Are there any cool chemical reactions i can do in my own home?

[Luongo]

like mixing household chemicals together to get a cool reaction to help my brother for the science fair? please don't say baking soda and vinegar half the school is doing that for a volcano.

 

[symbolipoint]

Dyes.

 

[MATLABdude]

Borax polymerization experiment? (Google for it).

CO2 scrubbing using slaked lime? (CaCO3--chances are that they'll have already done it, however)

However, it might help us a bit more if you told us how much chemistry experience you have (e.g. high school, intro university, etc.) and what level of chemistry this is targeted towards? There are some very cool, but some very, very dangerous demonstrations that can be done, by someone with the right know-how.

EDIT: Slaked lime = calcium oxide (CaO). When you blow into a solution of CaO, it turns milky because the carbon dioxide in your breath reacts with the CaO, and you get calcium carbonate, CaCO3--limestone / chalk.

 

[MATLABdude]

Dyes.

"Hi, I'm Luongo, and I'm here to tell you about an amazing chemical, called sodium percarbonate! Look at this nice clean white cloth. Pour some red wine on it, mark it up with permanent marker--it's a mess! Throw it away, right?

"No, not with sodium percarbonate! Watch what happens when I pour a bunch of food dye into this salad bowl of water! You'd never wash YOUR clothes in this, right?

"Watch what happens when I mix in sodium percarbonate... The colour disappears right before your very eyes! Now we'll throw in that cloth, mix it around, and PRESTO! It comes out clean!

"Good as new! <FLASH UV LIGHT OVER IT, REVEALING FLUORESCING PATCH WHERE STAIN WAS> Okay, almost as good as new!"

 

[cragar]

you could make a termite , aluminum powder and rust powder lit with a magnesium wick that was lit with a torch , you can get a magnesium cube at Wal-Mart in the outdoors section its used for starting fires. mix bleach and H202

might do the termite one outside it can burn through plate steel

go to home depot and get denatured alcohol , which is ethanol with usually a little methanol so people don’t drink it , pour about 2 ounces into a milk jug cap it and slowly swish it around and let it vaporize set it on the ground and take the cap off and light it with a candle on a stick and it will shoot it like a rocket across the ground . do this on concrete.

 

[gravenewworld]

If you buy a black light you can do a oscillating chemiluminescence experiment.

Buy Arm and Hammer dye free laundry detergent
Iodine (tincture)
Vinegar
Vitamin C pillsI forget the ratios and procedure but here is the reference:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007JChEd..84..797WGo to a local public university library and get the reference. I'm sure if you pay $5 or so the reference librarian there will get you a copy.Incredibly safe and very impressive experiment.

 

[gravenewworld]

you could make a termite , aluminum powder and rust powder lit with a magnesium wick that was lit with a torch , you can get a magnesium cube at Wal-Mart in the outdoors section its used for starting fires. mix bleach and H202

might do the termite one outside it can burn through plate steel

go to home depot and get denatured alcohol , which is ethanol with usually a little methanol so people don’t drink it , pour about 2 ounces into a milk jug cap it and slowly swish it around and let it vaporize set it on the ground and take the cap off and light it with a candle on a stick and it will shoot it like a rocket across the ground . do this on concrete.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's not allowed to do any of these experiments.

 

[Dadface]

.Try making and testing indicators from different plant material such as beetroot ,turmeric and red cabbage.

 

[cragar]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's not allowed to do any of these experiments.

my bad

 

[bucher]

You could also do an osmosis experiment with an egg.

If you soak an egg in vinegar for a day or two, the shell will mostly be eaten away.

By soaking this egg in water, the egg will expand to a much larger size.

If, instead of water, you soak this egg in corn syrup, the egg will get much smaller size.

All due to osmosis.

 

[cragar]

you could cook an egg by , cracking it and setting it in a glass of alcohol , the alcohol will denature the protiens in the egg.