Experiments with copper wire. Fun chemistry experiments at home

ENTERTAINING EXPERIENCES AT HOME
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Experiments with copper wire. Chemical experiments

Entertaining experiments in chemistry

Entertaining experiences at home / Chemistry experiments for children

Several interesting experiments can be made with copper, so we will devote a special chapter to it.

From a piece of copper wire, make a small spiral and fix it in a wooden holder (you can leave a free end of sufficient length and wind it around a regular pencil). Ignite the spiral in a flame. Its surface will be covered with a black coating of copper oxide CuO. If the blackened wire is immersed in dilute hydrochloric acid, the liquid will turn blue, and the surface of the metal will again become red and shiny. The acid, if it is not heated, does not act on copper, but dissolves its oxide, turning it into a CuCl salt.₂.

But here's the question: if copper oxide is black, why are antique copper and bronze objects covered not with black, but with a green coating, and what kind of coating is this?

Try to find an old copper object, say a candlestick. Scrape some of the green residue off of it and place it in a test tube. Close the neck of the test tube with a cork with a gas outlet tube, the end of which is lowered into lime water (how to prepare it, you already you know). Heat the contents of the test tube. Drops of water will collect on its walls, and gas bubbles will be released from the gas outlet pipe, from which the lime water becomes cloudy. So it's carbon dioxide. A black powder will remain in the test tube, which, when dissolved in acid, gives a blue solution. This powder, as you might guess, is copper oxide.

So, we learned what components the green plaque decomposes into. Its formula is written as follows: CuCO₃*Cu(OH)₂ (basic copper carbonate). It forms on copper objects, since there is always carbon dioxide and water vapor in the air. Green plaque is called patina. The same salt is found in nature - it is nothing more than the famous mineral malachite.

We will return to experiments with patina and malachite - in the section "Kind with healthy". And now let's pay attention again to the blackened copper wire. Is it possible to restore its original luster without the help of acid?

Pour pharmacy ammonia into a test tube, heat the copper wire red-hot and lower it into the vial. The spiral will hiss and become red and shiny again. In an instant, a reaction will occur, as a result of which copper, water and nitrogen are formed. If the experiment is repeated several times, then the ammonia in the test tube will turn blue. Simultaneously with this reaction, another so-called complexation reaction takes place - the very complex copper compound is formed, which previously allowed us to accurately determine ammonia by the blue color of the reaction mixture.

By the way, the ability of copper compounds to react with ammonia has been used since very ancient times (since the time when the science of chemistry was not in sight). Ammonia solution, i.e., ammonia, cleaned copper and brass objects to a shine. So, by the way, experienced housewives are doing now; for greater effect, ammonia is mixed with chalk, which mechanically wipes off dirt and adsorbs impurities from the solution.

next experience. Pour some ammonia-ammonium chloride NH into a test tube.₄Cl, which is used when soldering (do not confuse it with ammonia NH₄OH, which is an aqueous solution of ammonia). With a red-hot copper spiral, touch the layer of substance covering the bottom of the test tube. Again there will be a hiss, and white smoke will rise up - this is the particles of ammonia escaping, And the spiral will again sparkle with its original copper luster. A reaction took place, as a result of which the same products were formed as in the previous experiment, and in addition copper chloride CuCl₂.

It is because of this ability - to restore metallic copper from oxide - that ammonia is used for soldering. The soldering iron is usually made of copper, which conducts heat well; when its "sting" is oxidized, copper loses its ability to hold tin solder on its surface. A little ammonia - and the oxide is gone.

And the last experiment with a copper spiral. Pour a little eau de cologne (even better, pure alcohol) into the test tube and add the red-hot copper wire again. In all likelihood, you can already imagine the result of the experiment: the wire has again been cleared of the oxide film. This time, a complex organic reaction took place: the copper was reduced, and the ethyl alcohol contained in the cologne was oxidized to acetaldehyde. This reaction is not used in everyday life, but sometimes it is used in the laboratory when an aldehyde is to be obtained from alcohol.

Author: Olgin O.M.

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