BUILD YOUR OWN DANIEL CELL

MY DANIEL CELL

You can construct your own Daniel cell and try to increase its voltage by changing the design and composition. I am sharing my Daniel cell which yeilded 0.52V at the very first attempt. 

Here is the lay out:

What you need: 

1. Two beakers or glass

2.  A small plastic tube

3. Cu wire or plate

4. Zn wire or plate

5. CuSO4

6. ZnSO4

7. KNO3

8. Connecting wire

9. A Voltmeeter

What u have to do:

Immersed the Cu wire or plate in copper sulphate solution taken in a beaker and the Zn plate or wire in zinc sulphate solution taken in another beaker. Fill the plastic tube with KNO3 soltion and plug the ends with cotton. This will be your salt bridge. Place the salt bridge in the two beakers like a U-shape bridge . Your Daniel cell is ready. Connect the two terminals to the probes of a multimeter or voltmeter. Measure the volt produced. 

Silver fur

Silver fur demonstration

Have u seen Ag-fur, i.e., fine deposits of Ag. Easy just take a concentrated solution of AgNO3 and dip a Cu wire into it. Ag will be displaced by Cu (E Ag = 0.80 V, E Cu = 0.34V). The Cu will get oxidised to Cu2+ ion   which will go to the solution and Ag+ ions will be reduced to Ag which will be deposited on the cu wire. The Ag deposits will appear as a beautiful garland of fur. The solution will turn from colourless to blue and finally when u remove the Cu wire it becomes as thin as a hair. I often demonstrates it to my students during electrochemistry classes to give idea about electrode potential. Just go through the snaps taken by my students

1. Silver nitrate solution

2. Cu wire immersed into it, crystals of silver starts depositing

3. Solution slowly turns blue as copper goes into the solution

4. Ag fur grows

5. Ag garlanded the cu wire

6. Ag deposits seen after the cu wire is removed

7. The beauty of Ag manifest itself

8. Me with the Ag fur, a precious moment

For Photgraphs thanks to my HS 2nd Year Chemists

THIS SUMMER DYE YOUR T-SHIRT WITH FLOWERS

HOW TO DYE A WHITE T-SHIRT WITH FLOWERS

Dyeing your cotton white T-shirt with natural  dyes is quite easy and and the dyed stuff is skin friendly. I dyed an old white cotton T-shirt red by using red hibiscus.

Materials: Red hibiscus flowers, vinegar, a dyeing pot (preferably wooden, i used a stainless steel pot), white cotton T-shirt

Procedure

Cut 10 red hibiscus flower into small pieces and place in a pot. Add water such that it is double the amount of the chopped flowers. Boil it for about 30 minutes.

Soak your T-shirt in a mixture of 1L of water and ¼ L of kitchen vinegar. Simmer it for an hour. Rinse the T-shirt and squeeze out the excess vinegar. Rinse in cool water until water runs clear. [ Vinegar acts as a fixative]

 Place the wet T-shirt in the dye bath. Keep it overnight. Squeeze carefully and air dry it in shade. Your Red T-shirt is ready.