Chlorine and Hydrogen gas explosion

Used in a sixth form lesson to demonstrate free radicals

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Howto & Style

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• Chemistry
• bang
• school
• technician
• demonstration
• practical
• explosion
• hydrogen

[scanzew]

chlorine you used liquid or gas form????

[hambridy]

Its gas formed using Potasium manganate crystals and Conc Hydrochloric acid.

[craynerd]

Thanks for the reply. Its a great idea but now i am confused about how you get the mixture in the boiling tube. I presume you use metal + acid for the H2 generation and then what about Cl2, conc HCl and KMnO4 ? But then how do you insert this into the boiling tube in a 50/50 mix?

Regarding the lighting....what sort of light are you using? Last time i did it i used a strobe but it has since broken so i was looking for a replacement, maybe now something else will do?

[hambridy]

I've added another video demonstrating on filling the boiling tube.

In the video I use a hydrogen cylinder. If not available then metal + HCl is ok, and as you said the generation of the Chlorine is Conc HCl and KMn04. The light source I used was an old projector lamp.

[craynerd]

This is a nice video. I have done this myself but in a plastic syringe. The whole syringe explodes, although it is relatively safe still. This looks even safer, but i can`t tell what exactly you are doing the demo in! Anyone?

Chris

[hambridy]

Its a boiling tube with a 50/50 mix of chlorine and hydrogen. The boing tube is coated in sticky back plastic to prevent the tube shattering.The mix has a short life span of about 5 minutes so it best to carry out as soon as possible. Then all you need is to shine a strong light on the boiling tube.Also its best to greese the cork or the reaction may not take place. Hope this helps. :)

[hobomnky]

@mactep4eef70 wait so it needs UV light!

r u serious!

that occured to like 20 times but im like no wat r the chances of it only working with UV -_-

funny cuz the halogen light we were using had a UV filter on it...

[hobomnky]

i tried to do this for my chemistry class, but couldnt get the light to work,even tried to put a strobe flash inside the containter and that failed too

so we ended up ignighting it with a spark, and wow its loud

the sound would echo off a building and its soo cool

but.. we tested it outside at -8 degrees C and it worked great

in class demonstration teprature was abt 20C..... ( we used a wet paper covered hole ad the back of a locked container for lighting hole) it exploded, cap went flying

[brianuuu]

try fluorine next time xD

[molonlabemaniac]

LOL.  "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA!"

[HazMatLabz]

So what would happen if someone used a hydrogen gas generator and a chlorine gas generator and combined the streams in air rather then in a container?

[simpsonstewie]

you mean Cl2 + H2 recats to form 2 HCl. and yes H loses and electron and Cl gains one.

[salamirterra]

CL2 + H2 reacts to form HCL (during the reaction CL is reduced to CL- and H2 is oxidized to H+, the two are attracted, bond and that's your gaseous HCL)

[simpsonstewie]

so does this make hydrogen chloride gas?