[TAz69x]

I was playing around with some household items yesterday and I noticed some cool reactions with different items from around my house.  There's 3% hydrogen peroxide, which I mixed with Drano to produce a quick-acting foam.  Then in that I poured Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning and other applications, which started to bubble the foam mixture, producing a gas, which I stood away from outside of course!  But anyways, I was wondering what some of your favorite homade chemical mixtures/experiments are.

eg.
1. Hydrogen Peroxide
2. Drano
- mix them together and it forms a quick-acting foam

Just an example of a simple combination!  List whatever you want, preferably any of your favorites.

[woelen]

Making chlorine from bleach and hydrochloric acid (be careful, do this OUTSIDE!).

Mixing methane (natural gas) and oxygen in a 1 : 2 ratio by volume and lighting bubbles of this in a tub of water and soap. Warning: Only light small bubbles of a few cc. This produces quite loud explosions. DO NOT DO THIS WITH LARGER QUANTITIES!
The oxygen can be made from hydrogen peroxide.

[niertap]

baking soda and vinager

[Alberto_Kravina]

flour and iodine solution.

[pantone159]

This is a cool one, more complicated than most of the previous ones though...

If you can find the Journal of Chemical Education, Vol 79 No 1, Jan 2002, it describes a 'clock reaction' that can be done with supermarket reagents.  The preparation goes like this:
A - Prepare a Vitamin C solution by crushing 1000 mg of vitamin c tablets in 60 ml (4 tablespoons) of distilled water.  (Use distilled water for all the solutions).  It is easier to use vitamin c powder, but you will have to weigh 1 gram fairly accurately.
B - Label a cup 'Solution A'.  Put 60 ml of water in it.  Add 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of the vitamin C solution, and 5 ml of 2% tincture of iodine, stir.  The brown color of the iodine will clear with reaction with the vitamin c.  Note:  There are other kinds of 'tincture of iodine' besides the (common) 2% one, make sure you have the 2%.
C - Label another cup 'Solution B'.  Put 60 ml of water in it, then add 15 ml (1 tablespoon) of 3% hydrogen peroxide, and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of laundry starch.  (The starch amount is not so critical, you could make a cornstarch solution also.)
D - Dump Solution A and Solution B into another cup, stir, and wait.  After 45 seconds or so, the mixture will suddenly change from clear to blue-black.
E - You can vary the amount of water from 60 ml to change the time.
F - Ideally, when you are done, add more vitamin c to the mix until it turns colorless before dumping down the drain.  Tincture of iodine is flammable and poisonous, it is good to wear gloves when pouring it to avoid getting iodine stains on your fingers.

[P-man]

I once did something with hydrogen peroxide and bleach... I used hydorgen proxide for a lot of experiments with stuff around the house... but that was before I got some chemicals!

[eugenedakin]

Biodiesel,

I found that extracting glycerine from various oils was quite intreguing ... The biodiesel works great, albeit a little finiky with some aspects.  Better burning, more environmentally friendly ... etc...

This is my favorite,

Eugene

[lemonoman]

I remember hooking an insulated wire to each side of a 9 Volt battery and immersing both electrodes under test tubes in water...a homemade electrolysis of water into H₂ and O₂ (though it was slow)

[Kenichi]

I personally enjoy the extraction of Iodine crystals from tincture.  Very simple. It was my first home chemistry experiment.

[constant thinker]

I did electrolysis with the wall current. I used a light bulb as a regulator though. I still managed to trip the circuit after a few minutes though. It was pretty cool. Except the problem with wires is that they oxidize. Then it won't work anymore. That's what happened to me with the 9V.

I still like acid-base reactions though. Except concentrated strong mineral acids are hard to get a hold of.

Does anyone know of a brand name for muryiatic acid or is that the only name it has? I haven't managed to find it at the hardware store yet.

[Lt.Pliskin]

Constant thinker,

Try a pool store, Hydrochloric/muratic acid is commonly used for pools (to balance the pH?).

[beheada]

Take a small pile of ammonium dichromate and put it in a crucible balanced over a small candle / bunsen burner and wait for E_a. By far the coolest reaction I've seen in chemistry thus far.

[science2000]

Here's some interesting experiments i've done and found rather amusing:

Using a peroxide/HCl mixture to dissolve gold

Mixing copper and nickel compunds with ammonia, and observing the deeply colored amine complex

Dissolving magnesium hydroxide in monoammonium phosphate, add some base and a beautiful encrusting of ammonium magnesium phosphate crystals will form.

[P-man]

Yeah, you gotta be rich enough to afford that experiment!

[science2000]

You'd be surprised how much gold is on an old mother board, especially one of those early 90's mother boards.