Microscale Chemistry Experiments Using Water and Disposable Materials*
* with a DVD including 65 video clips and the German version of the book:
 

Mahmoud El-Marsafy, Peter Schwarz, Metodija Najdoski

MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES

    1.1.   No-cost materials 6
   1.1.1. Disposable containers 6
   1.1.2. Tray and dust bin 8
   1.1.3. Ampoule burners 8
   1.1.4. Candle burner 10
   1.1.5. Piezo-fuse from a cigarette lighter  12

    1.2.   Low-cost and other materials 14
   1.2.1. Syringes 14
   1.2.2. Two pan scale 15
   1.2.3. Digital pocket scale 15
   1.2.4. Digital multimeter 16
   1.2.5. Wellplate 6  17

    1.3.   Measurements of volume and mass 18
   1.3.1. Preparation of syringes for measurements 18
   1.3.2. From milliliter to microliter of water 20
   1.3.3. Water and syringe to measure volume of solids 22
   1.3.4. Preparing a two pan scale for weighing 23

 Part II: EXPERIMENTS 25
 
  1.   Water in air, soil and food
   1.1. Water in the air 25
   1.2. Water in dry soil 27
   1.3. Water content in different fats 29
   1.4. Water content of egg, potato and red cabbage 31
   1.5. Potatoes in water and in salt water  35
 

    2.   Properties of water 37
   2.1. Not all transparent colourless liquids are water 37
   2.2. Electric conductivity of water samples 38
   2.3. Density of different water samples 41
   2.4. Density 2: Anomaly of water during cooling 44
   2.5. Density 3: Divers in fresh water and sea water  46
   2.6. Density 4: Cartesian diver 48
   2.7. Freezing point: Change of temperature during cooling water 51
   2.8. Melting point: Change of temperature during heating of ice 53
   2.9. Boiling points: Change of temperature during more heating 55
   2.10 Boiling under reduced air pressure  58
   2.11. Increase of pressure and volume during boiling  60
   2.12. Decrease of pressure and volume during condensation 62
   2.13. Balloon experiment: Volume changes in a microwave oven 64
   2.14. Water cycle: Evaporation, condensation, precipitation 66
   2.15. Surface tension 1: Metal floating on water 67
   2.16. Surface tension 2: More effects of washing-up liquid 69
   2.17. Visualization of the dissolving process 71
   2.18. Comparison of solubility: Sugar, salts, citric acid 74
   2.19. Making a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate 76
   2.20. Volume change due to mixing water and ethanol 78
   2.21. Model experiment on volume change due to mixing  80

    3.   Air and oxygen in water 83
   3.1. Water dissolves only little air 83
   3.2. Winkler test for dissolved oxygen 85
   3.3. Air supply and oxygen consumption (BOD5) in a sewage plant 89
 
    4.   Separation of pure substances mixed with water 95
   4.1. Separation of sodium acetate from a supersaturated solution 95
   4.2. Crystallization of sodium chloride from salt solution 97
   4.3. Separation by using difference in densities 99
   4.4. Carbon dioxide gas from Cola 100
   4.5. Spaghetti dance in sparkling water…..………………………………. 102
   4.6. Heating Cola to dryness 104
   4.7. Pure water by distillation of Cola 106
   4.8. Paper chromatography: Separation of dyes from felt tip pens 109
 

    5.   Chemical reactions of water 111
   5.1. Analysis 111
   5.1.1. Volumetric reaction of calcium and water 111
   5.1.2. Drop electrolysis: Decomposition of Petunia extract
              by electricity 113
   5.1.3. Electrolysis in a pipette 116
   5.1.4. Electrolysis of water in two ampoules 118
 
5.2. Water by dehydration of minerals 121
   5.2.1. Decomposition of malachite 121
   5.2.2. Decomposition of transparent gypsum mineral 123
   5.2.3. Water by decomposition of a copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate  125

5.3. Synthesis 127
   5.3.1. Reaction of water with copper(II) sulfate 127
   5.3.2. Water by combustion of methylated spirit 129
   5.3.3. Water synthesis from oxyhydrogen gas in a eudiometer 131
   5.3.4. Photosynthesis: Water for the biomass of growing barley 133
 
6.   Water as acid and as base 137
   6.1. pH indicator from blue Petunia petals 137
   6.2. Reaction with conc. sulfuric acid: Water as base 1 140
   6.3. Fountain with hydrogen chloride gas: Water as base 2 143
   6.4. Fountain with ammonia gas: Water as acid 146

7.   Molecule models from beads joined by glue, wire or welding 149
   7.1. Beads as models for atoms and molecules 149
   7.2. Beads as models to visualize 12C as relative atomic mass unit............... 151
   7.3. Welding the bead model of a fat molecule....................................152