Fun with sulfuric acid! (Suggestions and advice sought)

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I was in grade school and HS I was a chemistry nerd to the max. I had a nifty lab, with chemical glassware and a bunsen burner and the whole works. I took all the Chem classes my HS offered. (When I got to college I crashed and burned – not in the literal way – but don’t ask anyway.)

My one big regret as a kid was never getting any sulfuric acid (H2SO4). (See, I still remember the formula!) All the BEST hobby experiments called for H2SO4, but I could never get the stuff.

Well, Dopers, I got some now!

If you read my dead battery thread a few weeks back you’ll remember I bought a fill-it-yourself motorcycle battery. The thing comes with a plastic bottle of (I think, dilute) sulfuric acid. The battery was not very big and only took about 2/3 of the contents of the bottle. The remainder, about a cupful I estimate, has been sitting in my kitchen counter ever since. I’m loathe to just chuck it, especially since I craved it so as a youngster.

So, what fun, maybe semi-, shall we say, adventurous, experiments can I do with my long-overdue elixir of experimentation?

I’m not looking to kill or damage things, here. I just want to amaze my friends, like all grown-up kid chemists. Make things smoke, or change state, or bubble. (And if you don’t have any good experiments, I’ll gladly accept an all-around useful suggestion for my acid – household tips, and things like that.)

Rest assured I remember all my safety procedures from the old days. (Hell, I still smell-test the questionable milk in my fridge by sweeping my hand over it to my nose. My friends think I’m nuts, but I know I’m just practicing good science. Smilie.)

2

Our science teacher used to stir powdered sugar into H[sub]2[/sub]SO[sub]4[/sub]. Interesting effect, much like those “snake” fireworks tablets we got at 4th of July time when we were kids.

3

Dijon, you freakin’ mindreader! That was the one fun experiment I still remembered myself.

But I tried it and nothing happened. [Frowny.] Maybe the acid is too dilute or I did something wrong.

4

You could always use it to decapsulate your favorite glass fiber reinforced epoxy DIP (Dual Inline Package) integrated circuit packages.

Follow these easy steps:

Use a dremel tool to mechanically etch (excavate) a 5x5x2 (deep) mm pit directly over the die attach paddle of a plastic integrated circuit package.

Suspend or immerse the pre-etched assembly in a beaker of pre-heated 200°C fuming sulphuric acid (you may need to concentrate yours a bit more).

Wait until the acid turns dark brown or black.

Wait even longer.

Wearing gloves and other protective gear, reach into the (now opaque) solution and retrieve the circuit package using stainless steel (acid resistant) tweezers.

Rinse the decapsulated device with DI water and solvents to expose the imbedded solid state device.

Examine the chip for any obvious failure modes (excluding bonding pad damage or top-side metallization faults) and document your findings.

Dispose of contaminated sulfuric acid according to Federal regulations.

5

The way that I have seen it done is with regular table sugar. Using a beaker/glass/jar/etc…, pour in about an inch of sugar, and pour in enough acid to wet the sugar, add another layer of dry sugar, and add enough acid to wet that. Repeat as needed. You should see the first layer darken. followed by subsequent layers. Eventually the reaction will kick in, and you will get a large carbon “snake”.

Here are some more detailed instructions on this experiment. I don’t think that your acid is cooncentrated enough to have the desired effect. They call for 18 M sulphuric acid, which is fairly strong IIRC.

6

Umm… Zenster? That’s supposed to be fun?

You know that party you invited me to? Well, I’m… uhh… busy that weekend… yup, busy. Work, work, work… nothing but work for ol’ stuyguy.

7

Mr Green the Chemist Man
Is Chemist Man no more
For what he thought was H[sub]2[/sub]O, Was H[sub]2[/sub]SO[sub]4[/sub].

I’d probably just do something boring, like make some copper sulphate (which is widely available anyway), then do some electroplating, yawn.

8

Mange, if you’re free next weekend Zenster is having this BBQ…

9

Sulfuric acid isn’t all that terribly exciting. The sugar snake is about it for fun. You can dissolve some zinc in it and collect the hydrogen gas that is released. Igniting the hydrogen is a lot of fun.
Concentrated nitric acid, now that is a barrel of laffs!
I taught chemistry at one point in my career, and have done most of the really flashy demonstrations in order to motivate my dead-ass students.

10

If you’ve never wandered over the surface of an integrated circuit with a high power microscope, you haven’t lived.

MC Escher meets Frank Lloyd Wright in crystalline form.

11

Now that could become my new signature…

12

CHROMATE + SUGAR + SULFURIC ACID
(Large Evaporating Dish)
A mixture of about 3g sugar and 3g KCrO4, add a few drops of K H2SO4, and sparks will fly.

I don’t know if you can get your hands on any chromates, but this makes an interesting whitish sparkly flame. It’s kinda noxious, though, so use a well-ventilated area or fumehood!!

I do have a nice hole in one of my shoes from having spilt conc. sulfuric last summer. It was on there for less than 30 seconds, and burned my shoe quite nicely (but just on top of the toes, so I can still wear them! They make good lab shoes!)