Fun in Chemistry

Topic 1 Unit 4

Why are there different colours of marble?

The Peoples Congress Hall and the Monument to the People's Heroes are different from ordinary
buildings. They are made from beautiful marble. There are many different types of marble, and many are
extremely expensive.
The chemical composition of marble is calcium carbonate. Pure calcium carbonate is white in colour.
Calcium carbonate is insoluble in water, and that is why the honorific signboard attached to the front
door of Tiananmen, which is made of marble, has not weathered even though it is continuously exposed
to the rain. However, when calcium carbonate reacts with hydrochloric acid, a lot of bubbles appear and
carbon dioxide is released. The marble dissolves very quickly.
Marble is meticulous, well mixed, colourful, beautiful and artistic. It is often a building material favored by
architects. There are many impurities contained in natural marble. Because of the impurities, we have
marbles of different colours. Generally speaking, red marble contains cobalt, blue marble contains
copper, black and gray marble contain iron.

Topic 2 Unit 5

Why is deuterium a fuel of the future?

The main fuels being used today include petroleum, coal and nuclear fuels such as uranium. However,
what are the fuels that we shall depend on in the future?
When fission reaction occurs in metals like uranium and thorium, a large amount of nuclear energy
is released. This energy is used by nuclear power stations to generate electricity. Thermonuclear
reaction is the opposite of fission reaction. Thermonuclear reaction releases a huge amount of energy
when the nucleus of deuterium undergoes a fusion reaction. When 1 kg of deuterium is fused into
helium, the amount of energy it releases is equal to 40,000 tonnes of coal. This is 20 times greater than
the energy released when 1 kg of uranium undergoes a fission reaction.
Deuterium is also called heavy hydrogen. It is an isotope of hydrogen. A heavy-water molecule is
made up of two deuterium atoms and one oxygen atom. On average, there is 1 heavy-water molecule
in every 6,000 water molecules and about 0.02 g deuterium is contained in each liter of seawater. The
amount of energy this deuterium releases under thermal nuclear fusion is equal to burning 400 kg of
petroleum. There are about 25 trillion tones of deuterium in the sea water on Earth, which is equal to
50 thousand trillion tonnes of coal. When human beings fully understand how to create a harmless
deuteriums thermal nuclear fusion capacity, there will not be any energy problems since the raw
materials will never run out.
Fun in chemistry 2003

Topic 2 Unit 6

Why are neon lights so colorful?

At night, places are lit up with fluorescent lights and neon lights. They are all very colourful.
In 1898, there were two chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Dr Morris Travers. They
discovered a strange and uncommon gas from the liquefied air. A tiny amount of gas was
obtained and enclosed in a partial vacuum glass tube, an electric current was passed
through it. A reddish glow was observed and the very first neon light was produced.
The gas inside the glass tube is neon. There are different ways to make different colours
of neon light. For example, if we paint some blue glowing powder on the inside of the glass
tube, make words or diagrams on the curved part of the tube, set up the electrodes and
vacuum the tube before pumping in the neon gas, a pink neon light is produced. If we pump
argon and mercury into a tube with blue glowing powder, a blue neon light is formed. If we
pump neon into a tube with green glowing powder, orange neon light will glow right before
our eyes!

Topic 2 Unit 8

How were fingerprints discovered?

Fingerprints are the marks made by lines on the finger tips, or thumb, on a surface. Each
person has different fingerprints so they can be used to identify individuals. Fingerprints are
also efficient tools in police investigations.
We can do a simple experiment to show our own fingerprints: press the thumb or index
finger onto a sheet of white paper. It looks as if there is nothing there. Now put small pieces
of iodine into a glass tube and heat the tube slowly. When the iodine starts to vaporize, hold
the part of the white paper where we pressed the finger above the mouth of the tube. We
will see our fingerprint after the vaporized iodine has blown across the paper!
How does iodine show the fingerprints that could not be seen before? Under normal
circumstances, a small amount of oil is secreted from the glands of the skin onto the fingers.
When we press the finger onto the paper, a trace of the oil sticks to it.
The attractive forces between iodine molecules are similar to those between oil
molecules. Thus iodine can dissolve in oil. Because iodine has a strong colour, it colours the
oil left on the white paper by our finger. We can see the fingerprint as a result of that.

Fun in chemistry 2003

Topic 3 Unit 9

How does a lighter produce a flame?

A flint is stored in a lighter. When we press the button, the fuel inside the lighter is ignited
and a flame is produced.
Flint is an iron alloy containing cerium and lanthanum. Cerium and lanthanum are
flammable metals. The wheel inside the lighter is made from strong carborundum. When you
strike it against the flint, heat is formed, and at the same time some cerium and lanthanum
powder rubs off onto the flint. The heated powder burns immediately on contact with the air
and a flame is produced. The flame ignites the fuel inside the lighter immediately.
Not only lighters, but also cannons use alloys containing cerium and lanthanum. When
cannon are fired, light would be produced due to the friction between the alloys and air.
Soldiers can therefore see where their cannon balls land if they fire them at night.

