loss of a wonderful partner, yet we continued and powered through.

After losing Davis, we trekked on and continued our journey as the only two person team.

STORY: DEHYDRATION OF POWEDERED SUGAR BY SULFURIC ACID (1)

• When successfully done, the end result of this reaction replicates that of something living and moving, this is what interested us.
• As we previously stated, our first attempt was successful.
• After crushing 28g of sugar into a powder (you end up with 25g), we added 12ml of sulfuric acid. After approximately ten minutes, it finally reacted and the hot, smelly, black substance grew out of the beaker.

STORY: DEHYDRATION OF POWEDERED SUGAR BY SULFURIC ACID (2)

• However, we tried again later and increased the sulfuric acid to 15ml and were unsuccessful. Then, we tried 35g of powdered sugar with 15ml of sulfuric acid and were once again unsuccessful. Nothing was working, so we went back to the basics and tried the original ratio (25g of powdered sugar and 12ml of sulfuric acid). This didn't work either, so we were stumped. Then we realized the chemicals were past their shelf life and were unreliable.
• Then we searched for a new experiment.

STORY: OXIDATION OF GLYCERIN BY POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE (1)

• This chemical reaction intrigued us because it's extremely similar to striking a match.
• We just combined similar chemicals to those present in a match and on the strike strip knowing that they would react and a fast chemical reaction occured.
• Originally, we combined 20g of crystallized potassium permanganate with 7.8g of glycerin. This worked, but the size of the reaction was small (about 5 inches tall) and took 120 seconds to react.

STORY: OXIDATION OF GLYCERIN BY POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE (2)

• During our next attempt, we crushed the potassium permanganate to a fine powder. This increased the surface area, and the reaction was quicker and larger. It reacted on impact and was about about one foot high.
• On our third and final attempt, we doubled the amount of substances, and it reacted immediately with the height of the reaction reaching 3.5ft.

LEARNED/DISCOVERED

• Most important: THINK LIKE A SCIENTIST -organized method of approaching a problem - Learning to prove or disprove (scientific method)
• Importance of curiosity and expanding your ideas
• Working as group - Being dependable - Properly dividing work - Planning out what you're doing and when
• Learning to depend on science and stoichiomtery. - It is predictable, reliable, and always right.

LEARNED/DISCOVERED

• Using science to your advantage - Using stoichiomtery to cancel a limiting reagent and balance chemical equations and to find the exact balance between two chemicals in order exercise the full potential that the chemicals have when combined.
• Our chemical thoughts show our theories and hypotheses that we have learned and discovered on our own.

STOICHIOMETRY EXAMPLE 1

STOICHIOMETRY EXAMPLE 2

WHY STOICHIOMETRY?

• Identifies limiting reagent
• Eliminates limiting reagent
• Balances chemical equation
• Determines desired quantity of substance
• Enables a perfect reaction (lacking a chemical reagent) that is balanced and the most efficient

OUR ANSWER

• Our answer showed us the quantity necessary for a successful reaction.
• It showed us what we were doing wrong and allowed us to correct it.
• It also identified the limiting reagent and showed us how to cancel it, allowing us to have the most successful reaction possible.

LIMITING REAGENT

• We identified the limiting reagent in both reactions using stoichiomtery.
• As was previously shown, the stoichiometry points out the limiting reagent and enables the scientist (us) to cancel it. This allows us to have our chemical reaction not be limited. It will react to its full capability.

LIMITING REAGENT- DEHYDRATION OF POWEDERED SUGAR BY SULFURIC ACID

• In our first reaction, we discovered that, not only were the chemicals expired, yet our proportions were way off.
• We found this out using stoichiometry, when we identified the limiting reagent, which, in this case, was the powdered sugar.
• We eventually discovered the proper measurements that should be used by successfully performing the stoichiometry for this reaction.

LIMITING REAGENT- OXIDATION OF GLYCERIN BY POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE

• Though we were successful in this experiment, we still decided to do the stoichiometry.
• It allowed us to identify the limiting reagent (potassium permanganate) and, then, eliminate the limiting reagent. This gave us the capability to ensure a perfect, balanced reaction.

VIDEO