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  • Disappearing Ink'S Chemistry

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    Hasanzubyre
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    Disappearing ink is a classroom tool that demonstrates acid-base chemistry. The ink contains sodium hydroxide, a strong base, alcohol, and an indicator that is blue at pH above 9.4 but clear below. When the ink is exposed to carbon dioxide from breath, the carbonic acid produced lowers the pH and causes the indicator to lose its color as the sodium hydroxide is neutralized. The reaction shows how acidity changes the color and how breathing accelerates fading.

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    jhetyj

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    Disappearing Ink

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    Disappearing ink is a classroom tool that demonstrates acid-base chemistry. The ink contains sodium hydroxide, a strong base, alcohol, and an indicator that is blue at pH above 9.4 but clear below. When the ink is exposed to carbon dioxide from breath, the carbonic acid produced lowers the pH and causes the indicator to lose its color as the sodium hydroxide is neutralized. The reaction shows how acidity changes the color and how breathing accelerates fading.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    14 views1 page

    Disappearing Ink'S Chemistry

    Uploaded by

    Hasanzubyre
    Disappearing ink is a classroom tool that demonstrates acid-base chemistry. The ink contains sodium hydroxide, a strong base, alcohol, and an indicator that is blue at pH above 9.4 but clear below. When the ink is exposed to carbon dioxide from breath, the carbonic acid produced lowers the pH and causes the indicator to lose its color as the sodium hydroxide is neutralized. The reaction shows how acidity changes the color and how breathing accelerates fading.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    DISAPPEARING INK

    Disappearing ink is a valuable acid-base educational tool in the classroom.

    DISAPPEARING INK'S CHEMISTRY


    The ink basically has 3 ingredients: > Alcohol (denatured ethanol) > Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) > Thymolphthalein indicator Thymolphthalein is an acid-base indicator and its colour changes from clear to blue at a pH of 9.4:

    9.4 pH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

    The ink is made-up with NaOH (sodium hydroxide) a strong base to keep the pH value above 10. We all exhale carbon dioxide (CO2). This reacts with water in the atmosphere and forms carbonic acid (H2CO3) a weak and unstable acid: H2O + CO2 " H2CO3 (aq)

    When the ink is squirted, the dilute sodium hydroxide in the ink is neutralised by carbonic acid, a product from our mouths! H2CO3 (aq) + NaOH (aq) " H2O + Na2CO3 (aq) This simple neutralisation reaction lowers the pH of the ink to below 9.4 and the thymolphthalein loses its colour.

    Some interesting points: 4 The ink's end product on clothes are safe as sodium hydroxide is turned to washing soda (Na2CO3). 4 Determine if the above reasoning is indeed true by timing the disappearing blot with and without students in the class. 4 The disappearing tempo is accelerated by breathing directly onto the blot. 4 If dry ice is available, the blot can be magically wiped with dry ice (wear gloves). 4 Now for the magic part: Make the blot re-appear on your lab coat by simply spraying a dilute ammonia household cleaning solution on the lab coat. Any other base will do this too. Have fun!

    www.profbunsen.com.au

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