Topic 3 Unit 10 or 12

Do Gold and Silver corrode?

Gold and silver usually do not corrode. This is because they are very unreactive. They
seldom form bonds with other elements.
However, gold and silver are not totally protected from corrosion. Gold corrodes
when soaked in aqua regia. Aqua regia is the strongest acid. It contains hydrochloric
acid and nitric acid in the proportion of 3:1. It can react with gold.
Silver is more active than gold. Both aqua regia and sulphur can react with silver.
When shiny silver reacts with sulphur powder, it turns black due to the formation of
silver sulphide. Because of this, silver utensils from ancient times are usually black,
while the golden utensils usually remain shiny. If we use ammonia to wash the silver
utensils, the black surface becomes silver and shiny again. This is because silver
sulphide reacts with ammonia and turns it into a soluble compound.

Fun in chemistry 2003

Topic 4 Unit 15

Why do eggs rot more easily after washing?

We wash our clothes and keep them in a wardrobe to prevent them from becoming
mildewed. This same principle cannot be applied to eggs. Sometimes, the eggs we buy
from supermarkets have a little mud on them. If we wash off this mud, the eggs may go
bad more readily.
Under a magnifying glass, we can see something unavailable to the naked eye - the
surface of the eggshell is full of small holes! When an egg is laid, there is a layer of gluelike substance covering the small holes on the surface. This layer is soluble in water.
Therefore, if you wash away the dirt on the surface of the eggshell, you wash away the
protective layer as well. Bacteria can then enter the egg and make it go bad because the
protective layer is gone.
In the past, farmers usually soaked new laid eggs in limewater. They did this because
limewater kills bacteria. Also, the egg breathes continuously and carbon dioxide is
emitted through the little holes. When carbon dioxide mixes with limewater, white
calcium carbonate sediment is formed, blocking the holes and thus preventing the
bacteria from getting into the egg.
These days, farmers use water-glass to keep eggs fresh. Sodium silicate, a gluey liquid, is
a chemical component of water-glass. When eggs are soaked in water-glass, all the holes
are covered. Eggs treated in this way will not go bad for several months.

Topic 7 Unit 25

Climate affects wildlife

Academics have published two reports confirming that global warming leads to changes in
climatic zones and animals habits. Global warming also threatens the continued existence of
various animals.
Biologists find that certain behavior which used to occur regularly in spring, such as
flowers blooming, birds migrating north and mating, etc, have been much affected because
of global warming. The spring rituals happen 2.3 days earlier every decade. Other changes
include the melting of ice at the two Poles and certain species expanding their habitat
further to the north.
Scholars from Stanford University analyzed more than 1400 different species of plants,
birds, butterflies and reptiles in temperate regions. The results showed that more than 80
percent of species had clearly changed their living habits and this is believed to be the result
of global warming.
The scholars conclude that climate has a great effect on nature: and that these
observations are just the beginning and more alarming changes will follow.
Fun in chemistry 2003

Topic 7 Unit 25

Can coal be turned into petrol?

Petrol is an important refinery product made from petroleum. Petroleum is also a raw material for producing important
chemical products such as ethene, propene, benzene and alcohol.
The Earth does not have an abundant supply of petroleum resources. On the other hand, the supply of coal could
last for hundreds of years. There are, however, three main problems in burning coal directly: firstly, the energy
utilization rate is low; secondly, coal contains a lot of useful compounds which are lost and wasted; thirdly, it causes
serious pollution problems.
Coal and petroleum are both fossil fuels. The biggest difference between them is the amount of hydrogen each
contains. Petroleum contains about 11% - 14% hydrogen while there is only 5% - 8% of hydrogen in coal. Despite of
this, there is still a way to turn coal into petrol. For more than half a century, chemists have been trying to do this using
various methods.
One way of getting petrol from coal is by direct hydrogenation. To do this, first grind the coal into powder and
mix it with a solvent. Hydrogen is then added and the mixture heated at 380C - 460C under high pressure. Coal
reacts with hydrogen and products with small molecules are formed. By distilling the products, we can get fuels such
as petrol and diesel oil.
Another way of getting petrol is by synthesizing gas. With this method, coal is first turned into gas and then
mixed with hydrogen. Finally, we need to synthesize the aforementioned at 200C using iron, cobalt or nickel as
catalyst. The end product contains 83% of petrol, certain amount of diesel oil and other substances.
Other than the two methods mentioned above, petrol can be produced by synthesizing carbon monoxide and
hydrogen into methanol and then turning the product into petrol. If we use a more effective catalyst, about 99% of
methanol can be turned into gasoline. Only a small amount of energy is consumed in the process and the cost of
producing petrol only a little higher than getting synthesized methanol.

Fun in chemistry 2003