“Hydrogen“ from the “Hydrogen and Chlorine“
Channel: MEL Chemistry
Date: 2018-04-18

Perform this amazing experiment at home with MEL Science: https://melscience.com/en/experiments/hydrogen-chlorine-foam/

Safety
* Put on protective gloves and eyewear.
* Conduct the experiment on the tray.
* Keep a bowl of water nearby while working with fire.
* Remove protective gloves before lightning the candles (step 5).

Disposal
* Dispose of the reagents together with household waste.
* Pour solutions down the sink and wash off with excess of water.

Step-by-step instructions
1. Let’s prepare some soap solution. To make the soap bubbles more stable, add some glycerol.
2. Prepare the hydrogen generator parts.
3. Sodium hydrogen sulfate gives off a lot of ions H⁺ into the solution. Zinc reduces these to molecules of hydrogen H₂.
4. The produced hydrogen goes straight through the silicon tube into the soap solution. Soap bubbles with hydrogen inside don’t burst and hydrogen foam fills the beaker.
5. When ignited, hydrogen rapidly reacts with oxygen. This process is called combustion.
6. Some of the zinc powder stays on the flask sides. To speed up the production of hydrogen add the zinc back to the solution.
7. Wash the flask right after you finish the experiment: the reaction mixture is very adhesive and will be harder to wash off later when it dries.