Boric Acid Ester 02 0809

Similar to the Whoosh Bottle demonstration, this involves the burning of a flammable gas in a container with a limited amount of air (oxygen). The flammable gas here is boric acid ester [B(H3CO)3] resulting in the green flame. This one does not work as well, because I am reusing a bottle without having gone through much effort to replace the waste gas from the container.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• sully
• russia
• chem
• chemistry
• lab
• demo
• demonstration
• sci
• science
• boric
• acid
• ester
• methylated
• methyl
• alcohol
• methanol
• sulfuric
• H2SO4
• H2(SO4)
• B(H3CO)3
• green
• fire
• flame
• flaming
• light
• burn
• round
• Florence
• flask

[BankaiIchigo12345]

Wow green fire! Never thought I'd see that. What was the guy using?

[mrericsully]

@BankaiIchigo12345 Boric acid with some methanol and sulfuric acid to create an ester.

[TheLeprechuan]

@mrericsully Couldn't you get the same effect with JUST methanol and Boric acid?

[mrericsully]

@TheLeprechuan You get a green flame, but you don't get the ether and therefore a flammable gas. It would not burn as fast, it would not "whoosh", it would not burn in the closed bottle, and it would not burn as completely. The goal of this is not just to show a green flame with boron (I do that in my flame test demonstration), but to also show the formation and combustion of an ester.

[douro20]

Boric acid is H3BO3

[mrericsully]

@douro20 Yes, but is dimethylborate, I just use methanol and boric acid to create it.

[TheLeprechuan]

@mrericsully Ahh ok. :D Planning to use a Methanol/Boric Acid fuel in my Zippo for a green flame... I've heard it works and isn't harmful to the Zippo, but I wasn't sure if the sulfuric acid was a critical element.

This makes me miss science class... D:

[GingleGangle1]

Hoou, what a chicken!))

[douro20]

Never mind...he was right...it could be represented either way.

[propyropower]

@mrericsully alright, thanks for the explenation :)